Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Tanisha Hankerson! You are CRIMINALS and liars at Kiley!

Yesterday I sat for a few minutes in a meeting at Ann Kiley Developmental Center in Waukegan, IL, as an advocate for a developmentally disabled adult and his mother/guardian. The facility had about eight clinicians and administrators in the room. There were additional people in Springfield on remote conference, and a detailed agenda, including an elaborate but utterly cynical "service plan" which everyone apparently expected to spend considerable time working through. I had the following statement prepared, and I made it pretty quick.

Janauary 3, 2026 Statement to Staff at Kiley Developmental Center

To be clear, I do not yet represent this resident of Kiley or his mom and guardian as legal counsel in any formal proceeding in any jurisdiction. I'm here only because they asked me to be present, and you invited me to the meeting.

However (perhaps along with my clients--that will be up to them), I shall refuse to pretend that this is a meeting with "helping professionals" who ought to be respected for their good intentions and special ability. Some part of this group I'm talking to right now (not everyone here, I'm sure), are just flat-out criminals. I do not work with criminals, and I will not show them any respect. You know who you are better than I do, for the moment.

Going forward, I will work with people like the Illinois State Police and the U.S. Justice Department, who can bring the criminals in this room to justice. And I will work with members of the media who can expose the criminals to everlasting opprobrium.

Now I am going to leave.

That was all. I stood up and put my coat on, only inquiring about whether a transcript of the meeting would be available. The apparatchiks around the table, of course, vaguely and dumbly disclaimed any knowledge or any ability to answer that question. I also commented unofficially that if my clients were asked to sign anything that was not true (as I knew was the plan), they would be wise to refuse.

My clients joined me outside right away. It was their observation that the Kiley people had been shocked, which was fine, I don't care. The bottom line is, there are about 20 million taxpayers in Illinois who fund these people's salaries, benefits and pensions, and they would be shocked if they sat in on a day of what these so-called "public servants" actually do. For example, they brutalize people who are dependent upon them for "care":


This picture was taken by the mother/guardian of a resident at Kiley snake pit, within the last month. These wounds are barely healed. But the psychological wounds are definitely still festering. This resident hides in his room 22/24 hours a day, to avoid the violent criminals who do this to him. This is the "therapeutic milieu" the State of Illinois has created for its most vulnerable citizens! This is the "quality of care" provided by mental health professionals!