A judge has given the green light to a class action lawsuit against Illinois’ prison healthcare system. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois sued the state’s Department of Corrections over problems with prison health care, some inmates allegedly died because of poor treatment.
Initially the ACLU brought the lawsuit on behalf of just a few inmates, but late last week a judge ruled it could cover every inmate with serious medical needs. Camille Bennett is an attorney for the ACLU.
“This is really the mechanism where we then ask the court to try and create systemic change, to fix the overarching problems in the system."
Lawyers for the state of Illinois opposed the ‘class action’ status, and argued that the inmates who originally sued received good care.
