Cook juvenile detention center on lockdown to film ‘Empire’ episode

By Jean Lotus Staff Reporter
Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center

Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center

Hundreds of detainees were kept on lockdown at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center for almost two weeks in 2015 while Fox Entertainment filmed episodes the hit television show “Empire,” according to a class-action lawsuit filed in Federal Court Aug. 24.

Lawyers representing the parents and guardians of four detainees allege Twentieth Century Fox television company and several Fox affiliates earned “profits that were unjustly obtained.”

The suit also says detainees had their due process rights violated and that Cook County and JTDC Supervisor Leonard Dixon and other staff members failed in a “breach of fiduciary duty” to protect about 400 minors placed in the care of the JTDC. The suit was filed in the Northern District of Illinois Court.

According to the suit, while “Empire” crews filmed two episodes of the show at three multi-day film shoots, film crews used the JTDC’s school, visitor center, outdoor recreation yard, library and chapel. These areas were placed off-limits to children in the facility.

Instead, children were placed “under restrictions more severe than those governing many adult jails,” according to the suit. The minors “were ordered to remain in their cells, or were confined to the jail-style ‘pod’ areas just outside their cell doors, where they were told to sit for days on end,” the suit alleges.

“The underlying events are horrifying,” said Alan Mills, director of the Uptown People’s Law Center. “You lock kids in solitary confinement just so you can make a movie?”

cook-091416-empire3The suit alleges film crews of up to 250 people were in the facility June 21-26, July 13-16 and Aug. 23-26. The City of Chicago’s data-portal shows the Fox Entertainment Group obtained permits from the City of Chicago Department of Transportation to block streets for parking of film-related vehicles around the JTDC during those dates.

The suit says the two episodes filmed in the JTDC were “immensely profitable” to Twentieth Century Fox Television and Fox Broadcasting Company, Inc. with advertisers paying up to $750,000 per 30-second spot. Attorneys filing the suit declined to return calls or emails.

But an employee confirmed the events occurred.

“Every single day [during the filming] the kids were locked up for a certain amount of time,” said a current employee of the JTDC, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “Instead of spending time working with the children and securing the building, we were spending time with ‘Empire’ and securing their staff. So the children went short on security, while we were watching the [Fox Entertainment] people’s equipment and food.”

The suit says family members who came to visit the juvenile prisoners were made to wait or had their visits cancelled.

“Visitation was totally shut down,” the employee said. “They held visitation in a classroom at the Nancy B. Jefferson school inside the detention center.”

Empire star Terrance Howard (left) and comedian Chris Rock (right) in a screenshot from season 2. (Fox promotional shot)

Empire star Terrance Howard (left) and comedian Chris Rock (right) in a screenshot from season 2. (Fox promotional shot)

The employee said the staff was told “about six months in advance” that the “Empire” show would be filming in the JTDC and staff members were allowed to sign up to work during the filming.

“It was unlimited overtime, you know, good money. Everybody made a ton of money because ‘Empire’ was footing the bill, but we would normally spend that overtime with kids,” he said. “People from all around came for autographs,” he said. “[People] flew in from Detroit, people from downtown were taking pictures with all the stars, it was pathetic.”

Most disappointing was the way one celebrity spoke to a group of detained minors, he said.

“They brought about 25 students into a multi-purpose room in the school and [the celebrity] totally insulted the kids.”

“He said I don’t know why they brought me in here to talk to you, I don’t know what to tell you, except stay your ass out of trouble,” he remembered. “I was standing there, it was so embarrassing. The kids were stone-faced, they were shocked, they look up to this guy — he’s a funny guy — and he had nothing good or anything inspirational to say to the kids.”

The JTDC, formerly called the Audy Home, is located above courtrooms for Cook County Juvenile Court at 1100 S. Hamilton Ave. About 250-400 juveniles ages 11-17 stay in custody while their cases are processed through the courts. The average stay is about three weeks, according to the suit, but some children can stay in custody for as long as three years.

Some children in custody are not facing criminal charges, but are held after a judge orders them to be taken away from a violent home environment, but the Department of Children and Family Services can’t locate a foster home. Supt. Dixon is quoted in the suit as saying “[Juvenile] detention is like the emergency room of the juvenile justice system.” Students attend school and take part in activities, or play outside or in two gyms. “Our thing is to have some normalcy when they [detained minors] come here,” Dixon said.

This made the lockdown even more severe, the complaint alleges. Students who would ordinarily attend school were held in day rooms and “not allowed to move all day.” Teachers reported students were “going stir crazy” and “instruction was less effective and often chaotic,” the lawsuit states. Sometimes teachers didn’t show up at all, the suit says.

According to testimony of a 16-year-old temporary detainee, during the filming of “Empire” a JTDC staff “instructor” would “occasionally come to the pod and ask ‘Who wants to do large-muscle?’” The suit states: “This meant, apparently, that the children should do push-ups, sit-ups and jumping-jacks in front of the seats they had been forced to sit in all day.”

“The ventilation and circulation in the pods is poor, and it’s either too hot or too cold,” the employee said. “There is no room for the kids to exercise properly, but Empire had the [outdoor recreation area] staged for filming.”

Leonard Dixon, supt. of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. (Chronicle Media file photo)

Leonard Dixon, supt. of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. (Chronicle Media file photo)

“Solitary confinement and a lockdown is actually much harder on juveniles than adults,” said Alan Mills. “I don’t understand why Fox had to use the JTDC when there are two vacant prisons in Illinois. Fox already used Joliet prison, which has been empty since 2002, to film one of their other shows, Prison Break.”

Fox attorneys from Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP, Matthew C. Luzadder in Chicago and Jeffrey Jacobson in New York declined to comment on the suit.

“They chose the JTDC because it was cheaper,” the employee guessed. “They brought all types of contraband into the facility, like cigarettes, and nothing was screened, nothing was checked, their bags did not go through the X-ray machine,” he said. “That’s why they chose juvenile detention, because they are lax on the security. They would never do that at LaSalle [County Jail] or any other facility in the country.”

He added that even though the building was smoke free, he observed film crew members smoking cigarettes in the outdoor recreation area. “The kids were finding those cigarette butts after [the cast of] ‘Empire’ left, and smoking the cigarettes,” he said.

The JTDC has a long, troubled history. The ACLU sued Cook County in 1999 alleging neglect and mismanagement. As part of a consent decree, the management of the JTDC was removed from the jurisdiction of Cook County to the office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court, but run by a federal transition administrator, Earl Dunlap.

In February of 2015, the JTDC was turned over to the administration of Chief Judge Timothy Evans. Superintendent Leonard Dixon was hired from Wayne County in Detroit in spring of 2015. The suit names Dixon as a defendant and says several other employees of the JTDC will be named as defendants later, once they have been identified.

“Everybody talked about [the filming crews] amongst ourselves but what could you do? You couldn’t do anything about it,” the employee said. “It was the first time [filming] took place, and I hope it never happens again.”

 

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