Prison Communications 2024
We read and record every communication JHA receives, noting the issues, experiences, and perceptions shared. JHA does several things with this information: we (1) track trends and share generalized, non-identifiable information with IDOC to call their attention to concerns; (2) raise issues that are of a time sensitive or emergency nature with prison administrators; (3) use input to guide our monitoring and advocacy efforts; and (4) use it to inform stakeholders and the public about what is happening inside prisons in order to push reform efforts.
In 2024, we received 1,323 communications. This breaks down as:
889 letters, 70 emails, 140 phone calls, and 224 website contacts
The top ten IDOC facilities that communications related to were, in order:
Menard, Dixon, Western, Pinckneyville, Danville, Shawnee, Big Muddy, Graham, Lawrence, and Hill
The top ten issues that communications related to were, in order:
Information Access, Medical, Staff Conduct, Conditions, Other, Movement, Grievances, Communications, Early Release, and Programs/Services
The demographics of the people writing to us from IDOC custody, where known, were:
795 male, 30 female
433 Black, 302 Caucasian, 78 Hispanic, 2 Native American, 4 Asian, 1 Bi-racial
In December 2021, IDOC issued a memo detailing that certain Core Hygiene Items should be regularly given to individuals in custody free of charge, including three yellow envelopes which are postage paid. JHA has been tracking whether people regularly receive these items both by asking people on our monitoring visits. In May, we also started tracking what color envelopes we received through the mail (people could choose to use their envelopes to contact people other than JHA, of course).
328 were yellow write-outs; 248 were white envelopes
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requires agencies to prove at least one way for people in custody to report sexual abuse or harassment to an independent outside entity that is able to receive and immediately forward reports to agency officials, allowing the person to remain anonymous on request; JHA serves as this entity for IDOC.
In 2024, we received and handled more than 190 such communications (these are not included in the totals above). 160 of these were shared with IDOC PREA officials for further investigation.