On June 19, Michael Broadway struggled to breathe inside his cell at Stateville Correctional Center, a dilapidated Illinois state prison about 40 miles southwest of Chicago.
Outside, temperatures hovered in the 90s, with a heat index — what the temperature feels like — of nearly 100. Just days earlier, a punishing heat wave had brought a string of days topping out in the mid-90s. With no air conditioning or ventilation, Broadway’s unit on the fifth floor of the prison had become a furnace.
“We live on the highest gallery in the cellhouse,” Mark, who lived next door to Broadway, told The Appeal over the prison’s messaging service. “It never cools off. Personal fans blow hot air. You have to sit still. Move and you are sweaty.”
(We are using an alias to protect Mark from retaliation.)
Mark and others on Broadway’s cellblock yelled for help, but a nurse didn’t come until more than 15 minutes later, according to a statement Broadway’s neighbor, Anthony Ehlers, provided to the law... Read more
