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Troubled Illinois Lockup Sees Guard Abuses, Prisoners on Hunger Strike

Loaded on Sept. 1, 2026 by Jo Ellen Nott published in Prison Legal News September, 2026, page None
Filed under: Hunger Strikes, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Pepper Spray/Tear Gas, Restraints, Administrative Detention/Segregation. Location: Illinois.

by Jo Ellen Knott

Two Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) guards pleaded guilty in federal court on July 14, 2026, to conspiring to deprive a prisoner of his civil rights. According to the Daily Record of Vincennes, guards Lieutenant Ethan Yates, 30, and Craig Muhs, 28, participated in a six-person gang assault on a fully restrained, shackled prisoner, identified as “CW”, at Lawrence Correctional Center on July 31, 2025, after falsely believing he had assaulted a female staff member.

During the assault, the guards pepper-sprayed the prisoner’s genitals and put him in a spit hood, after which they proceeded to water-board him. The beat-down also left him with an orbital fracture that required surgery. Both guards admitted to charges of using excessive force, failing to intervene, withholding medical care and covering up the assault. They each face up to 10 years in federal prison at their sentencing scheduled for the second week of November 2026.

At the same prison, according to WTTW in Chicago, approximately 25 prisoners began a hunger strike on August 12, 2026, to protest horrific restrictive housing conditions. The prisoners report severe isolation, a lack of mental health personnel, filthy cells and an ongoing denial of out-of-cell time that violates Illinois DOC policy. Strikers also report being denied communication tablets to contact family or lawyers.  

 

Sources: Daily Record, WTTW

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