This is the second of a five-part series on mental health care in Illinois prisons.

Chicago attorney Harold Hirshman has spent decades as part of the legal team representing Illinois inmates in the lawsuit first filed by inmate Ashoor Rasho over mental health conditions in state institutions. Hirshman has released over 150 pages of documents from the lawsuit including depositions from experts who lay out specific failures in the level of care mentally ill prisoners should but do not receive during the years they are incarcerated. As a journalist who covered the Rasho case, my familiarity with the federal court proceedings, firsthand accounts of inmates and interviews with officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections, has convinced me that the public needs to understand the importance of addressing this issue.

The deposition of Dr. Pablo Stewart (see link below) taken in March 2023 discusses the state of mental health care as reviewed by Stewart, an expert on what is needed to meet the constitutional level of care. Stewart and his team produced six reports based on site visits, interviews and document reviews.  His deposition offers an explanation of the harm that is done when mentally ill inmates are locked in segregation without adequate care and go without residential care.

Mental Health in Prison Part 2