Sex-abuse scandal unfolds in U.S. juvenile detention centers

Obscured by 2024’s relentless news cycle, a slow-motion scandal has been unfolding under the surface. 

Court documents from a series of lawsuits, in California and across the country, have revealed a systemic pattern of abuse stretching back decades. This year alone, thousands of former juvenile detainees in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma and California have come forward with harrowing stories of sexual assault. The U.S. Senate has even launched an inquiry.