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Three former Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center (DCJDC) residents sued the county Wednesday night, alleging DCJDC staff sexually abused them.

Anna Kull, a New York-based survivor’s rights attorney representing the three individuals, said the issues were systemic.

“The county needs to be held accountable for what’s happened here, because without accountability, we’re not going to see any real change,” Kull, a partner with Levy Konigsberg, said.

A county spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The legal complaint in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas seeks to hold the county liable for wrongdoing at the troubled facility.

“The civil system allows these victims to come forward, bring a lawsuit and seek financial compensation for the lifelong pain and suffering that they’re going to endure as a result of being sexually abused when they were minors,” Kull said.

The DCJDC was a pre-trial, youth detention facility in Lima, Pennsylvania, for children and youth ages 10 to 18 years old. The county court system operated the facility — until it was forced to empty its halls several years ago.

Delaware County Judge Kevin Kelly shut down the center in March 2021 after the Public Defender’s Office sent an urgent letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

The letter detailed allegations of “physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by staff.” Those complaints brought added scrutiny to the state’s juvenile justice system, which had been marred by a series of abuse scandals across the commonwealth.

“You have to really think about why this happened for as long as it did — why and how it was so prevalent,” Kull said.

In the latest legal filing, Kull and her colleagues zeroed in on the county’s disregard and inaction on complaints against the facility and staff prior to 2021.

A grand jury later investigated the conduct at DCJDC. However, despite unmasking a culture of violence, silence and “sexually inappropriate conduct” by staff, jury members decided against recommending criminal charges.

“Despite numerous publicly documented incidents of abuse by DCJDC staff going back decades that were reported to both county and state agencies and employees, not once were meaningful steps taken to protect the youth at DCJDC,” the complaint read.

Earlier this year, HAD invited WHYY News to join Brandywine Counseling outreach volunteers as they went out overnight to count the number of people living outside. On Jan. 24, the group walked through the woods in Kent County, eventually reaching an encampment in the Dover area where most residents chose not to engage, affecting the count.

Of the total count, 1,120 had found shelter while 238 remained unsheltered, indicating a significant increase in the unsheltered count compared to pre-pandemic times.

“We’ve been seeing the sheltered numbers go up a lot. So that’s people who are literally without a place, people sleeping outside and their cars. In 2024, it was 238 people, which is 58% higher than it was in 2020 right before COVID-19 hit,” she said. “About 60% of all people who are experiencing homelessness on the night of the Point-in-Time here in Delaware were Black and African American.”

HAD found about 800 Black residents didn’t have a permanent place to stay, while nearly 360 children were experiencing homelessness and over 500 individuals were age 55 and above.

“One in four people experiencing homelessness that night was a child under the age of 18, which is just completely unacceptable, and we also see a pretty high number of [people] over the age of 55,” she said. “Homelessness among seniors and people who are older is increasing across the country, and we’re also seeing that here in Delaware. About 22% of people were also over the age of 55.”