Source: newjerseymonitor.com 4/14/26
Ongoing lawsuits filed by people who say they were sexually abused as children while in juvenile detention centers, foster care, and other state-supervised placements could cost New Jersey at least $340 million, judging by past payouts.
The state has already shelled out tens of millions of dollars to resolve such claims, with the median cost of the settlements at $975,000 as of March, according to budget documents. Two past lawsuits over sex abuse children endured in foster homes decades ago cost the state almost $19 million alone in 2024.
But about 350 cases remain active, and more could come, because state lawmakers in 2019 expanded the statute of limitations for sex crimes to give victims a longer timeline to file civil lawsuits.
New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner last year consolidated about 250 cases against the state Youth Justice Commission at the request of victims’ attorneys and assigned them to Superior Court in Middlesex County. Those cases remain in the discovery phase. The other 100 or so cases name other state agencies as defendants and are proceeding separately through the court system.
Many of the lawsuits accuse guards, counselors, teachers, and other staff of wide-ranging abuses at a long list of the state’s youth jails and secure residential programs.
Victims said they were forcibly raped or coerced into unwanted sexual activity, with staff securing their silence with bribes of food, cigarettes, pornographic magazines, and other contraband or threats of discipline and loss of privileges. Some reported illicit…