A hunger strike called by men inside the Champaign County Jail ended officially on March 11, 2023, after two weeks. The action initiated by seven people and joined by several others is unprecedented in Champaign County. It has attracted widespread attention to the persistent problems in Champaign-Urbana’s criminal legal system.
As I reported for Smile Politely, the hunger strike focused on the excessive bails individuals were held on in violation of the eighth amendment. Sheriff Dustin Heuerman at first denied the existence of a hunger strike at the jail, then claimed it was over. Meanwhile, emails produced from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show the sheriff’s office working to monitor and undermine the strike.
The population of those in custody of the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office is at an all-time high of around 320 people. Before the pandemic, the number was 180 people. After COVID hit, the numbers were reduced to as low as 140 people.
The spike in the jail population is largely due to the “tough on crime” policy of State’s Attorney Julia Reitz who has argued for high bonds and refused plea deals. It is part of a nation-wide backlash against the reforms proposed after the George Floyd protests in 2020. In Illinois, this battle is being waged around the Pretrial Fairness Act, reforming the bail system. This issue was at the heart of the local hunger strike.
No Comment
From day one of the hunger strike at the jail, Sheriff Heuerman claimed ignorance of the action. On the afternoon of Saturday, February 25th, County Board member Chris Stohr sent an email with “Urgent!” in the subject line to the sheriff, as well as State’s Attorney Julia Reitz, jail superintendent Captain Karee Voges, and head Public Defender Elisabeth Pollock about the strike. Stohr had received an anonymous email about a written declaration of a hunger strike at the jail, which he forwarded to them.
Within an hour, Heuerman replied to Stohr in an email, “To my knowledge there is no large‐scale hunger strike occurring.” The sheriff assured him, “I can guarantee you there is no unethical or illegal treatment going on in the jail.”
The following morning, Sunday, February 26th, at 6:44 a.m., jail guard Ananiyah Okunuga sent an email to the staff that she noticed “a few hunger strike signs on the doors” of Jacob Hill, Troy Carter, Domonic Fortune, John Clay, Rajuan Williams, Malcolm McGee, Richard Frazier—the seven original hunger strikers.
On Sunday, the mental health clinician Morgan Hamblen interviewed each of the men. “Across the board, the answer was essentially the same,” she wrote in an email, “they all want their bonds reduced because their 8th Amendment rights are being violated.”
Lieutenant Jenna Good sent instructions on Monday morning to monitor the food intake and commissary orders for supplementary food packages, and that the strikers were to be denied recreational time. They were put on 23-and-1 lockdown.
On Monday afternoon, February 27th, a reporter from the Fox 55 / 27 news station left a voicemail requesting an interview about the hunger strike. Lt. Good sent an email to the sheriff who asked, “Have they been eating their trays?” Good passed along logs that “show they are refusing trays.” The sheriff’s response shows that his concerns were more bureaucratic than humanitarian: “Have any of them filed any grievance slips regarding the referenced issues? I don’t need them, just wondering.” The men had submitted “a fair share” of requests and grievances, Good replied.
On Tuesday morning, February 28th, Heuerman told his staff, “If a member of the media should contact you about the ‘hunger strike,’ we have no comment.”
State’s Attorney Julia Reitz was conspicuously absent from news about the hunger strike. But email traffic shows she was monitoring the situation. In one email, Capt. Voges was explicit. State’s Attorney Julia Reitz was included in email correspondence for “continued legal guidance with this matter.”
On Thursday, March 2nd, day five of the strike, Capt. Voges sent an email stating, “It appears everyone has rescinded their hunger strike minus Jacob Hill.”
The Article Worked
On Thursday, March 2nd, I published my article about the hunger strike at Smile Politely and the story started to attract some attention.
The morning of Friday, March 3rd, I accompanied the family of Rajuan Williams to bail him out of jail, with the help of the Champaign County Bailout Coalition, who chipped in $2,000 toward his bail. After successfully posting bail, Williams walked out of the jail with his family.
I did an interview with WCIA that afternoon and news of the hunger strike started running after 5 p.m. One of the family members of the strikers told me that the guys inside were watching the news story on their televisions. The original hunger strikers were emboldened by the news and seeing Williams released. Several others joined in the strike.
That afternoon, Capt. Voges emailed the jail staff, “Mr. Rajuan Williams was bonded out this AM by his family and the Bail Out Coalition/Brian Dolinar. Mr. Hill now believes the article worked and they should go back on the hunger strike. We will keep an eye on this.”
No Food No Water
By Friday night, jail guard Jose Chavez reported that on his walk through, several said they were resuming the hunger strike, and yelled, “no food no water.” They included: Jacob Hill, Troy Carter, Richard Frazier, Malcom McGee, and John Clay.
On Tuesday, the captain sat down with eight of the men, she said, “to personally hear from them and let them air their grievances.” In an email, she gave a brief assessment of each of their complaints. Their involvement in the strike had lapsed at times. Several had purchased food through the commissary. But all of the eight people she talked to had serious issues about the lack of representation, high bonds, unfair plea offers, and one complained about being wrongly tasered by a jail guard. Four of the men remained on hunger strike, and one of them, Jacob Hill, had a sign on his window indicating so.
The hunger strike has ended, but the beat goes on. The strike exposed the overcrowded conditions at the jail, the strongarm policies of the state’s attorney, and the restricted communications between those incarcerated and their loved ones.
A public forum about the hunger strike will be held at 3 p.m. this Sunday, April 2nd, at the Urbana Free Library.