The family of a man who died while in prison at Stateville Correctional Center this summer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections and private health care provider Wexford Health Services, alleging that prison staff ignored the asthma attack that killed him.
The extreme heat at the prison claimed the life of Michael Broadway, 51, on June 19.
His family said his death was absolutely avoidable if prison guards and medical personnel had ensured he received urgent attention once he began fighting to breathe inside his cell.
“Instead of helping him, defendants watched Michael slowly perish while gasping for breath,” the family’s lawsuit claims.
His brother, Brian Broadway, stated that he spoke with his brother one hour before his death. As soon as he learned of his brother’s passing, he immediately attempted to reach out to him again.
“No one could provide us with an answer.” Ironically, he was my hero. That was my older brother. He was quite protective of me and my entire family.” Brian expressed his profound loss.
Michael Broadway received his college degree while incarcerated in November as part of the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP), which assists incarcerated individuals in Illinois in completing college-level courses and earning college degrees.
Broadway died after serving 18 years of a 75-year sentence for first-degree murder. But loved ones said he had turned his life around internally, earning the degree and guiding other offenders in the correct direction. Broadway studied sociology, according to his companion Shawn Hardy. He’d also written and published “One Foot In,” a coming-of-age story about two buddies from Chicago.
But, seven months after receiving his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern, Broadway died of an asthma attack in scorching conditions at Stateville.
“Defendants in our lawsuit were aware that Michael was experiencing serious respiratory distress. They understood, as we all do, that this might be fatal. However, they did not contact 911 or a Code 3, which would have triggered an emergency medical response in the prison, according to attorney Terah Tollner.
According to the lawsuit filed by his wife, Chunece Jones-Broadway, Stateville’s warden was aware that the prison was dangerously hot, had no air conditioning, and that windows were nailed shut and fans in front of cells were padlocked, leaving them without proper ventilation; however, he took no action to protect prisoners from excessive heat and humidity or to protect inmates like Broadway who suffer from asthma or other medical conditions exacerbated by the heat.
“Indeed, when Michael asked to be placed on a lower gallery to accommodate his asthma, employees of the defendant Illinois Department of Corrections denied his request,” according to the suit.
Instead, the lawsuit claims Broadway was put to a cell on the prison’s top floor, where temperatures were the highest, despite the fact that lower floors were empty.
According to the lawsuit, on the day Broadway died, the heat index in the area outside Stateville was nearly 100°, and temperatures inside the cells on Broadway’s floor reached 120°.
“Due to the stifling heat and his acute asthma, Michael began to have difficulty breathing. Between gasps for air, he pleaded for rescue from his buddies in the cells adjacent to him, according to the lawsuit.” Michael’s voice was already weak when he told them that he couldn’t breathe.”
Prison guards and medical staff were aware he was in danger, but when Broadway began gasping for air, they did not ensure he received immediate medical assistance, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, despite other detainees telling officers that Broadway was having difficulty breathing, jail authorities did not seek prompt medical attention. The lawsuit claims that it took 15 to 20 minutes for a nurse to arrive at Broadway’s cellhouse, and even then, the nurse refused to climb the steps due to the extreme heat, instead requesting that Broadway come down.
It wasn’t until several minutes later that the nurse walked up to Broadway’s cell without any medical equipment and discovered him comatose. Despite Broadway’s lack of drug use, the nurse administered two doses of naloxone, a treatment for opioid overdoses, when she arrived.
When the naloxone had no effect, the nurse and other jail personnel waited a few more minutes before dialing 911. Over an hour after Broadway initially requested assistance, an ambulance took him to the hospital, where they pronounced him dead.
According to the lawsuit, an autopsy revealed that he died of asthma, with heat stress cited as a “significant contributing condition.”
A representative for the Illinois Department of Corrections did not immediately return a request for comment on the case.
Three months before Broadway died, Governor JB Pritzker announced intentions to demolish and replace Stateville, citing “hundreds of millions in deferred maintenance costs from years of neglect.”
After civil rights lawyers claimed that the circumstances at Stateville were too hazardous, a federal judge ordered the state to relocate the majority of the convicts there by the end of September.
Poor living conditions at the nearly century-old institution, according to Broadway’s family, should have led to Stateville’s closure sooner.