Uncertain Waters

As Chicago lays the groundwork for a new casino, people imprisoned in Illinois gamble with their health every time they take a drink of water.

When most people think of places with poor drinking water, images of impoverished and underdeveloped countries spring to mind. That's why the tragedy of Flint, Michigan, was so shocking: people wondered how that could happen in the United States. But it's not uncommon. In 2023, The Guardian reported that more than 25 million Americans drink from contaminated water.

Some of those people were at Stateville Correctional Center, which had a long history of contaminants. (The prison closed in 2024.)

"I've been hearing about contaminated water for years from prisoners," Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People's Law Center, told The Appeal in March 2024. Mills also noted that prisoners have complained that the water is often brown, sometimes smells like sewage, and has black flecks in it.

Stateville was built in the 1920s, and its infrastructure — including the plumbing — is crumbling. Prisoners worry that its pipes contain lead and that corrosion is the reason for the brown water. The prisoners' complaints about discolored and strange-tasting water have been on record with the Uptown People's Law Center since 2013.

In spring of 2024, IDOC and the Illinois Department of Public Health announced that Legionella bacteria were detected at Stateville. It was later revealed that water in five other prisons had also tested positive for the bacteria.

Shari Stone-Mediatore, managing director of Parole Illinois, told The Appeal in April 2024 that she was "appalled that the IDOC seems to be more concerned with covering up the problem than with protecting the health of the people in their custody."

On March 5, 2024, Legionella bacteria were found in one empty cell in C-House at Stateville, where I lived. Inspectors did not test any of the inhabited cells, nor did they test the showers, a known breeding ground for Legionella. Aaron Packman, director of the Northwestern Center for Water Research, told The Appeal that contaminated showers are "a big concern."

The showers were not tested at Stateville or at any of the other prisons.

Janet E. Stout, a microbiologist at the University of Pittsburgh and the president and director of the Special Pathogens Laboratory, which specializes in Legionella detection and control, told The Appeal that inspectors need to test multiple locations at a site to understand the full scale of the bacteria's spread.

But water testing at Stateville was haphazard at best. In 2024, the Chicago Reader reported that the company responsible for lead testing Stateville's water did not follow federal guidelines.

Two months after that report, we were finally told Legionella had been found in our drinking water. There were claims that the system was flushed several times; however, Legionella bacteria grow in showerheads and faucets, as well as in stagnant water such as in the wells that are the source of our water. They began distributing bottled water daily — yet the water was not purified as IDOC claimed but came from a facility also found to contain Legionella. They only allowed two 20-ounce bottles per person, which is not enough water to meet the basic needs of roughly 2,200 men inside Stateville.

This is how the IDOC cares for those of us in prison.

This particular issue is not new: Illinois prisons have a long history of providing contaminated drinking water to prisoners. One person at Stateville was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease in 2015, and in 2020 two prisoners at Pontiac Correctional Center contracted it. While it is treatable, one in 10 people who get sick with Legionnaires' disease will die. It is especially deadly to people over age 50, current or former smokers, and those with underlying illnesses.

Legionella bacteria are just one in a long list of problems faced by prisoners and their drinking water. From the 1990s through the mid-2000s, the water at Stateville contained high levels of lithium and more than twice the level of radium permitted by federal guidelines. In 2000, the EPA reported that the prison was violating federal limits for radium in the water; it took Stateville three years to achieve compliance with those limits.

The IDOC and the prison administration have long known the health risks associated with the drinking water at Stateville. Several years ago, an internal memo revealed that IDOC advised all staff not to drink the water at Stateville and provided employees with bottled water. The prisoners were never informed of the health risks of consuming the water, and because the prisoners were never provided with bottled water, they were unable to protect themselves. For years, IDOC knew the water was bad and posed health risks. They kept silent.

Local activists have been calling for greater oversight of the state's prisons, urging the Illinois Department of Public Health to create a task force to monitor and investigate contaminated water in prison.

Jennifer Vollen-Katz, the executive director of the John Howard Association, told Injustice Watch that more oversight "is critical to improving the sanitation, hygiene, and safety issues that are rife within Illinois facilities." IDOC cannot be trusted to conduct the testing or reveal the results. Oversight must come from an outside agency.

How can people in prison feel like they can be productive members of society when they don't even feel human? Dogs in animal shelters are given clean water and good food full of all the vitamins and nutrients needed to ensure they are healthy. IDOC feeds us a diet below nutritional standards, with food that is old, stale, and sometimes rotten. Dogs at a shelter are walked every day. We get to go outside twice a week, and only if enough staff show up to run the yard. If dogs were given contaminated and potentially deadly water, protesters would line the streets. We are given contaminated and potentially deadly water every day, and the state does not care. Our water is bad not only for our physical health but for our mental health as well.

Incarcerated individuals know that they're valued less than a dog. Fresh, reliable drinking water is a basic human right — one that most people take for granted.

Imagine how it feels to gamble with your health and your life every time you're thirsty. No one should have to worry about dying from their drinking water. The real casino is right here in IDOC. It is truly a crapshoot every time we drink the water. We gamble every day.