A federal judge on Friday ordered Illinois prison officials to move most of the people incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Facility to other prisons in the state by Sept. 30, after civil rights attorneys argued that conditions at Stateville were too dangerous for the people held there.
The order from U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood marks the clearest first step yet for the Illinois Department of Corrections to begin the process of closing the sprawling facility after state officials announced a plan earlier this year to dismantle the prison and build a new one on the Stateville grounds.
The plan is part of a nearly $1 billion project that includes demolishing Logan Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in downstate Lincoln, and possibly rebuilding it as well at the Stateville site in Crest Hill, near Joliet.
State officials had previously said they would not begin “winding down operations” at Stateville until at least September, and that plans to demolish and rebuild Stateville and Logan are expected to take three to five years. In addition to the lack of specific dates for each phase of the plan, officials have not outlined a plan for how people housed at Stateville will be managed during the transition.
“Rather than order the State or the Department to make substantial repairs necessary to protect (plaintiffs) from the risk of irreparable harm posed by the deteriorated masonry at Stateville, the Court instead requires the Department to do what it has publicly reported and recommended it do—namely, to move forward with closing Stateville by transferring (plaintiffs) to other facilities,” Wood wrote in the order. “The Court defers to the Department to develop its own plan for transferring (plaintiffs) and to implement that plan at a time and in a manner the Department chooses, provided that the Department completes the required transfers by the Court’s deadline of September 30, 2024.”
Wood’s decision is based on a petition filed by civil rights attorneys representing inmates at Stateville, who initially asked IDOC to transfer or release them by Sept. 20, citing “decay and deterioration” at the aging prison. The petition was filed as part of a 2013 lawsuit that seeks to address horrific conditions at the nearly century-old facility.
In granting the attorneys’ request for a preliminary injunction, Wood found “a probable risk of irreparable harm from falling concrete attributed to the deteriorated masonry walls, ceilings, steel beams and window headers at Stateville; and a lack of adequate remedy at law.”
According to the order, IDOC is not required to transfer people housed in the Stateville Health Care Unit, which is a separate building that “does not present the concrete fall hazards that exist in general housing units.” The order also does not prevent the department from releasing people from Stateville “who are qualified for release.”
The preliminary injunction motion filed last month by Chicago civil rights attorneys Loevy + Loevy described Stateville’s floors, beds and sinks as “covered with bird feathers and feces” and the drinking water from the faucets as discolored and foul-smelling.
“Although some repairs have been made at Stateville, the facility continues to be extremely dangerous,” the motion states. “The structural damage and disrepair of the many damaged buildings at Stateville pose an ongoing risk to (the plaintiffs), as well as the individuals who work there.”
For attorneys and several people living at Stateville, the squalid living conditions came to a head last month when Michael Broadway, 51, who was locked up at Stateville, died during a heat wave in June. The Will County coroner’s office has not yet released the cause of death for Broadway, who graduated last year from Northwestern University’s correctional education program.
The plan to dismantle Stateville and Logan and rebuild the two facilities was announced by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration in March. The budget signed by Pritzker in June includes $900 million in capital funds for the project. Both prisons are in poor condition, and the plan would allow the state to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance costs, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
An IDOC spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, meanwhile, has opposed relocating incarcerated people to Stateville at this time. Instead, the union, which represents state prison employees, said it supports building a new prison on the Stateville grounds while keeping the current facility open during construction and continuing to make needed repairs.
“Closing Stateville would cause enormous disruption to the state’s prison system, its employees, inmates and their families,” AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said Sunday. “We are exploring all options to avoid disruption in response to this hasty decision.”
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