PARDON DOCKET NO. ___Before the ILLINOIS PRISONER
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PARDON DOCKET NO. ____________ Before the ILLINOIS PRISONER REVIEW BOARD July Term 2019 ADVISING THE HONORABLE J.B. PRITZKER, GOVERNOR ________________________________________ In the Matter of DEON “STRAWBERRY” HAMPTON (Cook County No. 14 CR 3872) PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY Public hearing requested Sheila A. Bedi Vanessa del Valle Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center Northwestern Pritzker School of Law 375 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 503-1271 Alan Mills Elizabeth Mazur Uptown People’s Law Center 4413 N. Sheridan Chicago, IL 60640 (773) 769-1411 Counsel for Petitioner 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 3 II. REASONS FOR GRANTING CLEMENCY...................................................................... 5 III. PERSONAL NARRATIVE ................................................................................................ 13 IV. STATEMENT OF THE OFFENSE ................................................................................... 14 V. CRIMINAL HISTORY ....................................................................................................... 16 VI. REQUIRED INFORMATION ........................................................................................... 17 VII. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 18 2 I. INTRODUCTION Deon “Strawberry” Hampton, a 28-year-old transgender woman, spent most of the last two-and-a-half years improperly housed in men’s prisons where she was subjected to violent sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse. She suffered abuse at the hands of the Illinois Department of Corrections (“IDOC”) staff and other prisoners in four different men’s prisons. She repeatedly reported the abuse to IDOC officials and they not only ignored her, but also punished her with false, retaliatory disciplinary tickets that resulted in a prolonged sentence of segregation and an extension of her original release date. Further, IDOC discriminated against Ms. Hampton by prohibiting her to earn good time in the same manner as cis people in custody because she is a trans woman. She filed multiple lawsuits against IDOC seeking emergency relief, and one of those lawsuits resulted in a landmark decision where the court acknowledged the abuse she has endured and affirmed her rights as a transgender woman. However, although Ms. Hampton has already served her time on the crime for which she was convicted, she has to serve an additional nine months because she is a trans woman, and because she survived unspeakable abuse and was retaliated against for standing up for her rights. Over the course of ten months at Pinckneyville Correctional Center (“Pinckneyville”), IDOC staff sexually and physically assaulted Ms. Hampton, forced her and her cellmate to have sex with each other for the officers’ entertainment, and verbally harassed her daily. When she reported this abuse, the officers retaliated by beating her and threatening to “bury her in segregation.” The officers followed through on this threat by filing false disciplinary charges against her that resulted in a prolonged sentence of segregation. She was also transferred to 3 Menard Correctional Center (“Menard”), a high security men’s prison, as a result of these false charges.1 For nearly five months while she was housed at Menard, officers constantly verbally harassed Ms. Hampton and sexually and physically abused her—and had other detainees beat her—both because of her gender identity and in retaliation for complaints she filed against officers at Pinckneyville. While at Menard, Ms. Hampton filed a lawsuit seeking emergency relief against IDOC staff for the abuse she was experiencing.2 Rather than defend the lawsuit, IDOC officials agreed to transfer Ms. Hampton from Menard to Lawrence Correctional Center (“Lawrence”), a medium security men’s prison, in January 2018. Ms. Hampton agreed to this settlement because she feared for her life at Menard. However, the abuse did not stop at Lawrence—staff and other prisoners there continued to physically and sexually assault, threaten, and verbally sexually harass Ms. Hampton. After filing another lawsuit against IDOC officials seeking emergency relief,3 Ms. Hampton was transferred to Dixon Correctional Center (“Dixon”). Yet at Dixon, the verbal harassment continued and officers failed to protect her from sexual assaults by at least two different prisoners. Officers also continued to give her retaliatory disciplinary tickets. After months of legal battles and continuing abuse, on December 21, 2018, Ms. Hampton was finally transferred to Logan Correctional Center (“Logan”), a women’s prison, where she is 1 Ms. Hampton has a civil rights case currently pending against IDOC Director John Baldwin and a number of correctional officers for the abuse she suffered at Pinckneyville: Hampton v. Mayer, et. al., No. 17-cv-860 (S.D. Ill.). The complaint is attached as Exhibit 1. 2 This lawsuit is Hampton v. Lashbrook, No. 17-cv-936 (S.D. Ill.). The complaint is attached as Exhibit 2. 3 This lawsuit, Hampton v. Baldwin, No. 18-cv-550 (S.D. Ill.), is currently pending. The complaint is attached as Exhibit 3. 4 housed today.4 Housing Ms. Hampton in accordance with her gender identity is the bare minimum IDOC can do, yet the transfer alone is insufficient to help her recover from the trauma she has endured. Staff at Logan struggle to adequately give her access to necessary mental health care. Logan may be more appropriate than the men’s prisons, and the only suitable prison to house Ms. Hampton, but it is still currently ill equipped to manage the needs of a transgender woman—especially someone who lives with recent trauma and a long history of abuse—due to inadequate training. Ms. Hampton should have been released by now, and is still in custody because of discriminatory policies and retaliatory discipline that robbed her of good time. Ms. Hampton has suffered immensely and should not have to suffer any longer. For these reasons, she requests commutation of her sentence. II. REASONS FOR GRANTING CLEMENCY A. MS. HAMPTON WOULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED IN FEBRUARY 2019 HAD IDOC NOT IMPOSED RETALIATORY DISCIPLINE AND ROBBED HER OF HER GOOD TIME. Ms. Hampton first entered IDOC custody on her current sentence in April 2015 and was transferred to Pinckneyville in October 2016, where she was continuously abused and discriminated against by correctional officers and other staff because of her gender identity. On December 9, 2016, Ms. Hampton was given two false disciplinary tickets for allegedly disobeying a direct order and threatening an officer. As a result of these tickets, for the first time 4 Ms. Hampton’s motion for a preliminary injunction as well as the Court’s order on the motion are attached as Exhibit 4 and Exhibit 5, respectively. 5 in her prison sentence, Ms. Hampton had one month and 45 days of good conduct credits revoked. See Ex. 6, 12/9/16 Disciplinary Tickets. Also around December 2016, Ms. Hampton became cellmates with another prisoner who identified as a transgender woman. Shortly thereafter, several officers came to their cell said that they “wanted to see a girl show.” They then forced Ms. Hampton and her cellmate to have sex with each other while the officers watch. The officers threatened Ms. Hampton and her cellmate with future beatings, harassment, and more time in segregation if they did not obey their orders and perform sexually. For the next several months, officers would continue to come to Ms. Hampton’s cell and force her and her cellmate to engage in sexual acts for their entertainment. In particular, on the evening of March 4, 2017, several correctional officers entered Ms. Hampton’s cell and forced her and her cellmate to strip down to their underwear. The officers then took Ms. Hampton and her cellmate to an office and forced them to dance sexually and forced Ms. Hampton to reveal her body while the officers groped her. The officers forced Ms. Hampton and her cellmate to engage in sex acts while they watched. One of the officers then called up another officer, handed the phone to Ms. Hampton, and forced her to say sexual comments to him. Afterwards, the officers threatened Ms. Hampton and her cellmate that if they told anyone what happened, the officers would retaliate with physical violence. Following the March 4, 2017 incident, Ms. Hampton and her cellmate were pulled from their cell approximately four more times over the next three months and forced to perform sexual acts for the correctional officers. Then, on the evening of May 24, 2017, several correctional officers came by Ms. Hampton’s cell where they made sexually explicit comments and harassed her. Tired of the continuous abuse and harassment, Ms. Hampton and her cellmate threatened to file a complaint through the prison’s Prison Rape Elimination Act (“PREA”) process if the 6 harassment continued. In response, the officer threated retaliation again, stating that if they made a PREA report, Ms. Hampton and her cellmate would be “locked up.” Later that evening, several officers returned to Ms. Hampton’s cell, where they cuffed her and moved her to the shower. The officers proceeded to beat Ms. Hampton. Ms. Hampton cried out for help and begged the officers to stop beating her. The officers responded with slurs and ignored her cries for help. The officers also denied her medical care and ignored her requests to