Illinois Prison Health Care Lawsuit Gets Boost from ACLU

A lawsuit over health care in prisons in Illinois is getting a boost from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The federal class action lawsuit charges the Department of Corrections and Wexford Health Sources, a private healthcare company, with providing wholly inadequate health care to inmates.

The suit was filed by Alan Mills who runs the Uptown People’s Law Center, which focuses on prison issues. Mills said the ACLU is joining the case and brings lots of experience to the table in civil rights and class action cases.

His own group, Mills said, is a very small operation.

"We have lots of expertise in the way the prisons work," he said, "but don’t have the horses to do this alone, so I think everybody brings to the table here some really good skills which will allow us to bring this case through to a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor.”

The Illinois Department of Corrections and attorneys for plaintiffs say they have a settlement conference scheduled for late June.