More brave survivors are continuing to come forward to demand justice after surviving childhood sexual abuse in a New Jersey juvenile center. Represented by Levy Konigsberg Attorneys Jerome Block and Clark Binkley, more than forty men and women filed sexual abuse lawsuits this week against the State of New Jersey, Union County, and Daytop Village for the horrific sexual abuse they suffered while confined as juveniles at juvenile detention centers and residential treatment facilities across the state. The brings the total number of Levy Konigsberg clients who have filed claim alleging sexual abuse at New Jersey juvenile facilities to over 300.
Scores of vulnerable children were abused at state-run facilities like the New Jersey Training School at Jamesburg, the Juvenile Medium Security Facility, and the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center. Still others suffered at county-run facilities like the Union County Juvenile Detention Center or Atlantic County’s Harborfields facility, as well as at privately-operated treatment centers like Daytop Village, where State agencies frequently consigned troubled youth.
Just last month, the Supreme Court of New Jersey established a multicounty litigation program to organize the growing number of cases involving sexual abuse at juvenile detention centers owned and operated by the State. These cases will all be managed in Middlesex County, where the State’s most notorious detention center, the New Jersey Training School, is located.
These cases, which will only grow in number, are exposing the systemic, institutional sexual abuse that has occurred for decades in juvenile facilities throughout the State. Generations of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children have been abused, neglected, and traumatized at juvenile facilities run by the State and others. The over 300 men and women who have filed claims so far include those who suffered sexual abuse as far back as the 1980s and as recently as the 2020s. The culture of abuse that allowed this to happen endured over decades despite widespread reports and investigations into prison-like conditions, violent staff, lack of oversight, and the frequent use of inhumane strip searches and solitary confinement.
Leading the Way for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Levy Konigsberg is at the forefront of investigating sexual abuse at these notorious facilities. Our legal team filed many of the first cases alleging systemic abuse at New Jersey’s state-run juvenile facilities and led the charge in petitioning the Supreme Court to establish the multicounty litigation in Middlesex County.
With the New Jersey Child Sexual Abuse Act of 2019, which extended the statute of limitations to age 55 for filing civil lawsuits in cases of child sexual abuse, survivors of abuse at these facilities can seek justice and compensation, even for abuse that occurred many years ago.
Levy Konigsberg’s pioneering lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of men and women who were abused as children in juvenile facilities in New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have made national news, being covered by major outlets like the Assocaited Press and the New York Times. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9].
In announcing this week’s filings, Levy Konigsberg Partner Jerome Block stated:
“For too long, children have suffered in silence as New Jersey’s broken juvenile system stole their childhoods and subjected them to unthinkable abuse. Our brave clients are now stepping forward to demand the justice and accountability that they have been denied for decades. They will not rest until state and local governments finally step up and take responsibility.”
Levy Konigsberg represents over 400 such survivors of sexual abuse at New Jersey juvenile facilities and plans to continue fighting tirelessly on their behalf.