1 week Ago By Lauren Frost
Family members of a man incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center who died during a heat wave there are suing the state’s prison system in federal court. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed Thursday on behalf of the estate of Michael Broadway, who lost consciousness in his top-level cell in June as temperatures inside the dilapidated prison reached dangerous levels, according to the civil complaint. Broadway’s family is suing the Illinois Department of Corrections for allegedly subjecting him to inhumane living conditions and inadequate medical care.
On Thursday, Broadway’s family members and attorneys gathered outside Stateville prison to announce the suit. They allege what happened to Broadway this summer was due to the “cruelty and callous indifference” of those charged with his care. “They let my man suffocate in this place,” said Terrell Vaughn, Broadway’s lifelong friend, at a press conference outside Stateville on Thursday.
“He died, and it didn’t have to happen this way.” A Will County autopsy report lists the cause of death for the 51-year-old as bronchial asthma, with “heat stress” being a significant contributing condition. Broadway’s death came months after Illinois Gov.
JB Pritzker announced plans to close Stateville, due largely to its crumbling infrastructure and notoriously poor living conditions for people incarcerated there. Just north of Joliet, Stateville Correctional Center sits quiet and mostly empty, surrounded by grass and trees. Nearly everyone incarcerated inside the 99-year-old prison was abruptly moved out following a federal judge’s order in August.
A state-commissioned report had previously found the facility nearly inoperable; people incarcerated there for years have reported leaky ceilings, crumbling walls, harsh temperatures, mold, mice and cockroaches. After the judge’s ruling, most of Stateville’s population was transferred to other prisons around the state, escaping deteriorating conditions in the aging buildings. But for Broadway – an author, a Northwestern University student and a father – that came too late.
Broadway died on June 19th as Illinois was in the midst of a notably long heat wave, with outside temperatures repeatedly reaching highs in the 90s. According to the new federal lawsuit, Broadway’s cell was on the top gallery of his housing unit. The lawsuit says in the midst of the heat, windows in his unit were nailed shut, and a fan near his cell was off and padlocked.
Broadway had asthma, and on the afternoon of the 19th, the lawsuit says he called out to friends in neighboring cells that he was struggling to breathe. But instead of calling a “Code 3” for a medical emergency or 911, the lawsuit alleges corrections officers on duty delayed care. It also alleges a nurse who finally responded initially refused to climb up to Broadway’s cell because it was “too hot upstairs,” before eventually walking up and administering naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses.
“When he needed help from the people who were entrusted to help him, whose job it was to help him, he was failed at every turn,” attorney Terah Tollner said Thursday. James Lenoir, who was incarcerated with Michael Broadway, wears a “JUSTICE 4 B-WAY” sweatshirt. “He loved people.
He loved life,” said Lenoir. Lauren Frost The lawsuit claims an unresponsive Broadway was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital almost an hour after he first asked for help.
There he was pronounced dead. Tollner says the suit, filed Thursday in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, aims to hold the Illinois Department of Corrections and other defendants accountable for Broadway’s death. “This can no longer be how IDOC does business,” said Tollner. “We reject the notion that the lives of incarcerated people don’t matter, that Michael’s life didn’t matter.
” The Illinois Department of Corrections did not respond to WBEZ’s request for comment. Other defendants named in the lawsuit include the controversial prison health care provider Wexford Health Sources, which has a documented history of allowing preventable deaths in Illinois prisons. Also named in the suit are the warden and chief engineer of Stateville, and individual staff responsible for Broadway’s care.
Wexford did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In addition to their calls for justice Thursday, Broadway’s family and friends shared memories of his life, describing him as “outgoing,” “fun-loving,” and passionate about education. Broadway was a student in the first cohort of Northwestern University’s prison education program at Stateville.
“We never let that place impact us [to] where we couldn’t create and allow our voice to be heard outside the walls,” said James Lenoir, who was incarcerated with Broadway. “And now, they took his voice.” “We still have loved ones and family [who are] incarcerated,” said Broadway’s wife, Chunece Jones-Broadway, “and we don’t want to see.
.. what our family is going through happen to anyone else.
” Lauren Frost is the audio and engagement producer for WBEZ’s Prisoncast! project. She covers Illinois’ carceral system with and for the people affected by it..
