22 MUSIC | Deja Voodoo 12 BOOK | Kingdom of Nauvoo 15 FOOD | ‘Nduja FREE September 17-23, 2020 • Vol. 46, No. 10 Igniting change Buff Carmichael’s commitment to equity lit a fire 8 HUMAN RIGHTS | Rachel Otwell September 24-30, 2020 | Illinois Times | 1 2 | www.illinoistimes.com | September 24-30, 2020 OPINION For fairer elections, let Trade secrets us rank our Prison malpractice settlements surface choices UPON FURTHER REVIEW | Bruce Rushton GUESTWORK | Stephen M. Soltys, M.D. What keeps many voters from voting Adam Harrison knew he needed help. Correctional Center in 2014, Gerry broke a knee, in a 2013 fall at Dixon for third-party candidates? One of the Repeatedly, he asked to see Armbruster applied for Medicaid, then Correctional Center. He promptly told most common reasons I hear is that a psychiatrists at Pontiac Correctional went to a hospital, where he was rushed Wexford staff, but it was a month before a vote for a third-party candidate will be Center, but doctors didn’t make scheduled to emergency surgery to address a spinal doctor examined him and nearly two years “wasted” because only the Democratic appointments – the first was missed in cord compression that put him in agony before he underwent orthopedic surgery or Republican candidates have a September of 2015. Doctors skipped two during his final five months in prison. A to repair the damage. legitimate chance to win. rescheduled sessions in October. That’s Wexford doctor who missed the diagnosis Greg Coleman sued after he awoke to But there is a system of voting used what the plaintiff says. had x-rayed Armbruster’s knees, according pain in his right ear at Stateville in 2016. in many parts of the U.S. called rank Twice in the late summer and fall to his lawsuit. Six months after surgery, He reported it right away but wasn’t choice voting (also known as instant of that year, Harrison, who’d been Armbruster’s doctor said that symptoms immediately helped. Meanwhile, he says runoff and single transferable voting) considered a suicide risk in prison, was persisted, damage could be irreversible that his reddened ear became bloody and that assures no vote is “wasted” if none placed on crisis watch. His supply of due to lack of treatment in prison and swollen, and he lost hearing. Ten days of the candidates have received more Buspar, a psychotropic that eases anxiety, that the patient, then 41, could not after pain arrived, a nurse flushed pieces than 50% of the votes cast. ran low. Nineteen days after Harrison ran function in a workplace due to risk of of cockroaches from Coleman’s ear; two Ranked choice voting (RCV) is out of pills, he was found in his cell, dead, paralysis. days later, a doctor and nurse flushed out used for statewide elections in Maine, a plastic bag, towel and jumpsuit wrapped Wexford settled the case in July for two whole cockroaches and additional primaries and special elections in New around his head. He died on Nov. 7, $400,000, the same amount received cockroach body parts. In his lawsuit, York state, presidential primaries in 2015, shortly before his parole date. He’d in January by Lamont Hall, who had Coleman complains that a Wexford five states and numerous local elections last seen a psychiatrist the previous July. somehow shot his own penis before doctor wouldn’t send him to an ear doctor in cities like San Francisco, Santa Fe, Last April, Wexford Health Sources, arriving at Stateville Correctional Center and that his hearing did not return as the Minneapolis/St. Paul and, beginning in holder of a $1.5 billion contract to in 2014. Hall had been scheduled for doctor had promised. He says he also lost 2021, New York City. Democracies like provide health care in state prisons, agreed reconstructive surgery prior to his arrest sleep worrying that cockroaches would Australia (state and national elections) to pay $280,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by for a parole violation. While doctors crawl into his ears and lay eggs. He hit the and Ireland (presidential elections) use Harrison’s mother. We know this because, on the outside recommended surgery, Wexford settlement jackpot for $9,750. RCV. after a four-year battle for information Wexford said no. Absent numbing gel that Such cases shouldn’t surprise folks How does RCV work? on Wexford settlements, the first ones had been prescribed, Hall used catheters, familiar with health care in Illinois Lets say there are six candidates arrived last week from the Department of which he says was both physically painful prisons, where court-appointed monitors for an office. On your ballot you can Corrections. We should be seeing more, and humiliating: Without surgery, he and a judge have opined that substandard rank the candidates from 1 for your given that the Illinois Supreme Court in could not urinate while standing, and health care amounts to cruel and unusual first choice and then down to 6 for December ruled such records are public. A other inmates noticed. “(T)hey was punishment. We barely pay attention your last choice. If two candidates are request for malpractice settlements dating harassing me and stuff due to the fact anymore. It seems perfectly normal to give unacceptable to you, then you have back to 2010 has been pending for nine that I had to self-catheterize and sit and a 10-figure contract to a corporation with the option to only rank the first four months. use it as a woman,” Hall testified during a business model predicated on cutting candidates. The first batch, 20 cases handled since a deposition. “And, you know, they was costs for patients who can’t seek second When ballots are counted, the January, shows that Wexford, which had making all type of disturbing remarks.” opinions. #1 rank votes are counted for each argued that settlements with wards of the Hall settled for $25,000 less than a jury Nearly 55 percent of state inmates candidate. If one candidate has more state amount to trade secrets, agreed to had awarded in a verdict appealed by are African Americans, but we don’t hear than 50% of the vote, they win. pay more than $1.2 million in amounts Wexford. politicians talk much about prison health If no candidate has more than ranging from $200 to $400,000. Charles Almond settled for $70,000. care, even as they thunder about systemic 50% of the vote, then the candidate Upon release from Southwestern He tore a quadriceps muscle, and likely racism and decry damage done by the war in last place is eliminated and each of on drugs – some have called incarceration that candidate’s individual ballots are in America the new Jim Crow. On the allocated to whomever the voter listed other hand, some might argue that all as second choice. If no candidate has inmates, regardless of color, are at equal more than 50% of the votes after such Editor’s note risk should they fall ill. allocation, then the process is repeated I am told that more settlement Ruth Bader Ginsburg did her part as a justice fighter, working in hostile territory with the candidate who then is last. documents are en route. When they How does RCV aid third-party as long as she possibly could, though we wish she could have held out just a little arrive, we might better know the price of candidates? With RCV you know that longer. A way for those on her side to honor her is to stay in the fight, in hostile pain and how prison health care pencils in a close election if your #1 rank third- territory, as long as they possibly can. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO out. party candidate doesn’t win, your vote may be reallocated to an acceptable Cover painting by Felicia Olin Contact Bruce Rushton at second or even third choice. It is not [email protected]. continued on page 5 September 24-30, 2020 | Illinois Times | 3 OPINION Discord over Madigan hearings POLITICS | Rich Miller During both the impeachment proceedings immediate statement claiming that Lausch’s government or what they learned from federal against Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the response had given the committee “the green investigators. disciplinary proceedings that led to the light to pursue all avenues of the investigation, “The feds say we can ask our own questions expulsion of state Rep. Derrick Smith including testimony and documents, that as long as we don’t ask ‘Did you tell the feds (D-Chicago), the Illinois House was able to were articulated in the petition.” The petition XYZ?” is how one Republican put it. call witnesses. But because of ongoing federal forcing the creation of the committee was So, I assume the Republicans could ask investigations in both instances, the US filed by House Republican Leader Jim Durkin Speaker Madigan if he ever tried to get anyone Attorney limited what some of those witnesses and focused mainly on ComEd’s deferred appointed to ComEd’s board of directors, or if could be asked. Blagojevich had been charged prosecution agreement. he was aware of anyone in his ward applying with multiple felonies and Smith had been Rep. Welch, the committee’s chairman, a for a ComEd internship program, or if he caught on audio accepting a cash bribe. successful attorney and a strong ally of House knew that people were being hired on contract “We couldn’t call certain witnesses because Speaker Madigan, claimed his read of Lausch’s with ComEd’s money to do no-show jobs (the we couldn’t ask them anything but their letter was that “information underlying the DPA alleges that all this and more was done name,” explained an attorney who worked on deferred prosecution agreement beyond to secure the powerful Madigan’s favor).