Michael Broadway was among the first group of incarcerated men to receive a bachelor’s degree from a top 10 university when he was awarded a diploma in November 2023 along with 15 others from Northwestern University.
Broadway, an author and stage 4 prostate cancer survivor, was given a special acknowledgement during the graduation ceremony at Stateville Correctional Center that day by renowned writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, the commencement speaker, who held up a copy of his book.
On June 19, the 51-year-old died while in custody.
The circumstances around his death have left friends, family and others incarcerated at Stateville questioning the sequence of events around his medical treatment. Friends who witnessed his death last week said he “didn’t have to die.”
When asked about specific allegations around the timeline of Broadway’s death, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections responded that “at this point, we’d only be able to confirm his death on 6/19/24” and that “the investigation is ongoing.”
A spokesperson for the Will County Coroner’s office said a person with the name Michael Broadway died on June 19. Terah Tollner, the lawyer representing Broadway’s family over the death, said his family has ordered an autopsy, but it has not been released yet.
Michael Broadway is pictured in November 2023 during a Northwestern University graduation ceremony at Stateville Correctional Center. (Credit: Northwestern University)
On June 19, Broadway, who had severe asthma, began struggling to breathe, Tollner said. While he was still physically able to, he and friends called correctional officers for help.
The temperature hit 91 degrees that day in nearby Joliet, and the heat only intensified on the higher floors of the prison, said Anthony Ehlers, a friend whose cell was near Broadway’s, in a written statement provided to WTTW News.
Not a single window was open, Ehlers wrote; for ventilation purposes, everything in the area of their cells were either closed or locked. There was a fan in front of their cell, which was padlocked, he added.
Windows were nailed shut with plywood due to structural damage, Abdul Malik Muhammad, who was also inside Stateville and friends with Broadway, wrote in a statement provided to WTTW News.
“We all have been [complaining] about the heat, it’s very hot without any form of ventilation…all the fans is broke,” Muhammad wrote.
The officers “went about their business for far too long,” and once a member of the medical staff arrived at the housing unit, she refused to go upstairs because it was too hot that high up, Tollner said.
Broadway was in the nine gallery, which Tollner said is the highest floor on which men are living.
The medical staffer, Ehlers continued in his statement, injected Broadway with the opioid overdose reversal medication Narcan, even though he “told her that he had really bad asthma.”
The correctional officer then started to perform compressions, with other staff bringing up a stretcher that didn’t have straps to prevent him from falling, he wrote.
Because it had no straps, one of Broadway’s close friends had to help carry him down the stairs in a bed sheet, said Tollner.
“It was a clown show from start to finish and as a result our brother died. Needlessly,” Ehlers wrote. “What that tells me is we are not safe here. As a result of these conditions, our brother died.”
“It's hard for them to understand that Michael Broadway die from heat of being up on that top gallery,” wrote another person incarcerated in Stateville, Ray Fergerson.
The facility, per a state-commissioned report, is “not suitable for any 21st century correctional center.” A proposal from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration would demolish Stateville as early as September, with plans to rebuild the prison on the same Crest Hill property.
“The overall conditions in Stateville are deplorable,” Ehlers wrote. “The building that we are in is literally falling down around us.”
At a Tuesday night town hall on Northwestern’s downtown campus, fellow Northwestern graduate James Soto voiced support for closing the facility. He reflected on how earlier in the month, he spoke at a hearing over the proposed closure, then concerned about the “individual that had to remain there under those horrible conditions.”
“I didn’t know that within two weeks, we’d be talking about the loss of an individual, Michael Broadway,” Soto said.
Men currently inside Stateville, Tollner said at that Tuesday town hall, are devastated by the loss of Broadway.
“They’re terrified that it will happen again soon to someone else that they love,” Tollner said.
Referencing that state-commissioned report, which found five Illinois prisons that “do not reflect modern correctional practices,” Soto said that “they should have been closed immediately.”
Michael Broadway participates in Northwestern’s Prison Educator Program at Stateville Correctional Center. (Credit: Northwestern University)
Stateville offers a unique program for the men inside: to receive bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies through the university’s Prison Education Program, or NPEP.
Broadway, Ehlers and Soto were classmates, graduating in 2023.
Broadway was a self-described “regular student,” but had ambitions exceeding that framing, one of them being publishing a second book. His first, “One Foot In,” was published while he was incarcerated last year.
“He wanted to help the other guys that were incarcerated,” said Karen Ranos, the lawyer litigating his post-conviction petition. “He wanted to go out [and get] an understanding of not only what causes people to be caught up in crime, but also how to prevent it. What do these people really need?”
Broadway had served 18 years of his 75-year sentence.
Ranos said she was litigating a petition claiming his innocence on his first-degree murder conviction “as well as some other claims we had about constitutional violations.
Pending his release, he had plans to start the Rich Soil Foundation, a nonprofit promising to “plant seeds of encouragement for today’s youth through art, sports, music, and STEM.”
“I imagined him standing on the stage, listening to other stories and talking to people and sharing his stories and experiences and being an inspiration to those who live that type of life,” said his companion, Shawn Hardy-Hatchett.
Hardy-Hatchett and Broadway met as teenagers at her aunt’s house, she said. Even at a young age, she could count on Broadway for quality conversation – “it wasn’t that mushy stuff.”
She remembers writing a letter of what she’d want in a companion — intellect, kindness, patience — and one day her sister read the letter and said “Michael’s everything on that list.”
“He always was willing to learn. He would ask questions and his humility… he truly helped me with his humbleness,” Hardy-Hatchett said. “That has always been Michael … even as a child that has always been him, always.”
