$95,000 in Settlements for Illinois Prisoners Retaliated Against for Class Participation in Prison Education Programs
On October 4, 2024, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) settled the second of two lawsuits brought by prisoners involved in educational programs who claimed that they were subjected to retaliation after classroom debates over political and social issues piqued reactionary prison officials.
Centralia Correctional Center prisoner Anthony McNeal was assigned as a peer educator in the Citizens Civics Education program, which was authorized by state lawmakers with the Re-Entering Citizens Civics Education Act, 730 ILCS 200/1; the primary goal of the law is to teach soon-to-be released prisoners about their voting eligibility and how voting is vital to successful re-entry.
On March 1, 2023, McNeal was performing his assignment, carrying out a lesson plan that discussed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other racist laws from the Jim Crow era. In response to another prisoner’s inquiry, McNeal informed the class how many southern states had used literacy tests and poll taxes to suppress the Black vote.
Nathan Tucker, a prison official assigned to monitor the class, cut McNeal off and instructed him not to discuss racism in class. Tucker further insisted that McNeal present literary tests as having a legitimate nondiscriminatory purpose of ensuring that voters “knew what they were voting for.” McNeal responded that the intent of the laws was part of the curriculum and part of what the Act required be taught.
At the end of class, Tucker demanded McNeal’s notes. When McNeal refused to surrender them, he was issued a disciplinary ticket for disobeying an order, permanently removed as a peer educator, and prevented from obtaining another extra pay job.
Represented by attorneys Alan S. Mills and Nicole Schult of Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, McNeal filed suit in the federal court for the Southern District of Illinois in February 2024. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he accused DOC officials of violating his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the settlement that was reached, DOC agreed to pay McNeal $5,000 and reinstate him as a peer educator. See: McNeal v. Tucker, USDC (S D. Ill.) Case No. 3:24-cv-00619.
Earlier, a lawsuit was filed by Stateville Correctional Center prisoners Lester Dobbey, Joseph Dole, Raul Dorado, Bernard McKinley, and Eugene Ross. They were involved in a debate class where a public debate was held on March 21, 2018, with journalists, legislators, DOC officials, and members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, with other members of the public in attendance to observe.
The prisoners, all veteran prisoners who were serving lengthy sentences for offenses committed while teenagers or young men, decided to focus on how Illinois might implement a parole system. After the debate, legislators responded by stating that they took the prisoners’ view seriously and were giving genuine consideration to the policy proposals that were discussed.
Prison officials, however, were not pleased. On April 3, 2018, DOC Assistant Director Gladyse Taylor told the five prisoners that they were interfering with DOC’s ability to pursue its own legislative agenda, which should be more focused on appropriations for the prison system rather than parole. Taylor questioned the decision to house the prisoners at Stateville and suggested that they should be moved to prisons in southern Illinois. The debate class was cancelled, along with a live debate on the parole subject scheduled for April 26, 2018.
The prisoners were then subjected to various retaliatory actions by guards, they said, before eventually filing a civil rights complaint in the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois in May 2019. Claims against Taylor for failing to intervene in the alleged constitutional violation were dismissed on October 8, 2019. See: Dobbey v. Jeffreys, 417 F. Supp. 3d 1103 (N.D. Ill.).
After a lengthy delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, DOC agreed to a settlement on March 21, 2024, paying at total of $90,000—including $10,000 to each of the five prisoner plaintiffs, plus fees of $30,000 to their attorneys from the People’s Law Office in Chicago and $10,000 to attorney Joshua G. Herman, also in Chicago. See: Dobbey v. Jeffreys, USDC (N.D. Ill.) Case No. 1:19-cv-03272.
Related legal cases
McNeal v. Tucker
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (S D. Ill.) Case No. 3:24-cv-00619 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |
Dobbey v. Jeffreys
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D. Ill.) Case No. 1:19-cv-03272 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |