Overcrowding in the Illinois prison system has officials putting inmates in some rather unusual places. Last week we heard from inmates recently released from Vienna prison who lived in an administration building that has only 7 toilets but is housing 600 inmates. Illinois Public Radio’s WBEZ in Chicago has been investigating prison conditions for several months.
So far Governor Pat Quinn and his administration have prevented any media visits to state prisons including the Vandalia Correctional Center in southern Illinois. The minimum security prison was built in 1921. According to the Department of Corrections it houses 1,720 inmates – right at its listed capacity. However, some inmates there are housed in basements that regularly flood and are likely filled with mold. As Robert Wildeboer reports several former inmates say when they complained about the living situation they were threatened by prison employees.
Because of his drug and alcohol addictions, Louis has spent much of his adult life in and out of prisons. He did his most recent stint at Vandalia. He ended up there because he had been working construction for a friend and the friend refused to pay him for work he’d done. There’s no need to go into all the details, but being ripped off was the final indignity in a long string so Wilkins decided to take action. He broke into his friend’s truck, stole some equipment, and as you’ve already figured out, he was caught. Wilkins pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. At Vandalia Wilkins was assigned to live with 100 other men in a basement room. When he first got there other inmates warned him that after it rains the basement floods. He figured that meant a few wet spots here and there. Not so. He says there was an inch of water across the entire room, and they'd use shop vacs to
clean it up but the water kept coming. Wilkins says, in the bathroom, when you flushed the toilet, sewage would seep through cracks in the floor. Several former Vandalia inmates said it was so hot and humid in those packed basements that condensation would collect on the ceiling and drip down on them. Recently released inmates, including Wilkins, said there was also a lot of mold and the prison's fix was to simply paint over it.
But Wilkins says you don't have to believe just him. He picks up a print out of a report on Vandalia done by the John Howard Association, a non-partisan group that monitors prisons. The 19-page report details John Howard Association’s observations and then provides explanations given by prison administrators. For example, John Howard saw a flooded basement. The Vandalia administration said it was an anomaly. John Howard noted bare wires hanging from the ceiling where there used to be a light fixture. The administration responded that the incident hadn't been reported.
John Howard volunteers breathed air in dorms that was dank and smelled strongly of mildew and mold. The administration had a staff member assess the air and their report found that Vandalia is better quote, "than most facilities at inhibiting mold growth."
We [WBEZ] wanted to go see Vandalia for ourselves and report back to you on conditions that seem to warrant a closer look. We’ve been seeking access for several months but Governor Pat Quinn is keeping us out. According to Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson reporters can’t visit the minimum security prison because of safety and security concerns. So, what exactly are the safety and security concerns? That’s one of the questions we have for Quinn but Anderson has refused to go on tape to answer our questions. And now, we’ve talked to several former inmates like Louis Wilkins who say, when they tried to voice concerns, they were threatened with retaliation by prison employees. Wilkins says when he asked for grievances, the forms inmates use to write out complaints, the correctional officers said he needn't bother because they'd just throw out the grievances anyway. And he says they also threatened to put him in segregation, which would have meant he couldn't attend GED classes. In a written statement, the Department of Corrections says the allegations of threats are disturbing, but it has found no merit to the claims, though the department says it’s a serious matter and will be reviewing the issue further. As for Wilkins he says he stopped complaining so he could get his GED but he’s simmering with anger for how he was treated.
Alan Mills is an attorney with the Upton People’s Law Center in Cihcago, which is suing the Department of Corrections over conditions at the Vienna Correctional Center. He says If you're going to choose to lock up almost 50 thousand prisoners, then you have to pay the bill for doing it in a humane decent way. That's what the constitution says. Mills says the constitution doesn't say you have constitutional rights if you can afford them. The constitution says you have to do this so Illinois either has to let some people out of prison or improve the conditions. Mills says they've got a lawsuit against Vandalia that they're ready to move on but there's a problem. In order to file a lawsuit, inmates have to complete the grievance process at the prison; a lawsuit can’t be filed as long as a complaint is still pending.
Mills says he believes prison administrators are purposely sitting on those grievances to make a lawsuit impossible.
In a written statement the department of corrections insists they strive to promptly respond to all grievances and appropriately address concerns raised in complaints. As for the lawsuit Mills hopes to file, it’s focused solely on conditions. Mills says it’s purely a forward looking lawsuit. He says they are not trying to figure out what living in these conditions is worth to somebody and therefore trying to get damages for all these individual prisoners. Mills says all they’re trying to do is change the conditions so that Illinois does not run such a horrible prison system in the future.
Illinois spends more than a billion dollars a year on prisons, about 20 thousand dollars per year per inmate. Mills says the conditions inside matter because the prisoners in Vandalia will eventually be released and, like Louis Wilkins, a lot of them are getting angry. Wilkins says he sometimes wakes up crying and can't get back to sleep as his mind races over his experiences at Vandalia and the politicians and administrators he holds responsible. Wilkins says eventually they will have to answer to God. Wilkins says he often thinks of the people still imprisoned at Vandalia. He says they may have committed crimes but they should not be forced to live like that.
