No Charges Filed Two Years After Teen Killed in Philadelphia Facility

Lilly Jimenez knows that feeling all too well. The 16-year-old first went into placement shortly after turning 13 years old. She spent time in two different facilities. In one, staff let students fight off campus where they couldn’t be seen, she said. Sometimes, residents were pepper-sprayed. Worms writhed in her food, Jimenez said.

On at least one occasion, Jimenez was body-slammed by an employee. She was strip-searched and her neck burned with a hair iron. When Jimenez had a seizure, it took 10 minutes before a staffer, not a nurse, came in to offer water.

Nearly three years later, Jimenez is now a youth advocate with Juveniles for Justice, which is operated out of Philadelphia’s Juvenile Law Center. She still has trouble at school and is taking remedial level classes, Jimenez said. She doesn’t trust adults.

“I didn’t think anyone would believe me,” she said. “I didn’t think anything would be done if I did speak up.”