Just 99 miles southwest of Chicago sits Pontiac Correctional Center, one of three maximum security facilities in the state. It houses more than 400 people who’ve been convicted of murder, another 279 convicted of Class X felonies ranging from sexual assault to armed robbery and hundreds of others serving time for less serious offenses.
Illinois Department of Corrections records from the Jermaine Young incident show a lieutenant did use his knee to strike Young in the chest while he was restrained. Rob Jeffreys, who just stepped down after nearly four years as director of the department of corrections, acknowledges the state has been hit with two lawsuits leading to a consent decree over its physical and mental health care programs.
The facility averaged 10 suicide attempts per year between 2020 and 2022 — and already 13 from summer 2022 to February 2023. IDOC says that’s why it closed its Medium Security Unit last year and moved those inmates into maximum security.“What property do they get? What do they not get? What's their yard schedule? Do they get day room? We don't have a room in the max. Gym schedule — all these little things that they had so easily on the MSU, they're not getting,” Lee explained.
Incidents captured on video tell part of the story. Letters from the men incarcerated inside tell more. The conditions that come with its age are just part of the reason inmates and advocates call it inhumane. Another reason is the climate inside.