Prison Communications 2025

 
 

“There is also one issue with the birds on the gallery that have found their way through the ventilation system. They poop all over the floor, tables and as mentioned earlier, we aren’t provided with necessary cleaning supplies to sanitize in general, let alone whatever the bird may expose us to. […] there has been a bird on our wing for 4 months the birds been here for a duration I’ve been housed on this wing! This creates an unhealthy living environment for all who reside here. Being that the bird cannot bathe other than in the dayroom toilet, which introduces even more health and safety concerns. It should be noted that the birds are trapped, being they cant get back out! This is also inhumane for the bird, being that they can only survive by people throwing bread and it introduces them to a chaotic environment and a frenzy because they are unable to escape close proximity to humans!”  - Hill May 2025

In the first half of 2025, we received 660 communications. This breaks down as:

  • 505 letters, 18 emails, 31 phone calls, and 106 website contacts

The top ten IDOC facilities that communications related to were, in order:

  • Western, Hill, Menard, Big Muddy, Pinckneyville, Pontiac, Dixon, Graham, Taylorville, and Illinois River

The top ten issues that communications related to were, in order:

  • Information Access, Medical, Staff Conduct, Conditions, Communications, Property/Shopping, Grievances, Movement, Other, and Programs/Services

The demographics of the people writing to us from IDOC custody, where known, were:

  • 449 male, 21 female

  • 241 Black, 155 Caucasian, 58 Hispanic, 4 Asian, 1 Native American, 1 Bi-racial

In December 2021, IDOC issued a memo detailing that certain Core Hygiene Items should be regularly given to individuals in custody free of charge, including three yellow envelopes which are postage paid. JHA has been tracking whether people regularly receive these items both by asking people on our monitoring visits. In 2024, we also started tracking what color envelopes we received through the mail (people could choose to use their envelopes to contact people other than JHA, of course).

  • 225 were yellow/orange write-outs; 223 were white envelopes

Rebecca Pellegrino