CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – A lawsuit filed in federal court seeks to correct numerous issues at a prison holding facility in Crest Hill alleged to be unsafe for prisoners.
The facility is the Northern Reception Center, where prisoners go before they’re assigned to prisons elsewhere.
Alan Mills of the Uptown People’s Law Center said they’re dealing with vermin and raw sewage and people have told him it’s the worst there is.
Some have likened the details outlined in the lawsuit to a third world facility.
"I've talked to lawyers who've gone to third world facilities that are far better than this one,” Mills said.
Mills, who said the inmates are “stuck” in their cells for 23 or 24 hours a day, told WBBM Newsradio more about the prison’s condition.
"We have things like infestation so people are constantly going to sleep [worrying] about whether mice are going to run over their eyes during the night or roaches are going to crawl into their ears. There have been several cases where, in fact, roaches have crawled into someone's ear canal,” Mils shared.
The suit said the drinking water is brown and EPA testing has revealed it contains over eight times the acceptable level of lead.
It seeks to have the Department of Corrections fix the problems.
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