New Vision? Or New Prison? Illinois Debates Youth Incarceration
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16 FOOD | Mother's Day 19 MUSIC | Red Wheelbarrows 20 MUSIC | Lick Creek FREE May 6-12, 2021 • Vol. 46, No. 42 juvenile justice New vision? Or new prison? Illinois debates youth incarceration 11 JUSTICE | Madison Angell May 6-12, 2021 | Illinois Times | 1 2 | www.illinoistimes.com | May 6-12, 2021 OPINION Hamilton and America’s legacy of gun violence To serve, protect and tase GUESTWORK | Sarah Eccles Another death in the Sangamon County jail UPON FURTHER REVIEW | I may be years behind on the craze over Bruce Rushton Hamilton: An American Musical. But, when I fi nally did see it, it certainly left One question burns after the latest death at the guns are harmless. “You use the Taser until the for a jury to decide save damages, prompting the an impression. Mostly, I found it jarring local jail: Why have so many people died under person complies with our order.” county to settle rather than risk a trial. in a way that continues to burn for me. the noses of people employed by the Sangamon In 2017, the county paid $9,000 to settle a Campbell has been remarkably cavalier about I do love musical theater and fi lms, County sheriff ’s offi ce? lawsuit from Richard Haley, an epileptic inmate Tasers, once telling reporters that he’d been tased so I also hold the same takeaways as do Say their names. who said that he’d been tased in 2011 while more than a dozen times by colleagues as part of a most fans of the play. Gorgeous and Bobby Ray. Amon Paul Carlock. Maurice suff ering a seizure and so could not comply. Jailers running bet: If deputies caught him not wearing playful and irreverent, asynchronous Burris. Pat Burns. Alonso Travis. Tiff any Rusher. explained that tasing epileptics was accepted his dress uniform, they could tase him. It was in the best possible ways, the songs are And now, Jaimeson Daniel Cody, who died last practice – inmates might be faking. In 2015, a matter of camaraderie, he explained in 2013, incredibly potent, the lyrics astound- week after being tased in the jail. before he became sheriff . ingly clever, the characters complex and Since 2007, there have been at least seven Campbell was mum after Cody was (almost) always humanized, and the tragedies, three involving Tasers. Th at might not pronounced dead following a struggle with jailers performances unbelievably masterful. seem like many, given 14 years, but Sangamon who used Tasers. “If you’re going to mention the Perhaps most striking is that, by break- County is not a big place. words ‘death’ and ‘inmate,’ those questions are all ing from historically literal character- Always, there is good, albeit tragic, reason, or going to Illinois State Police,” Campbell said last it was someone else’s fault, our sheriff s have said. week in refusing to say anything about the latest Th e fi rst wave, when three inmates died in less jail death, which state police are investigating. than three months in the fall of 2007, was blamed Critics ask why jail guards need Tasers, on doctors, and there is truth in that. Th e cost- which aren’t used by the Illinois Department cutting county had employed a cut-rate outfi t to of Corrections or the federal Bureau of Prisons. provide medical care, and we got what we paid Four years ago, Reuters reported that 104 people for. Also, it was guards. One who weighed an confi ned to prisons or jails had died after being estimated 275 pounds sat atop Carlock after he tased since 2000, with nearly 70 percent of the refused to put on a shirt. Another tased him. cases resulting in lawsuits and 98 percent of those “I don’t believe our employees have lawsuits resulting in payments to plaintiff s. done anything wrong,” Jack Campbell, then Th e coroner says he doesn’t expect to undersheriff , said about the Carlock case in 2013 determine Cody’s cause of death for weeks – he’s while on the campaign trail. Campbell wasn’t waiting for toxicology tests. It’s too soon to say Sheriff Jack Campbell has a history of defending Taser alone. “When we feel we have no liability, it’s use that's led to deaths and lawsuits. whether jailers did anything wrong. But it is fair better to fi ght the case to the bitter end,” county to ask whether Campbell is keeping up with the administrator Brian McFadden said a year earlier. times. In 2014, the county paid $2.6 million to Carlock’s Video of Cody’s fatal encounter with jail by-character race representations, the widow and a like amount to lawyers. the county paid $150,000 to Tamara Skube, staff should have been released when Campbell casting choices highlight a refresh- Pat Burns died in 2010, after being tased a bystander tased during a 2011 DUI stop by determined that no one would be put on leave. ingly critical statement about the true more than 20 times by myopic deputies who Deputy Travis Koester, who’d lied on the witness Outside the jail, the sheriff issues press releases diversity of our American story’s myriad kept pulling triggers after tens of thousands of stand a year earlier, forcing dismissal of a drug when his drug squad snags small fi sh, assuring contributors, both past and present, vis- volts hadn’t worked. High on cocaine, Burns had case. everyone that the drug war remains in full eff ect. ible and invisible. broken into a home and threatened a woman – “I believe that she resisted arrest and that the Our sheriff itches for an armored vehicle built However, viewed through a lens abacus math worked in favor of the county, which use of force was justifi ed,” Campbell, then chief for Afghanistan. We’ve never needed one before, of feminism and, in particular, ma- settled for $40,000. deputy of the sheriff ’s department, said. “We notwithstanding a 2014 incident in a Riverton ternal anti-violence politics, the story “We don’t feel you can fi re too much,” intend to have our day in court.” U.S. District mobile home court that involved someone waving is surprisingly bereft for an otherwise Campbell told the State Journal-Register two weeks Court Judge Sue Myerscough subsequently ruled a rifl e. Back then, the department deployed a remarkably humanistic work. Despite after Burns died, when the sheriff ’s offi ce publicly that the video spoke for itself: Skube had been a quasi-tank that’s since been relinquished, but I’m that each female character is justifi ed as tased a county board member to show that stun victim of police brutality and there was no issue guessing there were other ways to get a fool out of being either a fantasy object, plaything a trailer. of, or martyr to the self-important male Our sheriff sometimes seems stuck in the hero, somehow I have an even larger 1990s, when “Cops” was the rage: Bad boys, bad concern. Th e entirely legal shooting boys, whatcha gonna do? Backing badges before death of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton’s Editor’s note facts are clear isn’t cool anymore, and perhaps precious son, Philip, is a devastating Campbell, who’s exercised his right to remain reminder that America’s hypermascu- Ending this crisis all comes down to overcoming hesitancy. What is wrong with these people? They know line gun culture and policies are deeply the right thing to do, but instead stubbornly rely on excuses like not trusting the science, or needing time silent in Cody’s death, knows that. Let’s hope such thinking evolves. foundational. From the nation’s very to see if it really works, or needing a friend or a faith leader to nudge them along. Come on. If you can’t conception, these increasingly allow our do it for yourself, do it for your family that needs you to stay alive and healthy. The solution to the nation’s children to be murdered with casual, health is simple and accessible: Start eating and drinking right. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected]. continued on page 5 May 6-12, 2021 | Illinois Times | 3 OPINION New director for LaSalle Veterans’ Home has no room for failure POLITICS | Rich Miller Th e inspector general’s report on the deadly in the country. Like everyone in that sector, he’s veterans’ homes, and Prince says he intends COVID-19 outbreak at the Illinois Department not unblemished, but he’s never been accused of to put employees through regular training of Veterans’ Aff airs LaSalle Veterans’ Home is a incompetence that I could fi nd. drills to make sure they are up to dealing with maddening story of incompetence and chaos at Prince’s extensive management experience is emergencies. every level. something the IDVA has lacked for years. But But he also talked about trying to work Th e IG report tells the story of an allegedly he is also a student of management theory and more cooperatively with AFSCME, something AWOL agency director; an in-over-his-head mentioned several management training models he claimed to have had success with in Ohio. chief of staff ; a crucial failure to fi ll an important he admires. Prince said Illinois Department of Human upper management position; an unconscionably I asked Prince about an item in the IG report Services Secretary Grace Hou recommended delayed IDVA management response at all levels that the LaSalle home managers refrained from that he make himself “crazy available” to union to a clearly and rapidly deteriorating situation disciplining workers out of fear of retaliation.