A recently filed plaintiff's motion is seeking to trigger an immediate shutdown of Stateville Correctional Center in Chicago's southwest suburbs, advocating for inmates to be moved to other facilities within the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Bernard McKinley spent 23 years an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center outside Joliet. He saw the deteriorating stairways, huge vertical cracks in the walls and ceiling enforcements rusted by the rain that has permeated the 100-year-old concrete.
“Stateville has been unsafe since I've been there and I’ve been there since 2016,” McKinely said at a news conference announcing a new motion in an old case to close the crumbling facility.
The motion was filed by attorneys at the civil rights firm Loevy and Loevy, who want the inmates moved out of the facility immediately.
“Right now, there are 420 residents at Stateville who are at risk of dire injury due to the structural vulnerabilities of those buildings,” said Heather Lewis Donnell, one of the attorneys representing inmates and former inmates.
Donnell said independent engineers and IDOC’s own inspectors pointed out at least six problem areas at the prison that need immediate attention, including deteriorating masonry on the north and south facades, distressed floors and ceilings in the showers and the lack of an adequate fire suppression system in the kitchen.
Jimmy Soto, who was exonerated earlier this year, said the walls and ceiling leak every time it rains. The water regularly shorted out the single electrical outlet in his cell, making it impossible to use a lamp or a fan.
Erick Blackman, who also served time at Stateville, said the leaking water in his cell made him sick.
“After months of these conditions, we would often see black mold start to form on the ceiling,” he said.
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Plans are underway to replace Stateville, something Governor J.B. Pritzker has said is long overdue.
“This should have been done many years ago. Its been put off because of a lack of resources, but we shouldn’t have waited even this long,” Pritzker said in April.
The motion filed Wednesday alleges that conditions warrant an immediate closure of Stateville.
Donnell said there is room for Stateville's inmates at the Sheridan Correctional Center, located approximately 70 miles south of Chicago in LaSalle County. That facility also has educational programming that Donnell argues is needed.
A spokesperson for IDOC told NBC Chicago in a statement that the department is unable to comment on pending litigation.
