Prisons in Illinois are pretty bad.
I found that out when I served on the Illnois House Prison Review Committee.
Now there is no focused legislative attention.
WBEZ and the Sun-Times are reporting on monstrous treatment of prisoners at the Joliet Treatment Center.
Here is how the Illinois Department of Corrections describes the facility:
“The Joliet Treatment Center will serve as a multi-disciplinary treatment facility for convicted adult male felons with severe mental illness. The adult multiple-security (including maximum-security) facility will provide treatment to high-risk, high-need individuals in custody with a stepdown structured format to enable their return to general population. The 486-bed facility will be comprised of a treatment capacity of 422 and a minimum-security general population capacity of 64.”
The John Howard Association describes it this way:
It “was newly constructed and opened in June 2022 to provide the most intensive level of care for adult male and female IDOC patients who struggle with severe mental illness and for those requiring long-term or intensive medical care.”
The Marshall Project points out that it was designed to help people with serious mental illness.
In coordination with WBEZ and the Chicago Suu-Times, they proceeded to savage the program run by Warden Dr. Catherine Larry.
The article observes, “Catching their attention is the number of men who set themselves on fire. observes “despondent, some became willing to do anything to draw attention to their troubles and resorted to setting their cells — or themselves — on fire.”
“One man needed surgery to graft new skin onto his charred calf.
“Another lost a leg.
“Two have died…
“Cellblocks lacked sprinklers, and fire alarms were turned off or inoperable. At an annual inspection, the prison would not provide a fire evacuation plan. Guards delayed ambulances responding to emergencies at the prison or trying to take men with serious injuries to the hospital…
“Craig Haney, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and an expert on mental health in prisons, said the frequency of fires at the Joliet Treatment Center is a sign of abject hopelessness.”
One man was still alive after Correctional Officers put out the fire in his cell.
It had taken ten minutes for employees to reach the cell.
The officers sprayed pepper spray and used a fire extinguisher was emptied, but kept the door locked.
Then they walked away.
911 was called and the Joliet Fire Department responded.
After asking for fans to clear out the smoke, someone mentioned a prisoner was inside.
Thirty minutes later paramedics found the man still breathing.
The ambulance was held up at the prison gate, told there was paperwork to be filled out.
An arguement ensued.
One fire fighter was heard to say, “This man can die while y’all pussyfooting around.”
It took twenty-eight minutes to get through the gate.
In short, there was inhumane treatment.
Maybe just stupidity.
He was taken transferred the man to a Chicago hospital for a tracheotomy.
He died two weeks after leaving the prison.
Upon investigations by DOC employees, it was found there were no fire alarms or springklers.
Other outrageous behavior by staff id recounted in the article.
Several are related to poor medical care.
