Prison death, scrap metal permit, mask ban

Deadly heat, dangerous conditions in Illinois prisons

About 100 people packed into a classroom at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law on Tuesday, June 25, to remember Michael Broadway, who died a week earlier while incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Chester Hill. Family, friends, and advocates took turns sharing heartbreaking remembrances, fiery condemnations, and their vision for a future without deadly carceral institutions.

On June 19, Broadway started to have trouble breathing, his family’s lawyer told WTTW’s Blair Paddock and Brandis Friedman. A severe asthmatic, he called out to friends and prison guards for help. According to the report, prison staff “went about their business for far too long.” When they responded, medical staff administered the overdose reversal drug Narcan, despite being told Broadway was experiencing an asthma attack. A worker finally arrived with a stretcher, but it didn’t have straps to prevent Broadway from falling off, so his friends had to help carry him down the prison’s stairs in a bed sheet, WTTW reports.

Governor J.B. Pritzker plans to temporarily shutter Stateville, along with Logan Correctional Center, as part of a $900 million renovation. As my colleague DMB (Debbie-Marie Brown) writes, a report completed for the state in May 2023 concluded that Stateville’s housing units are “unsuitable for any 21st century correctional center.” 

With plenty of empty cells across Illinois and crumbling infrastructure at prisons statewide, the message from Broadway’s loved ones to Pritzker was clear: no new prisons.

Community demands clean air

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) held a heated meeting on June 21 for community members at St. Pius V Parish to discuss the Pilsen scrap metal business, Sims Metal Management, and their ongoing push to renew their city permit. Sims shreds junk cars and other objects at 2500 S. Paulina, where they salvage the metal and resell it. They’ve been working without a permit for two and a half years as the CDPH collects data on pollution control and air quality. 

CDPH presented their findings from air monitors around the Sims business that measure emissions of harmful dust blown from construction sites known as PM10 pollutants. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, the CDPH commissioner, said that Sims’s emissions were within health standards. Many residents shared concerns about the lack of data surrounding another pollutant—PM2.5 pollution—that is more harmful and penetrates deeper into the lungs.

Community members said Sims hired contractors to collect data from the air monitors. Since the CDPH isn’t monitoring them, neighbors questioned the accuracy of the results. The CDPH explained that this is protocol from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA posted an update on its website the same day as the hearing that it determined emissions “would not cause either short- or long-term health effects for the community near the facility” and that it “will continue to assess the potential for any health impacts with each new data submission from Sims.”

Residents were up in arms during the meeting, demanding that the CDPH reconsider the renewal. One person said, “We only want what every community needs: Clean, healthy air.” Another said what Sims and the health department are allowing is “environmental racism.” 

Representatives from Sims’s union were also present, explaining that working at Sims is better for residents than working at the nearby Amazon warehouse. –S. Nicole Lane

Mask up

A nationwide push to criminalize the use of masks finally found purchase at City Hall—just weeks before protesters are expected to take to the streets to demand the U.S. end aid to Israel during the 2024 Democratic National Convention. And who other than conservative alder and frequent Fox News commentator Raymond Lopez would be behind the effort. 

Under Lopez’s measure, anyone arrested for violating Title Eight of the municipal code while wearing a “mask, hood, or other clothing or device that concealed or attempted to conceal the person’s identity” would be subject to a mandatory ten days in jail and a $5,000 fine, on top of any other penalties for the underlying charge. Title Eight includes a broad range of offenses, from hate crimes to vandalism to removing sod from the public way. 

Mask bans first found popularity among conservatives during the pandemic. But Democrats from New York to Los Angeles have latched on to such efforts amid brutal crackdowns on demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

A growing number of people have rightfully resorted to covering their faces at protests for protection against an ever-growing state surveillance apparatus. More than that, widespread masking ensures gatherings are accessible to all. As Lewis Raven Wallace writes in Truthout, such policies “will invariably be invoked to target the most marginalized and to derail protest movements” as they “muddy the waters around public health.”