After years of pleading for help, employees at an Illinois mental health prison plagued by deadly fires said that the state made important safety changes following an investigation by The Marshall Project, WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times that detailed 70 fires and two deaths there. But the changes don’t go far enough to ensure workers can prevent and adequately respond to frequent fire emergencies, a union for prison employees said.
Earlier this year, the state Department of Corrections terminated four guards connected to a 2024 fire that led to the death of Jason Stephens, who was incarcerated at Joliet. The department and the guards’ union would not comment on the terminations, which came months after The Marshall Project and Stephens’ family each sued for video footage related to his death.
AFSCME Council 31, the union representing front-line workers at the Joliet Treatment Center, said that since the investigation of the prison was published in July, the facility has begun to provide more robust fire safety training, fire-retardant mattresses and full oxygen tanks for employees in case of fires. But they said the prison still has not provided workers with a written fire safety plan. And for the fourth year in a row, an annual inspection by the Office of the State Fire Marshal showed that the prison’s alarms remain broken.
“Everybody's risking their lives when we have these fires. So it is very important that they get a safety plan so we can all learn what to do,” said Sheena McClain, a corrections treatment officer at the Joliet Treatment Center and local union president.
The Illinois Department of Corrections did not respond to questions about why fire alarms remain broken after the news organizations’ investigation. A spokesperson for the governor's office said the department is working with the fire marshal to make changes “with great urgency.” The governor's office declined to offer details, citing pending litigation.
The Joliet Treatment Center was designed to help people with serious mental illness. But men there said they were so desperate for therapy, medical care and time out of their cells that they set their belongings — or themselves — on fire to get attention.
Following the investigation, Illinois lawmakers called for changes and scheduled two hearings for Nov. 10 related to mental healthcare, conditions at Joliet Treatment and prison oversight.
In the months leading up to his death in the summer of 2024, Stephens repeatedly complained the prison was failing to treat his sickle cell disease, causing him extreme pain. He threatened to continue harming himself until they gave him help. Then he set his cell on fire.
Guards left him locked in the smoke-filled cell for around 30 minutes, according to surveillance video reviewed by The Marshall Project. Then, when the fire department put him in an ambulance to go to the hospital, guards would not open the gate for almost 28 more minutes because they were waiting on paperwork and guards to accompany the ambulance.
Stephens died two weeks later.
The employees who were fired included an officer who arrived at Stephen's cell during the fire and another who was at the gate when the ambulance attempted to leave. None of the employees could be reached for comment.
Terah Tollner, a lawyer for Stephens’ estate, said that she doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that the facility didn’t fire any officers until after his family filed a lawsuit and obtained video of the incident. The family said it wants more comprehensive mental health treatment and fire safety plans at the Joliet Treatment Center, so that similar tragedies don’t happen again. Stephens’ estate has filed a separate lawsuit over his death; that remains ongoing.
Since the news organizations’ investigation, some men incarcerated at the facility said they had seen improvements to mental health care, including better access to a psychiatrist. But they also said that services like one-on-one therapy remain rare.
“You can lose yourself in jail,” one incarcerated man said. “This place is for treatment. But people come here, and they don't get better. They deteriorate."
Illinois State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, a Chicago Democrat, said she hopes the upcoming hearings will create urgency around the issue of mental health treatment in the state’s prisons.
“We expect the hearing to pull back the curtain on what the state says it provides vs. what it actually provides,” she said.