Stop torturing mentally ill prisoners
Monday, Jul 27, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times and The Marshall Project…
The Joliet Treatment Center opened in 2017 with the promise of being a new kind of prison in Illinois, designed to provide intensive mental health treatment. But in the years leading up to that night in the summer of 2024, incarcerated men and civil rights lawyers who visited the facility said the conditions declined. Men were kept locked in their cells for long stretches, with nothing to do. They complained about a lack of medical care and mental health treatment, which the prison system is legally obligated to provide. Men reported that guards used excessive force.
As the men grew more despondent, some became willing to do anything to draw attention to their troubles and resorted to setting their cells — or themselves — on fire.
One man needed surgery to graft new skin onto his charred calf.
Another lost a leg.
Two have died.
Last year, the prison — with a population of about 200 people — recorded roughly three fires a month.
Despite that, officials at the Joliet Treatment Center have repeatedly failed to meet their responsibilities to prevent or respond to the fires, government records show.
Cellblocks lacked sprinklers, and fire alarms were turned off or inoperable. At an annual inspection, the prison would not provide a fire evacuation plan. Guards delayed ambulances responding to emergencies at the prison or trying to take men with serious injuries to the hospital.
The Illinois Department of Corrections did not answer questions about the epidemic of fires at Joliet Treatment Center, but in an email a spokesperson wrote that it is “committed to ensuring the safety and security of staff, individuals in custody, and all persons who enter our facilities” and takes its responsibility to uphold requirements related to facility safety seriously.
Craig Haney, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and an expert on mental health in prisons, said the frequency of fires at the Joliet Treatment Center is a sign of abject hopelessness.
“These are the kinds of desperate acts that somebody takes when they feel they have no alternative,” Haney said.
This story gets worse with every paragraph. Go read the whole thing.
- Irreverent - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 9:35 am:
Americans have decided that we want our so-called “Corrections” system to be torture cages. We’ll look at something like this and so “oh this is so horrible someone should do something.” But then as soon as there’s a Really Bad Guy™, we’re falling on ourselves with glee for our prison system being full of the worst kinds of assaults. We can’t have it both ways. All evidence suggests this is simply, actually, who we are as a society.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 9:36 am:
So, conditions at the Joliet Treatment Center have gotten worse under the Pritzker Administration? In this case the Governor really does own.
- The Farm Grad - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 10:33 am:
We need more inpatient psychiatric facilities. Since the 1960s (in reaction to the horrific treatment of JFK’s sister), per-capita inpatient psychiatric beds has decreased by 95%!!!
- King Louis XVI - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 10:35 am:
JB has never been interested in administrating state government or managing its existing services. He has wanted only to introduce shiny new programs and then move on.
- River Heights PI - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 10:40 am:
What a horrific story. I wonder what the warden’s reaction will be …
- Wrightwood dad - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 10:46 am:
Do better.
- Excitable Boy - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 12:23 pm:
- guards refused to open the gate for the ambulance to leave until prison employees filled out paperwork and guards were ready to follow in a van. -
If I were JB I’d be having a stern talk with IDOC leadership about this policy. The guy wasn’t going for a check up, morons.
- Southern Dude - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 1:19 pm:
- guards refused to open the gate for the ambulance to leave until prison employees filled out paperwork and guards were ready to follow in a van.
The paperwork is not an excuse, but it is a requirement for an officer to be in the ambulance with the inmate. It is also a requirement for an officer to follow the ambulance in a state car or van. The sallyport will not open without those things happening.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 1:36 pm:
===The paperwork is not an excuse, but it is a requirement===
Then they should be far more adept at getting it done fast.
I mean, come on. Hiding behind bureaucracy ain’t a good look.
- Earnest - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 2:00 pm:
I never thought there would be the occasion to comment that they might be better off at Choate.
- Leslie K - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 2:32 pm:
==it is a requirement for an officer to be in the ambulance with the inmate. It is also a requirement for an officer to follow the ambulance in a state car or van.==
Absolutely true. The person is in custody. I doubt EMS would even transport without such an arrangement. Which means there is a specific obligation to ensure the facility is prepared to get these officers in place quickly.
I know staffing is an issue, probably part of the overall issue here, but there in no excuse for delaying medical transport. Paperwork can follow later. A person in medical crisis needs immediate care, and government has a particular obligation when they are the custodian of that person. Let alone when government likely precipitated that crisis.
- Peoples Republic of Oak Park - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 4:56 pm:
The story gets worse with every paragraph really undersells how bad this story gets. Wow just wow.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 5:30 pm:
“Americans have decided that we want our so-called “Corrections” system to be torture cages”
All Americans? No.
But a LOT more that want to admit.
And a whole LOT of the MAGA crowd does…. unless it’s a buddy of theirs that commit a crime then that’s different.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 5:33 pm:
===The paperwork is not an excuse, but it is a requirement===
Then they should be far more adept at getting it done fast.
I mean, come on. Hiding behind bureaucracy ain’t a good look.
==================================================
Rich for the win.
Restaurant quality there.
- Excitable Boy - Monday, Jul 27, 26 @ 7:51 pm:
- The sallyport will not open without those things happening. -
I would bet good money there is an exception for emergencies. Regardless, 28 minutes is an absolute joke, and according to the article the emergency responders felt the same way.
- Southern Dude - Tuesday, Jul 28, 26 @ 8:25 am:
–I mean, come on. Hiding behind bureaucracy ain’t a good look.
It is not bureaucracy, it is called security. It is a prison after all. I’m not defending the staff here. I wasn’t there. But that gate isn’t opening until those things happen. And you would lose good money because there are no exceptions.