After 12 years, the class action lawsuit over living conditions at Stateville Correctional Center that helped bring the prison to a close was settled Thursday.

The last men incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center have been transferred out of the aging facility as of Monday, bringing the 100-year-old prison to a close, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Disability rights group Equip for Equality filed a motion Thursday for a preliminary injunction to immediately transfer the last 12 men incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center out of the facility.

Illinois’ prison population continues to shrink, with facilities now having a 26% vacancy rate, leading some of those inside and their advocates to question the state’s plan to build two new prisons.

Disability rights group Equip for Equality filed a lawsuit alleging the men still incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center are living in “unduly restrictive and isolating conditions compared to prisoners without disabilities, because of their disabilities.”

Michael Broadway, 51, died in June while in custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. A new lawsuit alleges IDOC and Wexford Health Sources ignored Broadway’s requests for medical attention.

Stateville had robust higher educational programs, partnering with five Chicago-area universities. After the transfers, some students have been split from their classmates and are now hundreds of miles away from each other. Those divisions and distances now make it difficult for educators to reach students.

The class, based out of the school’s Evanston campus, traveled to meet with students incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, where the two groups were tasked with collaborating on a documentary.

Judge Andrea R. Wood wrote that the court found a probable risk of irreparable harm from falling concrete attributed to the deteriorated masonry walls, ceilings, steel beams and window lintels at Stateville Correctional Center.

Michael Broadway, incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center, died in custody in June; the days before his death were some of the hottest that month. An autopsy report reveals that heat stress was one of the significant contributing factors in his death.

Conditions at Stateville Correctional Center are so uninhabitable that a federal judge ordered most of the population out by the end of September. WTTW News sent questions to men incarcerated at Stateville to hear how they feel about the shuttering of the prison and the state building a new facility.

Parole Illinois was formed by men who are incarcerated in Illinois prisons. They’re working to reinstate the parole system after it was abolished in the state in 1978.

Advocates are raising concerns about the location of these facilities and the impact they will have on both those behind the prison’s walls and its employees. 

Workers are continuing their protest over the state’s plan to close and rebuild Stateville Correctional Center, citing concerns over safety and job stability.

The court filed the preliminary injunction order Friday, with Judge Andrea R. Wood writing that the court found a probable risk of irreparable harm from falling concrete attributed to the deteriorated masonry walls, ceilings, steel beams and window lintels at Stateville.

“Right now, there’s over 420 residents at Stateville who are at risk of dire injury due to the structural vulnerabilities, degradation and deterioration of those buildings that put them at risk of serious physical injury,” said Heather Lewis Donnell, a partner at Loevy and Loevy.