Seventh Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment in Illinois Prisoner’s Segregation Lawsuit by Michael Thompson by Michael Thompson Norberto Torres spent three months confined in administrative segregation under harsh, filthy conditions because officials in his Illinois prison believed him to be engaged in gang activity. He sued, arguing that officials failed to …
Illinois DOC Has Failed to Improve Prison Health Care Seven Years After Order by Prisoners in Illinois can face decades of medical neglect, as in the case of Johnnie Flournoy, a 74-year-old prisoner locked up at the Pinckneyville Correction Center around five hours south of Chicago. Imprisoned since the early …
Chicago Pays Exonerated Prisoners $7.5 Million, Bringing Total to $33.75 Million for Wrongful Convictions by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman The Chicago City Council voted on January 15, 2025, to pay $7.5 million to Clarissa Glenn and her husband, Ben Baker, who spent 10 years in state prison on drug …
Disabled Prisoner Who Won $1.85 Million After Fall in Chicago Jail Secures Class Certification for Separate ADA Challenge to Jail Conditions by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On September 2, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted class certification to a complaint filed by disabled …
News in Brief by Alabama: A former Blount County Jail guard received a decade behind bars on October 21, 2025, for a brutal assault that was captured on security video, according to WVTM in Birmingham. Joseph Ray Snow, 45, was sentenced for assaulting detainee Jonathan Calloway in 2022. Calloway, who …
Appeals Court Allows Illinois Prisoner’s Suit for Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on December 23, 2024 that a district court erred in dismissing, without a hearing, prisoner-plaintiff Henry Jones’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 complaint …
Seventh Circuit Affirms Liberty Interest in Harsh Solitary Confinement Case by Michael Thompson by Michael Thompson In 2020, Abre Jackson was involved in a physical altercation with prison guards at Illinois’ Stateville Correctional Center when he stuck his arm through a small “chuckhole” in his cell door. As a result, …
$11 Million Paid to Estate of Mentally Ill Illinois Jail Detainee Who Lost 60 Pounds During 85-Day Incarceration by Chuck Sharman by Chuck Sharman On February 13, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved an $11 million settlement agreement between DuPage County and the Estate …
HRDC v. Peoria County, IL, Complaint, Censorship, 2025HRDC v. Peoria County, IL, Complaint, Censorship, 2025 1:25-cv-01369-JEH-RLH #1 Filed: 09/02/25 Page 1 of 13 E-FILED Tuesday, 02 September, 2025 10:59:02 AM Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE …
HRDC v. Peoria County, IL,Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Supporting Memorandum, Censorship, 2025 1:25-cv-01369-JEH-RLH #5 Filed: 09/02/25 Page 1 of 23 E-FILED Tuesday, 02 September, 2025 01:57:07 PM Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, …
HRDC v. Peoria County, IL, Complaint, Censorship, 2025 1:25-cv-01369-JEH-RLH #1 Filed: 09/02/25 Page 1 of 13 E-FILED Tuesday, 02 September, 2025 10:59:02 AM Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, a not-for-profit corporation, Case No. Plaintiff, …
HRDC v. Peoria County, IL,Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Supporting Memorandum, Censorship, 2025 1:25-cv-01369-JEH-RLH #5 Filed: 09/02/25 Page 1 of 23 E-FILED Tuesday, 02 September, 2025 01:57:07 PM Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, …
DOJ Inspects BOP Food Service Operations, Finds Troubling Issues at Multiple Facilities by Anthony Accurso In the first week of June 2024, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) conducted surprise inspection at six Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Food Service Departments, finding deficiencies at the facilities which …
Two Exonerated Illinois Prisoners Win Settlements Totaling $14.5 Million by Chuck Sharman A pair of former Illinois prisoners, each exonerated after spending 23 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit, accepted a total of $14.5 million in settlements from the City of Rockford, which voted in April 2025 …
$22.5 Million Verdict Arrives Too Late for Wrongfully Convicted Illinois Prisoner by David Reutter On August 8, 2024, the federal court for the Northern District of Illinois entered judgment for the estate of a former state prisoner after a jury awarded $22.5 million in damages for 22 years he spent …
$95,000 in Settlements for Illinois Prisoners Retaliated Against for Class Participation in Prison Education Programs by David Reutter 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 …
Nearly $70,000 Awarded for Illinois Prisoner’s Excessive Force Claim by David Reutter On October 24, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois entered judgment awarding $69,384.73 to a state prisoner in his civil rights action alleging a Department of Corrections (DOC) food service director subjected him …
$875,000 Award for Illinois Prisoner’s Delay in Getting Hernia Surgery by David M. Reutter On April 1, 2024, jury in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded $875,000 to state prisoner John E. Taylor, Jr., after finding officials with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) and its contracted …
$6 Million Settlement in Illinois Detainee’s Gruesome Untreated Heroin Withdrawal Death by David Reutter On December 18, 2024, notice was filed in the federal court for the Central District of Illinois that a $6 million good-faith settlement had been reached resolving a lawsuit seeking compensation for the April 2022 death …
$3.15 Million for Illinois Prisoner Raped by Guard and Then Denied “Boot Camp” by On March 26, 2024, the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) signed an agreement to pay $3,150,000 to a former state prisoner to settle her claims that she was raped by a guard and then denied entry …
