State to lay off hundreds at troubled southern Illinois mental health facility

ANNA — The Illinois Department of Human Services announced Thursday that the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna will lay off staff and undergo several operational changes in the coming months, including the elimination of the state-run facility’s entire general residential program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

According to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — the union that represents the majority of Choate staff — IDHS said it intends to lay off about 250 of the facility’s more than 500 employees over the coming months.

In a letter to Choate staff, IDHS said that the changes are a result of the “success” of the state’s three-year plan, which aimed to repurpose the facility over three years in partnership with the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

According to the letter, IDHS plans to cease operations for the intellectual and developmental disabilities general units by Sept. 30. The department will also “phase down” 75 civil mental health beds at Choate while adding beds to the Madden Mental Health Center in Chicago.

This phase-down, says IDHS, which is planned to be completed by March 2027, is because the “need for mental health beds is greater in northern Illinois.”

In its letter, IDHS did not specify how many employees would face layoffs as a result of these reductions, but acknowledged that layoffs will occur.

“We will work with our labor partners to support employees,” the IDHS letter states. “This includes working closely with directly impacted staff who may be subject to the contractual layoff process.”

Choate currently serves 58 general and forensic I/DD patients and an additional 75 mental health patients while employing roughly 524 people across its campus. Of those employees, 468 are represented by AFSCME Council 31.

AFSCME responded to the announcement in a news release with comments from Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch, who said that IDHS should have consulted with the union to develop a more rational plan that would be more fair to Choate’s employees and the individuals in their care.

“Unfortunately, the department chose to forge ahead with a plan which will weaken services for the most vulnerable mentally ill individuals and upend the lives of hundreds of Choate employees and their families,” Lynch said.

Choate’s 40-bed forensic developmental disabilities unit will continue operations, as will the other IDHS administrative offices on the Choate campus. 

Culture of cruelty

The IDHS decision to reduce operations at Choate comes after decades of documented issues at the southern Illinois facility, including resident abuse, neglect, criminal investigations and repeated failures by employees and administrators to report or stop misconduct.

A 2022 investigation by Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica found that residents had been beaten, sexually assaulted, humiliated and dangerously neglected at Choate for roughly a decade. At least 26 employees have been arrested on felony charges connected to their work at the facility while they were entrenched in a “code of silence” in which workers withheld information, coordinated their accounts or protected colleagues accused of abuse.

In March 2023, Gov. JB Pritzker announced a three-year “transformation” plan that would move about 123 residents — roughly half of Choate’s population at the time — into community placements, family homes or other state-operated facilities. The state also promised stronger oversight, additional training, cameras in common areas and a partnership with the SIU School of Medicine to help determine how Choate’s remaining programs should operate.

Officials said at the time that the plan was not a closure and did not include layoffs.

In February 2024, a newly installed security camera recorded an employee throwing a resident to the floor and punching him. The incident went unreported for 11 days and was discovered only after an anonymous letter prompted investigators to review the footage.

Choate’s general developmental disabilities population has since fallen from 199 residents at the beginning of the transformation to 16. IDHS now characterizes the elimination of those units and the phaseout of Choate’s civil mental health beds as the completion of that plan — though the layoffs mark a departure from the state’s original assurance that the restructuring would not cost employees their jobs.

AFSCME said the administration assured the union during the recent legislative session that its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget would not include layoffs.

“Had we been aware of the planned layoffs, we certainly would have opposed the budget as introduced,” Lynch said. “The AFSCME collective bargaining agreement with the State of Illinois includes well-defined rights for employees slated for layoff and AFSCME intends to ensure that all such requirements are fully met if the department continues down this irresponsible path.”

Legislators respond

State Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, called the IDHS decision a devastating blow to southern Illinois, saying in a news release that it will cost the region hundreds of jobs, uproot vulnerable patients and create chaos for families and employees.

“I have consistently advocated for Choate to continue serving our most vulnerable residents here in Southern Illinois,” Bryant said. “I am disappointed to see those calls ignored through this announcement. The people who depend on Choate deserve to be treated as individuals, not numbers on a spreadsheet.”

Republican state Sen. Paul Jacobs of Pomona also called the decision devastating, saying in a news release that he is disappointed that southern Illinoisans are being left to deal with the consequences of a state decision.

Newly appointed Republican state Rep. Scott Doody, an Anna resident who represents Illinois’ 118th District, condemned the IDHS decision in a press release Friday, calling on Pritzker and IDHS to immediately halt the implementation of these reductions.

“Taxpayers invested tens of millions of dollars to improve Choate’s facilities, and they have decided to walk away from that investment and the employees, residents, and families who depend on Choate,” Doody said in the release.

“After years of promises to transform Choate, the administration’s answer is now to eliminate services, relocate residents, and lay off hardworking employees. Southern Illinois deserves better.”

Jackson Brandhorst is a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and a senior member of the Daily Egyptian, SIU’s student newspaper. Brandhorst can be reached at jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.