More brave survivors are coming 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, 30 men and women filed sexual abuse lawsuits this week against the State of New Jersey for the horrific sexual abuse they suffered while confined as juveniles at juvenile detention centers run by the State. This brings the total number of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse at New Jersey state, county, and private juvenile facilities to nearly 500, including over 300 against the State alone.
Scores of vulnerable children were abused at facilities like the New Jersey Training School at Jamesburg and the Female Secure Care & Intake Facility in Bordentown. Reports of shocking conditions at Jamesburg go back to the 1980s, leading to a decades-long campaign to shut the facility down. In 2017, then-Governor Chris Christie ordered the closure of Jamesburg. Nearly a decade later, the facility remains open, continuing to subject hundreds of children to its cruel, prison-like environment each year.
Last year, 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. The hundreds of cases are now being litigated 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. The nearly 500 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 Associated 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:
“These cases should come as a wakeup call for the State and counties. Our brave clients join the hundreds of other survivors who are coming forward after years, often decades, of suffering in silence. They will not rest until State and local governments finally step up and take responsibility for the horrific abuse they have enabled.”
Levy Konigsberg represents over 500 such survivors of sexual abuse at New Jersey juvenile facilities and plans to continue fighting tirelessly on their behalf.