During a fall 2020 press conference at a West Loop law office, Anthony Gay haltingly spoke to reporters, wiping away tears as he talked.
“I spent 22 years in solitary confinement in Illinois prisons,” Gay said at the offices of Loevy & Loevy. “I was trapped in a cell smaller than the size of a parking space, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
At the time, Gay was advocating for restrictions on the use of solitary confinement after his own release from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“Unfortunately, the psychological nightmare hasn’t ended. Many men and women are still trapped in solitary confinement in Illinois,” he said while weeping. “We must throw them a rope of hope and rescue those still lost and trapped in a ditch of solitary confinement.”
Gay’s fight came to an end on Aug. 17 in a Missouri hospital. He had just been granted compassionate medical release from federal custody, just days before his 51st birthday. He died of lung and liver cancer.
His younger sister, LaShonda Northern, told WTTW News from her home in Georgia that family members were able to spend his last two days with him.
“It’s been horrible, he is a fighter, he fought til we got there. He knew we were coming. He knew it,” she said. “It’s the best feeling in the world to know that we were there. He got what he wanted: his dignity, released out of that prison cell to spend the last two days with his family that loved him the most.”
From Probation to Decades in Prison
Gay was originally sent to Illinois prisons in 1994 at the age of 20. He’d initially been convicted of stealing a hat and $1 and sentenced to probation. But his probation was revoked for driving without a license. He was then sentenced to seven years in prison and would have been released in half that time with good behavior.
Court records show Gay suffered from borderline personality disorder, and was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Attorneys say because of his mental illnesses, he acted out in prison, which led to more convictions and years being added to his sentence. During those 22 years, he was housed at several Illinois prisons including Pontiac, Menard and the now-shuttered Tamms “supermax” facility.
Prison records show at one point, he was scheduled to be released in the year 2097. Early on during his incarceration, Gay was placed in solitary confinement over fights with other inmates. IDOC refers to solitary as “restrictive housing.”
The Use of Solitary Confinement
A 2021 report from the Liman Center at Yale Law School estimates that 41,000 to 48,000 people were in restrictive housing across all U.S. prisons as of July 2021, down from estimates of 80,000 to 100,000 in 2014. Data from 25 jurisdictions shows the number and percentage of people in restrictive housing decreased from 2015 to 2021.
Over 90% of people in restrictive housing were there for between 15 days and 1 year. About 9% were there for over one year.
Illinois has the second-highest racial disparity gap for Black inmates in solitary, with Black inmates making up 54.7% of the total incarcerated population, but 73.5% of those in restrictive housing. Whites make up 31% of the total population and 13.4% of people in restrictive housing.
Research has shown prolonged solitary confinement can cause significant psychological or physical harms. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, i.e. the Nelson Mandela Rules, says it’s to be used only in extreme cases and that indefinite or prolonged confinement should be prohibited.
“They put him in solitary confinement because he was mentally ill. And people who are mentally ill have a hard time comporting with IDOC’s rules,” said Jennifer Soble, executive director and founder of the Illinois Prison Project. She represented Gay during his federal court sentencing in 2023. “He did this thing of occasionally spitting on corrections officers.”
Government records also show Gay threw urine or feces at corrections officers or other inmates, or had weapons in his cell, like sharpened pieces of glass or metal, which led to the use of restrictive housing. It was there Gay began to engage in severe self-mutilation.
“During the 22 years, with no other outlet or ways to express his frustration, there was a lot of self-harm,” Soble said.
Life Between Prison
Gay managed to argue to have his sentence reduced, and he was eventually released from Illinois prison in 2018. In 2020, he filed a civil complaint against leadership of the Illinois Department of Corrections and Wexford Health Sources, which manages health care for IDOC.
“Deprived of any sustained human interaction, Anthony’s mental condition deteriorated, and he began to engage in horrific acts of self-mutilation,” the complaint reads. “He cut his forearm and his neck. He cut into his left inner thigh and wove the wound together with strips of a blanket. He cut into his scrotum and embedded a zipper there. He cut off a testicle and hung it on his cell door. He cut open his scrotum again and pierced it with paperclips. He mutilated his penis on multiple occasions, embedding a pen, plastics, and a zipper into the cuts. He stuck a pen into his eyelid and stabbed his thigh with a spoon, so deep that it had to be removed surgically. His documented acts of self-mutilation number in the dozens and continued for nearly the entirety of his solitary confinement.”
For the several years between his release from IDOC and entering into federal Bureau of Prisons custody, Gay spent his time advocating for others.
“He wanted to make a difference, he always talked to us about this,” Northern said. “It did a lot to him, it really messed with his mental [health, but] you couldn’t tell when he got out. He was always smiling, happy, loved being around his family. Then, when he found out he was having a boy, he was so excited.”
Gay’s son is now 5 years old. He also has a 30-year old daughter.
While incarcerated, he studied criminal law and represented himself pro se to have his sentence restructured for release.
Gay was rarely represented by trial attorneys in court. But his civil case is being handled by Chicago firm Romanucci & Blandin and is set for trial Feb. 25.
“It was an honor for all of us to work alongside Anthony and to be a part of his commitment to reform, improve and change the prison systems in this country. We will continue to fight for justice on his behalf,” the team said in a statement.
A Legal Mind
He defended himself again in federal court in 2022 when he faced weapons charges.
“He hung his first jury,” which is very difficult to do in federal court, Soble said. A second jury convicted him of the charges. He was sentenced to seven years.
Again in federal prison, Gay was sent to solitary confinement. Records show multiple instances of further self-harm.
"He was a very good lawyer. His instincts were right, his knowledge of the law was unmatched,” Soble said. “He was really, really good in court. Honestly, he had a brilliant legal mind. He had zero legal training, but had a really brilliant mind.”
Between state and federal prison stints, Gay advocated for the Anthony Gay Isolated Confinement Restriction Act in the General Assembly. It never passed. Similar legislation is pending in Springfield that would restrict the length of time a person can be held in solitary confinement, it is dubbed the Nelson Mandela Act.
His sister says she wants her brother to be remembered for his positivity.
“I want them to remember him, not because he went to jail,” Northern said “I want them to know he’s been through a lot, but he still stood up and fought regardless of everything he went through,” she said. “I want them to know my brother was a fighter. We’re not gonna stop. We’re gonna keep going for him. And we want his name on [the law], because he deserves that. That’s the least we can do.”
She describes her brothers as a fighter.
“Because he’s deceased, I know he’s looking down and saying ‘don’t give up. Don’t give up on him’ and we're not,” she said “He was a strong king.”
WTTW News reporter Jared Rutecki contributed.
Note: Loevy & Loevy has performed legal work for WTTW News.