“It’s easy to write smart articles when you’re talking about the ‘others’ down in the hapless, impoverished South who have no political power or agency or hope. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”
So wrote DK in response to a July 29 column addressing plans to shutter Choate Mental Health and Development Center in downstate Anna. What started as a direct barb quickly became a fruitful dialogue as we reached common ground: Choate can’t continue to exist in its current form … but then what?
As I wrote in July, “much heavy lifting remains before these state services are comfortably back on track.” As DK added, “This isn’t the feel-good performative outrage that is a lot easier to deal with but rather those fundamental questions about the social contract that underlies society and how to help people [who] can’t help themselves and could hurt others.”
As frequently noted over the years, background is available – for those with free time and thick skin – at propublica.org/series/culture-of-cruelty. Beyond documenting patient abuse, reporters Beth Hunsdorfer and Molly Parker used Freedom of Information Act requests and other tools to effectively portray widespread employee obstruction, lying, indoctrination and retaliation against those who dare shed light on the horrors.
But there’s also new reporting: On Monday, Mack Biesk – writing for the Daily Egyptian and Capitol News Illinois – covered DHS scaling back its plans, now intending to preserve 25 minimum-security mental health beds (full details are at tinyurl.com/ChoateNew).
Republican state Sens. Terri Bryant, Murphysboro, and Paul Jacobs, Pomona, fairly argue public mental health services aren’t adequately supplied downstate, both in macro terms and specific to Choate plans, siding with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 and Union County State’s Attorney Tyler Tripp regarding accusations DHS violated the Health Facilities Planning, State Facilities Closure and Mental Health Inpatient Facility Access acts.
As is typical when analyzing something this complex in 450 words, even summarizing facts is fraught because it requires sidestepping nuance and, more importantly, reduces uniquely suffering humans to data points, which risks implying that frailty is just another challenge government could solve if we simply elected the right person or spent enough tax dollars.
“There was a culture of cruelty at Choate, but is there not a whole remaining life of cruelty ahead for these patients?” DK asked. “Either out on the streets or in dysfunctional or impoverished families. Sometimes what is thought of as a mercy is the cruelest thing of all …”
Our emails constituted a respectful, hopeful conversation. But respect and hope aren’t solutions, at least not without hard work, difficult choices, and yes, sufficient funding.
There’s little glory or power in confronting these challenges. And so they persist.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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October 31, 2026 at 10:00AM
