UPDATED 4/14/25
THIS WILL BE AN ONGOING BLOG AND COURSE OF ACTION AS SEVERAL OF THESE INDIVIDUALS ARE LOVED ONES and COMMUNITY.
While our community members are being brought to setting themselves on fire in response to being tortured and abused in Illinois Department of Corrections, it’s important to note that this is still not the most horrifying thing they face while inside. So as alarming as it may seem, the conditions they face everyday are increasingly and consistently just as dangerous, but have become common and overlooked since the prison systems creation as an extension of slavery.
These are not episodes or rare events. People locked inside prisons have to rely on grievance systems and court battles that take years just to accomplish the simplest things. They have no help and are literally buried in violence that lets them breathe when it wants them to. Self harm in prison happens in many ways, but are all forms of protest. When the human body becomes capital, it seeks to free itself. People have even gone on hunger strike to fight for a better diet. The prison system leaves people with no choice, and the only way to fight without getting life in prison is through these types of protest.
Many of this happens in “restrictive housing”, also known as segregation, the shu, solitary confinement, or whatever term they use to justify their torturous practices . Being in solitary not only exacerbates mental and physical health, but it hides people, removing their lifelines of communication. Putting people locked in positions of being abused,
tortured, and neglected by staff who are not qualified to handle the people and situations in which the prison system harms and creates.
While current efforts to end solitary in Illinois are on the way, they fail to address all forms of isolation and punishment meant to dehumanize and isolate individuals in U.S. controlled prisons everywhere. Forgetting trans people are often kept in protective custody under the exact same rules as solitary. Commissary access is limited or gone, all possessions, programming, and yard time are taken away, while communication to the outside world can be completely removed from an individual.
While on restrictive housing C-Grade you have your phone and tablet access taken away, removing conversations and important information exchanges that lead to people insides safety, leaving them incapable of calling for help when its needed most. Often times people inside need an outside advocate to work with them on their own safety. So without these calls and emails, they are left to fight and protest in any way they think will get the attention of staff who consistently overlook abuses and human rights violations. This is why we see fires happening across all U.S. operated prisons everywhere. While on C-Grade when your phone and tablet access is taken away, you can also be put on crisis watch, which then takes away your access to write letters. COMPLETELY isolating people inside, making them incapable of communicating with anyone. When people inside ask for help from staff during a mental health crisis, they are often times met with being pepper sprayed and being beat. Further traumatizing people involved and those witnessing whats happening locked away with nowhere to turn away from seeing their community harmed. This is the same for people in the infirmary, protective custody, death row, and any secluded area the prisons can isolate people in. Your C-Grade can be changed with “good behavior” and it can often times last longer than your prison sentence. While asking a prison counselor why a loved ones outdate from solitary was further away than their out date from prison, they responded, because “if they get released, and later sent back to prison, then they will head straight back to solitary”.
Solitary confinement shouldnt just be looked at as an act of torture but as a civil rights issue and an act of genocide.
Mutulu_Shakur .genocide.waged.against.black.nation12 1988-booklet
Statistics read 1 in 100 black men will be tortured with at
least 1 year of solitary confinement before the age of 32. Upon release, people with multiple placements in solitary confinement are 129% more likely to commit suicide, 70% more likely to die of homicide, 24% more likely to die of opioid overdose, and 38% more likely to die of premature death than normal people.
Most people in solitary confinement have been repeatedly assaulted by the guards, so knowing these statistics, what do you think will happen when they are free and under threat of being arrested? When a young man who has spent the end of his teenage
years and most of his 20s held in solitary confinement, repeatedly beaten and pepper sprayed. What will be the end result of him being racially profiled on the streets by the police? Imagine how many people inside would be shot if prison guards carried guns. Imagine how many protests there would be if you could see all the knees crushing down on necks behind prison walls. Dont forget abolition means prison abolition, it’s not for activists, and it’s roots stem from fearless inside organizing out of prison cells. It’s for those who understand the prison system is a method of war and those willing to resist against it. It’s for all who have lost loved ones in its violence, knowing the only way to free their ghosts, is to tear down those walls. For all who are inside now. For all of those who are physically sick from their loved ones being taken, and wake up everyday with a part of them missing. And especially for those who have had years of their lives taken away, with no way of getting them back. It’s for all of those overcoming Black and Indigenous genocide, it’s about black liberation, and this fight is sacred.
While we will mostly focus on self immolation, we will also include info on on other acts of harm and protest. None of this is new to prisons, and wont end with policy change and lawsuits. There is not enough lawyers in Illinois to handle all the lawsuits filed to sue IDOC, and even if there were, IDOCs 2 Billion dollar per year budget couldnt handle the payouts for medical neglect, inhumane treatment, torture, and psychological warfare its prisons inflict on its victims. The fires have been started from the inside, and have been attempted to be put out with pepper spray and blood. They will keep burning until the last prison crumbles into the earth, but this wont happen with out real sacrifice on the outside.
FIRES AND OTHER HARM
Fires in prisons are more common than we think, check out stories released by people locked inside Red Onion. Here are a few things that happen nearly every time a fire happens in IDOC. People in surrounding cells are removed from the deck or tier first, leaving the person in the cell on fire to inhale most of the smoke from the fire they are trapped with. While emptying the cells, if you do not respond to their commands to put your hands out the chuckhole and get cuffed up, they will spray pepper spray into your cell at you through the chuckhole, until you comply. Everyone evacuated is typically handcuffed legs and hands to a table until the situation is over. Almost every time, a person who is on fire in their cell is pepper sprayed multiple times until they comply. People who start fires are doing so because they have ran out of ways to get anyones attention. Grievance procedures dont work, they have been abused for years, everything is taken away from them, and they see no more options. Often times it’s a leg that is set on fire, and those set on fire will sit there burning with no help, sometimes even after the fire has died, leaving
their body charred and still smoking.
2/22/24 Jesse set his leg on fire, everyone was removed from their cell, placed in mechanical restraints and cuffed to the dayroom tables. James who was in a nearby cell, was pepper sprayed because he wanted to take his belongings with him when he was forced out of his cell. While Jesse was still waiting for medical help, he was put in 4 point restraints while his leg sat burnt.
2/28/24 At the same time 3 people set their legs on fire. Letreyvion had a dorritos bag, kerlix, and gauze burning on his lower left leg, Alexander had Kerlix and gauze wrapped around lower left leg. And its unkown what William used. Afterwards, they were “secured” to a day room table in waist chains and ankle restraints. Refused assessment for vitals, and were taken to the hospital.
3/9/24 After setting himself on fire Isaiha was found unresponsive by the ERT, he was laying on his side with drool coming out his mouth. And was taken to the hospital an hour later. On 3/21/24, again Isaiha set his leg and mattress on fire.
3/16/24 Tenton was in an “Altered Mental State due to smoke inhilation”, sent to ER. Trenton refused to be strip searched before going to restrictive housing. He had his tshirt wrapped around his mouth and was sprayed with pepper spray 4 times during cell extraction. He started trying to fight, kicking and punching, but was restrained from behind, leg restraints were applied. And was (non compliant) unwillfully strip searched.
On 4/22/24 Trenton faced another fire, was found covered in soot, after lighting books and papers on fire. He was put in a chair with restraints, then put on 10 minute crisis watch, he afterwards continued to self harm and was put in 4 point restraints.
4/11/24 Kenyon set his leg on fire, wrapped several times in his bed sheet, burning his flesh while his cellmate was stuck forced to watch.
5/15/24 A trans woman in a mens facility was found fire burning above right knee, with melted melted plastic on her matress. They were strip searched. At the same time and location in the prison. Trenton was in his cell with a “ligature around his neck”, scratches on
forearm, and was put on “continuos watch”.
7/27/24 Jason was found in “heavy smoke in A-wing”, “cell A-11 engulfed in flames”. Fire estinguisher was sprayed through the food port, CO Hines ordered Jason to come to the food port to be cuffed, with no response. Hines sprayed pepper spray through the food port and ordered Jason to cuff up again with no response. Hines could not see into the cell because of the smoke, and he left the wing because he could not breath in there,
leaving Jason in his cell. “After some time” Hines went to get Bobby out of his cell, Bobby and Jason were the only 2 people on the wing. Upon cell extraction Bobby got agitated and refused to cuff up, Hines shot him with pepper spray. Bobby then put his hands out the port to be cuffed, and was escorted out in his wheelchair. Hines told the shift commander Evry, that he could not get Jason out of his cell because he could not breath
in there, “it was too much for staff to be inhaling”. the fire department came, and were delayed from getting in by other guards who got in a verbel and near physical confrontation with the fire men. CO Abayomi Obadein was fighting with them. The firemen helped extract Jason on a gurney and took him to the hospital. THE FIRE DEPARTMENTWASOUTSIDEAT11pm, andTHE INITIAL INCIDENT HAPPENED AT 10pm. With the altercation between guards and firemen happening around 10:30. Earlier that day Latayuss started a fire in his food port, which was quickly put out.
see article https://forthediscourse.noblogs.org/post/2025/04/14/23/
8/23 Brandale. Brandale was told to cuff up, refused, was sitting on the bed with his chest and face area hidden from view, and his hands under a blanket. He was pepper sprayed by Hernandes. Brandale was told to show his hands, he listened and was cuffed, water was thrown on his leg to put out the smoldering burn. and he was taken out of the cell in a restraint chair by the ERT. At 2pm Nurses assessed Brandale had swollowed a
metal object attached to a string, it was not recovered out of him, so he was sent to St. Joseph Hospital. Recently this month 3/7/25 about 3:30. Brandale who has been in long term solitary since he was a teenager, requested a mental health team, he was denied help during a
mental health crisis. Around 6pm, he then swallowed a toothbrush, metal objects, and shoved a pen into his body. They refused to take him out of his cell after self harming even when he threatened to set a fire. Hours later at 8:30pm he set a fire, everyone was evacuated from the cell, about 15 minutes later Brandale was taken out after breathing in heavy smoke, and while he was in handcuffs and shackles, he was punched on camera.
And then he was pepper sprayed. He was seen by a nurse around 9pm, and at midnight was taken to the. hospital. In a recent past incident Brandale needed help, but received none. He had swallowed
objects and pushed them inside his body, was pepper sprayed and then put in 4 point restraints naked, covered in a blanket on a Thursday evening. He was left on the table and his family was notified on that Friday evening. They made calls to the prison and waited for a response. On Saturday morning Brandale was taken tot he hospital. But without the
calls on Friday night, he would have stayed strapped in 4 point restraints until Monday. Brandale currently lost access to communications, while his belongings were destroyed by guards and his legal box and info has come up missing. Its unkown what exactly has happened to Brandale as of 3/28/25. UPDATED 4/14/2025 Brandale is currently on C-grade loosing access to phone calls, an important lifeline for his weekly advocacy, and a tool used to stabilize his mental health. On 4 /7/25 on 2nd shift he was on 15 min watch when he told lieutenant Breath(unknown spelling) that he needs a crisis team, which she did request. Mental Health responded he cannot get on crisis watch, “cuz we already get assess one time a day which dey encourage us to call for em when we need help or havin a crisis which dey denied me my crisis, which I set my left leg on fire in watch which the assign watch officer Lightfoot wasn’t doing his 10 min check, which i was able to burn my leg”. Brandale was sent out to the hospital the next day on the 8th to St. Joseph hospital. when he arrived back at Joliet Treatment Center “dey got down on me medically wise, when I came back, mental health put me right in 4 point restraints with a fresh burn on my leg, which I was in pain and is still in pain. Which dey medical playin widd my pain med Tremadol needs renewal and Gabapentin needs increase for my nerve damage and chronic pain im having in my leg and also my left injured hand. Also mental health be misusing four point restraints as a punishment because mental health Dr Crusera(spell check) be enforcing my four point restraint without being accessed becuz dey have to justify us being in restraint, so i start having back pain as well due to me being in restraint and staff not doing our 2 hour releases like dey suppose to(people held in four point restraints strapped to tables are supposed to have each limb undone, and moved around every 2 hours), which we suffer more being strapp down, i pain but i just got off watch yesterday.”
On 3/7/24 E stabbed himself in the heart and was sent back to the Pontiac
infirmary 4 days later. He was thrown in a dirty cell laying on the floor, he couldnt walk talk or move. The nurses would come by and tell him to get up, he couldnt move or talk, knowing the nurses wanted him to suffer, all he could do was lay there and cry. He laid in his own urine and feces for weeks eventually getting an infection in his chest. In January 24 he had cut up his arm real bad and stuck cables into it and inside his testicles, loosing a testicle. On 8/24/24 he was sent to Barnes Jewish in St. Louis, he had swallowed a fork, and it wasnt removed. He was sent Menard prison and eventually was sent back to Pontiac where he told them he still had a fork in his stomach. He had to self harm again to go back to the hospital and get the fork removed. In 12/24 E jammed glass in his
eyes, and cut open his chest and passed out. Instead of seeing medical he was put into 4 point restraints. Recently E was doing better, but as of 3/24/25 E is currently in the hospital for cutting open his chest again.
UPDATE 4/14/25 E came back and is now back at the hospital for self harming.
Currently as of 3/29/25 JTC is taking away access to pens and paper for people in solitary.