Our community members incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) have been under an extreme and unending lockdown since March 2020. Months without movement, inconsistent and punitive protocols, and extremely limited access to communication with loved ones have had a detrimental impact on the physical and mental well-being of those in IDOC, while failing to adequately protect our loved ones from COVID-19.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, IDOC placed all facilities on an indefinite lockdown. Our incarcerated community members in IDOC have been confined to their cells, often two people in spaces smaller than a parking spot, and forced to stay there for nearly twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This is irrational and has shown to be ineffective. While IDOC refuses to restore basic human rights that could be achieved safely, it also fails to implement a range of other simple health protocols. IDOC has neither reviewed the health and safety implications of the extended lockdowns, nor has it presented any plans to draw down these oppressive measures.

As we detail below, this situation threatens the health and safety of both those incarcerated and staff. We urge you to plan a safe and rational process for ending the lockdown and restoring the rights of people incarcerated in IDOC.

 COVID-19 remains a threat in Illinois prisons, but the coronavirus is brought into the prisons by staff and spread by multiple unsanitary and careless practices in these facilities. 

Astoundingly, staff at many facilities continue to walk around without masks and do not wash their hands or use hand sanitizer regularly. The same carts are being used to transport food, laundry, and garbage without being cleaned.The prisons are not providing an adequate amount of soap or cleaning supplies. The prisons continue to move people around to new cells with new cellmates, destabilizing small groups that have already been proven safe, and people are put together in large groups in showers and bullpens. 

While facilities fail to follow basic health protocols, they are still using COVID as an excuse to maintain an extended lockdown and deny people experiencing incarceration their constitutional rights.

Health professionals affirm that adequate yard-time is essential to incarcerated people’s mental and physical health, and is able to be done in safe ways. In fact, we know that outside spaces are among the safest. Incarcerated people can safely be outdoors while social distancing and wearing masks. Moreover, groups that already share spaces in the prison and could easily be given more yard-time together in their same “pods” with no additional health risks. 

Access to legal materials is also a constitutional right. The courts have opened and people in IDOC need to respond to motions and defend themselves in legal proceedings. Yet they are being denied access to the very materials they need to respond competently. The prisons could easily move small groups to  access their legal materials and the Law Library to do essential research.

The physical and mental well-being of those in IDOC is of paramount importance. The extended lockdowns have created a pressure-cooker of stress and frustration. Conflict and violence are the inevitable consequences. According to psychologist Rosemary Serrano, prolonged lockdowns cause:

profound psychological damage characterized by hallucinations; panic attacks; overt paranoia; diminished impulse control; hypersensitivity to external stimuli; and difficulties with thinking, concentration, and memory. Some inmates lose the ability to maintain a state of alertness, while others develop crippling obsessions, and suicidal ideations.

We have already seen the impact of this isolation and stress throughout IDOC. In some facilities, frustrations over the confinement have led people to set fires in areas that lack any fire extinguishers or sprinklers. Community members report that normally stable men on their cell blocks, who are workers and students, have been driven to self-destructive behavior. People have expressed concern about their own mental health and fear that others are being driven to suicide or violence. 

We urge Governor Prtizker and Rob Jeffreys, Acting Director of Illinois Department of Corrections to articulate a timeline for easing the lockdown and to develop COVID protocols that consider the overall mental health and physical safety of people incarcerated in IDOC. We know the best way to address COVID-19 in prison populations is to release people. In addition to decarceration, IDOC’s response to COVID-19 must include the following: 

Immediate Demands:

1. Expand yard time to 2-3 times a week for at least two hours each time.
2. Grant physical access to legal materials and law libraries weekly.
3. Grant physical movement to commissary twice a month.
4. Follow state safety guidelines for COVID-19 in all of IDOC.
5. Stop moving people around when they are stable with their current cellmates.
6. Respect free-speech rights and do not censor or delay mail.
7. Increase access to mental health resources.
8. Increase access to phone calls, video visits, and in-person visits when health officials deem it safe.
9. Set a rational timeline, based on state safety guidelines, to end the lockdown in IDOC.