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Benjamin S. Wolf, Esq.
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Attorney Benjamin S. Wolf has been the Director and chief legal counsel
of the ACLU of Illinois' Institutionalized Persons Project since 1984.
The Project provides legal representation to Illinois residents of
prisons, jails, mental health centers, developmental centers and
institutions for children, such as group homes and foster homes. He
supervises the Project's legal and educational work and provides legal
backup on such issues for the ACLU's lobbyist in Springfield.
Under his direction, the Project has consistently challenged the
systemic abuse and neglect of the most helpless of our citizens in the
courts.
For example, in K.L. v. Edgar, the Project sued the State of
Illinois for providing inadequate treatment and poor care to the
thousands of patients in the twelve state-operated mental health centers
throughout Illinois. The case was settled in 1997 after the state agreed
to a series of reforms, including a new training program for its workers
and administrators. In W.W. v. Johnson, the Project challenged
the appalling health and safety conditions at Cleaver Shelter, a
facility for abused and neglected boys. The facility was closed the
following year. In A.T. v. County of Cook, Wolf forced the state
to create a program of specialized foster homes for children who
remained in juvenile detention for months after juvenile court judges
had ordered them released. Jimmy Doe v. Cook County challenges
the poor health care, violence and unsafe conditions at the Cook County
Juvenile Detention Center, commonly referred to as the Audy Home.
The increasing number of cases involving the mistreatment of children
who are dependent upon the state for their care and support has led to
the creation of the Project's Children's Initiative.
The Project’s most recent cases, Ligas v Maram and Williams v.
Blagojevich, challenge the state’s practice of housing people with
developmental disabilities and mental diseases in nursing homes rather
than in community-based facilities.
A native of Evanston, Wolf received his undergraduate degree from
Washington University in St. Louis. He graduated cum laude from Boston
College Law School in 1979 and was an editor of the Boston College
Law Review. Wolf served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge James
B. Moran in the Northern District of Illinois from 1979 through 1980.
Prior to joining the ACLU legal staff, Wolf was a litigation associate
at the law firm of Jenner & Block in Chicago from 1980 to 1984.
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