Will the Suffering Ever End?

What would you do if hospital staff ignored you or turned you away simply because you lived in a low-income or underserved neighborhood? What if you were forced to meet with nurses multiple times for serious pain before being allowed to see a doctor? And what if, after finally seeing a doctor, you were given nothing more than ibuprofen?

For most people, the answer would be simple: go to another hospital. But for many incarcerated individuals in Illinois, there is no “other hospital.”

For those of us in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), the standard of care is not just inadequate — it is a direct threat to our survival.

Six years ago, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered IDOC to improve its health care system after finding significant issues in the care provided to people in custody. But years later, little has changed. Despite court orders, IDOC has failed to implement meaningful improvements. This neglect has led to untold suffering — delays in diagnosis, inadequate screening, and prolonged waits for treatment.

I know this because I’ve lived it. For more than a decade, I repeatedly sought help for abnormal fatigue and extreme fluctuations in my body temperature. My pleas were met with dismissiveness from both doctors and nurses. They brushed off my concerns, contributing to years of unnecessary suffering.

It wasn’t until a nurse practitioner finally listened that I received proper care. She diagnosed me with a severe vitamin B12 deficiency, which, if left untreated, could have been fatal. If she hadn’t paid attention, I might not be here today. But not everyone has been as fortunate as I have.

Michael Broadway was a fellow NPEP student and a cancer survivor. But like many of us, Broadway didn’t battle just his illness — he battled a health care system designed to ignore us.

“For over two years, I complained about a throbbing pain around my prostate,” Broadway once told me. “The doctors would tell me to just drink more water. Then they would move on to someone else.” He was made to feel invisible — less than human.

Finally, after years of pleading, Broadway was allowed to see an outside doctor. Only then did he learn the truth: he had Stage 4 prostate cancer. The very area he had been complaining about for years was under attack, and the prison doctors had ignored him all along.

While Broadway was grateful to be alive, many others haven’t been so lucky.

Over the course of six years, 540 people have died while in IDOC custody. Is inadequate health care to blame for some of these deaths? The situation is even worse for those suffering from mental illnesses. The IDOC system doesn’t ignore just the physically ill — it also neglects those in mental distress. Multiple suicides have occurred as a result of professionals failing to properly assess or treat people’s mental health.

A report from May 2022 revealed that 37% of individuals in state and federal prisons suffer from some form of mental illness. Chronic illnesses are also more common in prison than in the general U.S. population.

IDOC officials often point to staffing shortages as the reason for these issues. More than 50% of doctors’ positions remain vacant, and more than 40% of nurses’ and medical staff positions are unfilled. While these shortages are real, they cannot justify the continued suffering. They cannot justify the countless deaths that have taken place under IDOC’s watch.

Michael Broadway’s story didn’t end with his cancer diagnosis. Despite surviving cancer, he faced another battle — one he wouldn’t win. In June 2024, Michael Broadway passed away from an asthma attack. The extreme heat, inhumane living conditions, and neglect by correctional and medical staff contributed to his death.

The reality is this: the only way to end this suffering is for the federal court to impose harsher penalties on IDOC and demand that they partner with health care providers who can meet the real needs of those incarcerated.