“Michael helped countless people in the 51 years of his life, but when he needed help from the people who were entrusted to help him, whose job it was to help him, he was failed at every turn,” said attorney Terah Tollner.
The family of an Illinois prisoner who died during a summer heatwave has filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that Michael Broadway’s death could easily have been prevented.
According to The Chicago Tribune, the complaint names defendants including the Illinois Department of Corrections, Wexford Health Services, and several individual Stateville Correctional Center employees.
“Michael helped countless people in the 51 years of his life, but when he needed help from the people who were entrusted to help him, whose job it was to help him, he was failed at every turn,” said attorney Terah Tollner, who is representing Broadway’s surviving spouse, Chunece Jones-Broadway.
CBS News notes that Broadway died on June 19, 2024, after suffering an asthma attack.
Broadway’s family, and his lawyers, say that prison staff could have prevented his death if only they had let him receive immediate medical care after he reported difficulty breathing.
“Instead of helping him, Defendants watched Michael slowly perish while gasping for breath,” the lawsuit alleges.
Broadway had, at the time of his death, completed about 18 years of a 75-year sentence for first-degree murder. However, despite having committed serious crimes, Broadway’s relatives say that he made a genuine and concerted effort to improve himself behind bars. In prison, Broadway worked to obtain a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and encouraged other inmates to prioritize their educations and make better decisions.
Broadway ultimately died less than a half-year after completing his degree from Northwestern University. His death coincided with, and has been attributed to, and asthma attack either caused or aggravated by a heatwave.
“Defendants in our lawsuit knew that Michael was in severe respiratory distress,” Tollner said. “They knew, as well all do, that that can be fatal. But they did not call 9-1-1, and they did not call a Code 3, which would have initiated an emergency medical response in the prison.”
Tollner says that prison staff took no action to protect medically vulnerable prisoners at Stateville, a facility that is almost 100 years old and which has limited to no air conditioning in many sections.
On the day of Broadway’s death, temperatures inside the prison may have been ass high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Indeed, when Michael asked to be placed on the lower gallery to accommodate his asthma, employees of Defendant Illinois Department of Corrections denied his request,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Because of the oppressive heat and his severe asthma, Michael began to struggle to breathe,” it says. “Between gasps for air, he pleaded for help from his friends in the cell’s [sic] next to him. Michael’s voice was already weak when he told them he couldn’t breathe.”
Although other inmates requested assistance for Broadway, it took between 15 and 20 minutes for a nurse to arrive. However, upon her arrival, the nurse initially refused to go to Broadway’s cell block. Saying it was “too hot,” she demanded that Broadway come to her.
Broadway was eventually taken to a hospital more than an hour after he initially called for help, where he was pronounced dead.
The lawsuit claims that the defendants violated Broadway’s constitutional rights by inflicting cruel and unusual punishment upon him, and requests varied compensatory damages.
Sources
A man incarcerated at Stateville prison died during a heat wave. Now his family is suing.
Family of man who died of asthma attack in Illinois prison sues state for wrongful death
Family of Stateville inmate who died during June heat wave sues state, prison workers
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