Pritzker Defends DCFS Decision Not to Release Info on Child Deaths
Governor JB Pritzker prepares to sign legislation at a media event Monday. (Photo: State of Illinois)
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Governor JB Pritzker Monday defended the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as the agency has refused to release further information and claimed it couldn’t start its own internal investigation into the death of an 18-year-old Metro East girl last year.
Capitol News Illinois reported last week on the death of Mackenzi Felmlee, who died last May when a blood clot hit her lungs, doctors said. Her neck, shoulders, legs and face were bruised, and her dehydrated body weighed just 90 pounds, CNI reported.
Authorities said she was abused, neglected, and tortured during her four-year stay in a foster home. A case worker with a DCFS contractor was in the home the day before Felmlee sustained her eventually fatal injuries.
Mackenzi’s foster mother, Shameka Williams, and Williams’ mother, were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated domestic battery, intimidation, unlawful restraint and domestic battery in connection with Mackenzi’s death. They’re awaiting trial in St. Clair County.
CNI reported, though, the state would not be releasing more information on the case, even though state laws require disclosures about the death of children in state care.
From CNI:
But the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has refused to release a timeline or reports detailing their actions in the case — despite a law that requires DCFS to make findings and recommendations available when a child dies or is seriously injured in its care.
And it likely won’t release any information for years.
“We won’t have a timeline to share until after a trial takes place,” DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan wrote June 26 in an email to Capitol News Illinois.
While Mackenzi died more than a year ago, a DCFS spokesperson said the state agency could not conduct a procedural review of what happened inside the home until a criminal investigation is completed, citing a portion of state law that says information should not be released if it could undermine a criminal investigation or trial.
Under a 1997 Illinois law, DCFS is required to produce a report on every child who is a ward of the state who dies or sustains serious injury. The report should contain findings and recommendations for administrative or policy changes.
At an unrelated event in Chicago Monday, The Illinoize asked Governor Pritzker if it was right for the agency to withhold information on the death, which he called a “right wing talking point.”
“We are required when local law enforcement, and I'm talking specifically now about the state's attorney's office there. When we're asked by the prosecutors not to reveal, not to interfere, we have to do that,” Pritzker said. “Obviously we're seeking information from the prosecutors because they are doing a lot of investigation, and we have continued to do whatever investigation we're allowed to do. (Note: a DCFS spokesperson said no internal investigation would take place until after the trial.) “We have every interest in finding out what went wrong here. We know only a few things. I think they've all been made public. The things that we know, we try to act on those immediately, whatever it is that we know.”
DCFS contracted with Lutheran Social Services for Mackenzi’s case, which Pritzker said “questions about that outside agency have been pursued.” He did not expand or say if the social service agency’s contract could or would be cancelled.
An Illinois Answers Project story earlier this year reported more than 1,200 children have died in DCFS care and more than 3,000 have been seriously injured since 2018. Pritzker took office in early 2019.
We asked Pritzker if the responsibility for DCFS failures falls on him.
“Listen, the buck stops with me about state government,” he said. “There's no doubt about it. I have responsibility for the agencies under my executive authority.”
But, Pritzker said, change takes time.
“They don't want to talk about the fact that it takes some time to turn things around when things aren't working” Pritzker said. “And, I have to say, particularly a child welfare agency. I know that people say ‘well, gee, you've been in office for six years, how come this hasn't been entirely fixed? How come we haven't fixed the pension problem? How come we haven't, you know, made everything easy in the state of Illinois?’ Some of these things are built into a system that has failed for 25, sometimes longer, years. And we have worked diligently, particularly at the Department of Children and Family Services.”
Pritzker claimed his administration has brought stability to the agency and are making necessary changes.
“We've been rooting out those problems steadily over the last six and a half years,” he said.
