Watchdog finds mental health center workers covered up abuse

SPRINGFIELD — Employees at a troubled downstate mental health center repeatedly covered up staff misconduct even as the facility was under state scrutiny following allegations that residents were abused and neglected, according to a state government watchdog report released Friday.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker in March laid out a multiyear “repurposing” plan for the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna in partnership with the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine that was designed to improve conditions and offer residents the option to move to other facilities.

At the time, an investigation of Choate by the inspector general for the Illinois Department of Human Services that began in September was still underway. According to the newly released IG report, investigators found that “there appear to be fundamental problems with all aspects of that system,” including repeated instances of staff members deliberately covering up misconduct they either engaged in…