A little more than a month after 51-year-old Michael Broadway died inside Stateville Correctional Center, those incarcerated in the prison this week asked a judge to force the transfer – or release – of men serving time in the nearly 100-year-old facility.
Chicago law firm Loevy and Loevy filed the motion as part of an ongoing federal class action lawsuit, Dobbey v. Weilding, that claims the state’s failure to properly maintain Stateville has led to dangerous and unsanitary conditions, rendering the prison in Crest Hill uninhabitable.
The filing asks the federal court overseeing the case to order the Illinois Department of Corrections to create a plan of transfer or release of all class members of the lawsuit by August 12, while requesting all transfers or releases happen by September 20.
The motion – which states class members “reported excessive heat and poor ventilation” the day Broadway died – also references a state-commissioned facilities report published last year that called Stateville one of three Illinois prisons that were nearly “inoperable.”
Gov. JB Pritzker has cited the report as a catalyst for his March announcement that he’d seek to close and rebuild both Stateville and Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
Read more: Stateville may close as early as September under Pritzker’s prison plan | Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan
In a series of hearings in May and June, IDOC officials indicated they planned to keep Logan open while building a new facility – which may move to the Stateville campus – but could close Stateville as soon as September, temporarily moving those inmates to other prisons during the rebuild process.
The plans face significant opposition from surrounding communities and AFSCME, the union that represents most correctional officers and other prison workers, though they all agreed that the facilities’ need for improvements was dire.
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