Kelly Garcia reports on youth, prisons and the court system. Before joining Injustice Watch in 2022, Garcia was a staff writer at the Chicago Reader, where she wrote about news and politics on the Southwest Side. In 2022, the Chicago Journalists Association named her Emerging Journalist of the Year.
The verdict highlights the challenges of holding detention center staff accountable for alleged abuse, advocates say.
Leonard Dixon has run the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center — one of the largest youth jails in the country — for a decade. Records and interviews suggest he might not live in Chicago and is rarely seen at the facility.
