A group of brave survivors is stepping forward to demand justice after enduring childhood sexual abuse in Pennsylvania juvenile detention and residential treatment centers. Represented by Levy Konigsberg and co-counsel, over 60 men and women have filed sexual abuse lawsuits against entities like Universal Health Services, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, and VisionQuest National for their decades-long failures to protect children from repeated sexual abuse while confined in their facilities. Levy Konigsberg has now filed more than 200 cases in the past five months on behalf of men and women who suffered childhood sexual abuse at juvenile detention and residential treatment centers in Pennsylvania.
The lawsuits cover a wide range of youth detention and treatment facilities, including several run by Universal Health Services (UHS), a major behavioral healthcare provider with over 400 locations nationwide. UHS was one of four such companies recently investigated by the U.S. Senate, culminating in the June 2024 report, Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities. The Senate report identified numerous abuses at UHS facilities, concluding that “suffering” and “trauma” were endemic to the company’s profit-driven business model.
The juvenile detention and residential treatment centers covered in the lawsuits filed today include:
- Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital, Foundations Behavioral Health, Fairmount Behavioral Health System, The Horsham Clinic, and The Meadows (all run by Universal Health Services)
- Loysville Youth Development Center, North Central Secure Treatment Unit, and South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit (all run by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)
- Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center
- Carson Valley Children’s Aid
- Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health
- Northwestern Academy
- Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center
- St. Gabriel’s Hall
- VisionQuest
Despite federal and state investigations, criminal prosecutions, and widespread reporting on the persistent sexual abuse and horrific conditions at these facilities, the public and private entities running allowed the culture of abuse to flourish, traumatizing generations of vulnerable children.
The men and women who filed claims today include those who suffered sexual as far back as the early 2000s and as recently as 2023. Unfortunately, current law in Pennsylvania bars individuals who were born prior to November 26, 1989 from bringing claims for childhood sexual abuse. As a result, untold numbers of survivors who were abused in earlier decades continue to suffer in silence.
According to the lawsuit, many different staff at juvenile detention facilities were involved in sexual abuse, such as:
- Correctional/detention officers
- Counselors
- Teachers
- Supervisors
- Managers
- And others
Despite the well-documented abuse of children in juvenile detention and residential treatment centers, little was done by authorities to protect these children or to punish their abusers. Many of the same staff members are named as abusers by multiple plaintiffs in today’s filings, evidencing the fact that these abusers were allowed to continue in their jobs, harming more children year after year.
In 2010, the director of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services dismissed federal reports of sexual abuse in facilities across the state, saying that children in the facilities “whose IQs are rather low” could not understand questions about whether they had been abused.
It is this shocking and callous negligence on the part of both public and private authorities that has prompted the filing of these lawsuits.
Leading the Way for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Levy Konigsberg and its team of dedicated trial attorneys are at the forefront of childhood sexual abuse litigation, having filed some of the first lawsuits about widespread sexual abuse in juvenile detention facilities across the country. Over the past year, Levy Konigsberg’s pioneering lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of men and women who were abused as children in juvenile detention facilities in Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, and Michigan have made national news, being covered by major outlets like the Associated Press and the New York Times. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]. This spring and summer, Levy Konigsberg filed on behalf of over 145 individuals who were abused at juvenile detention and residential treatment centers in Pennsylvania. [8] [9] [10].
In announcing today’s lawsuit filed on behalf of over 60 men and women, Levy Konigsberg Partner Jerome Block stated:
“Over 200 men and women sexually abused at juvenile detention and residential treatment centers in Pennsylvania have now come forward and exposed this institutional sexual abuse. It is outrageous that the perpetrators in these cases are the very adult staff members that were entrusted with keeping our clients safe. Our clients have courageously stepped forward to seek justice and accountability. Unfortunately, there are many survivors who suffered similar childhood sexual abuse in earlier decades who are unable to join these lawsuits because Pennsylvania lawmakers have not passed a Child Victims Act into law.”
Levy Konigsberg is a nationwide trial law firm with a proven track record of representing survivors of sexual abuse. We have the strength, size, and resources needed to file lawsuits against government agencies, religious groups, medical institutions, and more. If you want to know if you can file a claim for childhood sexual abuse that occurred at juvenile detention or residential treatment facilities in Pennsylvania, then speak with our team today.
Please call 800-315-3806 now and request a free, initial consultation with our firm.