Inside Illinois Civil
Commitment
Treatment Behind Razor Wire
A report of key findings from a 2019 survey of
the residents at Rushville Treatment and
Detention Facility, Illinois

2022

Content Warning
A Note Before Reading
Some of the stories in this report describe interpersonal and institutional violence, including
physical violence, sexual violence, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism.
We believe it's important to allow ourselves to feel the emotions that the stories in this
report bring up for us. These emotions help us connect to our humanity and Rushville
residents' humanity. At the same time, these emotions are challenging and not every
moment or setting is a safe place to engage with these emotions.
We encourage readers to do whatever it is that they need to create an emotionally safe
place to take in this heavy and potentially triggering content, even if that means taking a
break and reading another time.

2022, Civil Commitment Working Group
Chicago and Rushville, Illinois
https://insidecivcomil.com
Suggested Citation: "Inside Illinois Civil Commitment: 'Treatment Behind Razor Wire,'" Civil
Commitment Working Group Illinois, 2022.

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |1

Table of Contents
Content Warning ............................................................................................................................................................................0
A Note Before Reading ..........................................................................................................................................................0
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Key Findings and Recommendations.......................................................................................................................... 4
Key Findings ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Our Recommendations.................................................................................................................................................... 4
About Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility ............................................................................................ 5
What is Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility? What is civil commitment? ................. 5
Who goes to Rushville? Why? ..................................................................................................................................... 5
What happens at Rushville? ......................................................................................................................................... 6
About this report ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Who wrote this report? Why? ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Who made this report possible?................................................................................................................................7
Several notes about our findings and terminology .......................................................................................7
Key Finding #1 .................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Civil commitment at Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility is punishment, not
treatment. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Rushville uses solitary confinement to detain residents. ........................................................................ 9
Treatment is not helpful. ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Rushville uses ineffective and harmful practices to detain people. ............................................... 10
Regulation and Evaluation Tools at Rushville ........................................................................................................ 12
STATIC-99R ............................................................................................................................................................................12
Penile Plethysmograph (PPG) ....................................................................................................................................13
Chemical Castration .........................................................................................................................................................13
Polygraph..................................................................................................................................................................................13
Key Finding #2 ................................................................................................................................................................................15
Civil commitment at Rushville disproportionately harms people from marginalized groups.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................15
Black and Indigenous people are overrepresented at Rushville. .......................................................15
Disabled people are overrepresented at Rushville. ....................................................................................16
People with a high school degree or less are slightly overrepresented at Rushville. .......... 17
Why are people from marginalized groups overrepresented at Rushville? ...............................18

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |2
Key Finding #3................................................................................................................................................................................19
Rushville is a violent place with poor living conditions. .................................................................................19
Survey respondents experienced violence or discrimination from staff members or
other Rushville residents. ..............................................................................................................................................19
Many survey respondents shared stories of times that staff were homophobic or
transphobic (discriminatory towards LGBTQ+ people). .........................................................................19
Survey respondents reported receiving poor quality and insufficient healthcare. .............. 21
Overall, Rushville is not a safe or healing place. ............................................................................................. 21
Key Finding #4.............................................................................................................................................................................. 22
Rushville is a life sentence. .............................................................................................................................................. 22
Between 2006 and 2020, more people at Rushville died than were discharged. .............. 22
People at Rushville have been there, on average, for nearly a decade and counting. ...... 22
Many people at Rushville wait years before receiving a civil commitment hearing........... 22
Recommendations ..................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Ending civil commitment .................................................................................................................................................. 23
End civil commitment.................................................................................................................................................... 23
More people out ................................................................................................................................................................ 24
Help those inside now ................................................................................................................................................... 25
Immediate actions by people on the outside............................................................................................... 25
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility must close. ............................................................................ 26
Rushville residents must continue to grow, heal, and take accountability for the harm that
they have caused. ................................................................................................................................................................. 26
Transformative justice is the way forward. .......................................................................................................... 26
The work goes on. ...................................................................................................................................................................27
Our Projects...........................................................................................................................................................................27
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................................................................. 28
Works Cited .................................................................................................................................................................................... 29

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |3

"This is double jeopardy, a prison under the scheme of treatment for sex
offender[s]. If treatment works, why are they not releasing people like
you should[?]
People should know that we have all done our time in prison and that
we are being held in another prison indefinitely under the term of
treatment.
We are locked behind razor wire. And they are not releasing people like
they should."
—Rushville survey respondent

“Rushville is a warehouse, not a treatment facility, not under the Sex
Offender Management Board, and not recognized by the Psychiatric
Association.
It is for all intents and purposes a prison and not a medical facility.
It offers no reconciliation with family, friends, or persons who have been
victimized.”
—Rushville survey respondent

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |4

Introduction
Key Findings and Recommendations
Key Findings
This report is a summary of the responses that people incarcerated at Rushville Treatment
and Detention Facility shared in a 2019 survey. It highlights the concerns, safety risks, and
abuses that people who are locked up in Rushville shared with us and connects these selfreports with supporting data collected by professionals who study civil commitment.
Rushville residents were clear about the following:
1.

Civil commitment at Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility is punishment, not
treatment.
2. Civil commitment at Rushville disproportionately harms people from marginalized
groups, particularly LGBTQ+, Black, multiracial, and Indigenous people.
3. Rushville is a violent place with poor living conditions.
4. Civil commitment at Rushville is a life sentence.

Our Recommendations
United by our opposition to sexual violence and our commitment to building a world where
no one experiences sexual harm, we do not believe it is possible to build that world so long
as civil commitment continues to exist. We know that ending sexual harm and closing
Rushville will not happen overnight. To that end, we have provided both immediate and
long-term proposals directly informed by feedback from people detained at Rushville.
End civil commitment
•
•

Reallocate resources that are earmarked for expanding Rushville’s capacity or
bolstering its punitive and surveilling practices.
Make Rushville voluntary.

Less people in
•
•
•

Provide education about civil commitment for people serving criminal sentences.
Eliminate the STATIC 99R.
Invest in voluntary, community-based treatment options.

More people out
•
•
•

Release people at higher rates.
Create transparent and accessible pathways for accessing conditional release.
Instate therapist-patient confidentiality.

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |5
•

Invest in voluntary community-based treatment options.

Help those inside now
•
•
•

Allow external monitors to survey the facility.
Expand access to the outside world.
Reallocate resources to offer more one-on-one, confidential therapy.

What people on the outside can do right now
•
•
•
•

Send in care packages of food, gender affirming products, toiletries, and other
necessities.
Educate yourself and others about civil commitment.
Challenge stigma surrounding people who have caused sexual harm.
Support or launch transformative justice initiatives in your community.

About Rushville Treatment and
Detention Facility
What is Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility? What is civil commitment?
Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility, or just “Rushville,” is one of two civil
commitment facilities in the state of Illinois. As of May 2022, Rushville detains 520 people,
over 8% of the U.S.'s civilly committed population.
Many people are sent to civil commitment after they have already served their criminal
sentence in a prison. Over 6,300 people in the US receive “treatment” at a civil
commitment facility. While being incarcerated in a jail or prison is a criminal sentence made
by the criminal courts, being detained in a civil commitment facility is a civil sentence made
by the civil courts.
To get released, individuals must progress through several phases of treatment for mental
illness and rounds of behavioral evaluation. This process often takes decades and has no
clear end date. Detention at Rushville is remarkably costly to taxpayers and the state. In the
most recent data available, the typical annual cost of incarcerating a person was $34,362 in
the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) compared to $45,366 at Rushville.

Who goes to Rushville? Why?
Near the end of their sentence, some people who are detained in IDOC are subjected to a
battery of psychological exams that are used to determine if they are “sexually violent
persons” (SVPs). According to psychological and risk assessment exams, SVPs have a
“mental disorder” that increases their likelihood to reoffend post-release. In the last weeks
of their criminal detention in IDOC, those who are deemed high risk are transferred to
solitary confinement and informed that they will not be released as sentenced. Instead,

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |6
they are transferred to Rushville and held pre-trial until civil courts determine if they should
be mandated to indefinite detention and treatment at Rushville.
This information comes as a shock to many, as it is not mentioned during any criminal court
proceedings. One mother of a person who is detained at Rushville told us that she had
already purchased a new home that met all the registry requirements in Illinois so that her
son could move back home to live with her. Then, six weeks before he was supposed to
move into their new home, she was devastated to discover that he’d be detained
indefinitely.
Though a handful of people voluntarily commit themselves to Rushville, most people at
Rushville have been convicted of causing serious harm. This often includes rape, child
sexual abuse, and child pornography charges. While the charge names usually don’t tell us
much about the kind of harm that has happened, we know that many people at Rushville
have perpetrated sexual violence. Our report doesn't aim to erase or minimize the harm
caused or the importance of taking accountability for this harm. Instead, we argue that not
only does civil commitment fail to prevent sexual violence, but also, that its existence is a
form of sexual violence itself. If our goal is to work towards a world free from sexual
violence, civil commitment pushes us away from that goal.

What happens at Rushville?
Once a person arrives at Rushville, they are held in segregation (AKA solitary confinement)
for several days before they join a unit with other residents because of the heightened risk
of suicide after discovering their indefinite detainment. After being transferred to general
population, they have the option to attend group therapy as their main form of treatment.
Some see a psychiatrist every 90 days to monitor psychotropic medications. Though
receiving treatment is technically voluntary, people at Rushville are not allowed to be
released unless they finish their treatment, making this a coercive practice where they must
receive treatment or stay in Rushville for life.
However, residents at Rushville find it impossible to be released even when agreeing to and
spending years in treatment. Further, treatment at Rushville relies on outdated and cruel
practices that are under-researched or unsupported by research. Treatment is often
provided by inexperienced graduate students who leave the facility as soon as they finish
their residency. Residents get shuffled between providers due to the high turnover of
therapists. These practices make it incredibly difficult to move forward in treatment and
get released.

About this report
Who wrote this report? Why?
A group of volunteers who met through the Chicago chapter of the non-profit organization
Black and Pink wrote this report between 2019 and 2022, but the work started back in 2013.
At that time, volunteers built penpal relationships with people who were detained in

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |7
Rushville and became alarmed by the stories Rushville residents were sharing: residents
were dying at abnormally high rates and being denied proper medical treatment.
Concerned and curious to learn more, we formed a civil commitment working group, wrote
up a 50-question survey, and mailed it to all 576 people who were locked up at Rushville in
the spring of 2019.
204 people returned this survey to us. After receiving the surveys, we followed up with the
70 Black and Pink members inside Rushville to gain more information. We received
responses to 20 follow-up questionnaires and conducted seven phone interviews, each of
which helped guide us chart the path toward producing this report. This report is a
summary of what people at Rushville said in the 2019 survey and feedback we’ve received
from people inside Rushville and their loved ones in the free world since then.
In 2022, we left Black and Pink to form an autonomous group of researcher-activists who
are fighting for liberation for civilly committed people in Illinois, guided by the principles of
abolition and transformative justice.

Who made this report possible?
This survey project and report were created by dozens of volunteers and community
members who received no payment for working on this project and several interns who
were paid by or received academic credit from their university. The Families and Friends for
Freedom collective, a community of loved ones of people inside Rushville, were immensely
supportive and provided crucial feedback that informed the survey and this report.
In addition to all the data shared in this report, survey respondents provided us with dozens
of pages of handwritten testimony. We developed a publicly accessible digital archive to
preserve and share these materials. Details about how to access this archive are included
at the end of this report.

Several notes about our findings and terminology
The findings below are based on the survey responses from 204 Rushville residents. When
you see the term “respondents” in this report, that means we are talking about people who
responded to the survey.
People who are locked up at Rushville are referred to as "residents" by Rushville staff and by
each other. We use this language throughout because we want to mirror the language that
respondents use to describe themselves. That said, we know that the vast majority of
people are held at Rushville against their will, so we want to clarify that by using the term
"residents" we do not intend to erase the reality that they are residing at Rushville
involuntarily.
Similarly, Rushville is officially called a "Treatment and Detention Facility," not a jail or prison
and Rushville residents are "committed," not "incarcerated." We alternate between using the
terms "facility" and "prison" and the phrases "committed," "incarcerated," "detained," and
"locked up" because we want to reflect the language that people inside used in their survey

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |8
responses. Once again, we recognize that people at Rushville are held against their will. Very
few voluntarily commit themselves to the program, and those who do are not given the
freedom to retract their consent.
This survey was administered in spring of 2019, meaning that the responses shared here are
approximately three and a half years old at the time of publication. In that time, we have
experienced the continued development of the #MeToo movement against sexual violence,
uprisings for racial justice and carceral reform/abolition in the wake of George Floyd and
Breona Taylors’ murders, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. is in a different moment
culturally and the world is permanently altered by the pandemic. During this time, there
have been shifts at Rushville, as well. All prisons have become dangerous in another unique
way as a result of the pandemic.
At Rushville, many residents reported that conditions worsened as a result of the pandemic.
Anecdotally we heard that staff were inconsistent about wearing masks. Frequent
quarantines were enforced which confined residents to their rooms, prevented them from
accessing group therapy, and made them miss court dates. Visits were halted and loved
ones reported that it was hard to get updated information about the status of the visitation
program. One family drove five hours to reach the facility just to be turned away at the
gate. Respondents and family members of people inside were dissatisfied with the facility’s
response to the pandemic and saw the public health measures practiced inside the facility
as insufficient.
Over the last several years, lawsuits against Aramark (Rushville’s food vendor) and Rushville
brought about incremental improvements in living conditions. In 2021, a new director took
over Rushville. So far residents and family members alike report that this new administration
feels like a positive change; that the new director is more responsive to residents’ and
family members’ concerns; and that his approach is more therapeutic. We’ve seen an
uptick in release rates, too. We celebrate these small improvements as we maintain that
involuntary treatment can never authentically be therapeutic because healing must be
consensual.

Inside Illinois Civil Commitment |9

Key Finding #1
Civil commitment at Rushville
Treatment and Detention Facility is
punishment, not treatment.
"Civil commitment is nothing more
than continuance of incarceration."
—Rushville survey respondent

Rushville uses solitary confinement to detain residents.
More than half of the survey respondents (67%) reported being sent to solitary
confinement, also known as segregation. An abundance of data from a variety of sources
show that solitary confinement poses serious mental and physical health risks, and thus it
cannot be healing (Wolcke, 2022). Survey respondents also reported the use of other
punitive measures like handcuffs, the restricted use of locked facilities such as showers,
and the removal of personal property as punishment. 1

Treatment is not helpful.
Survey respondents said they received a variety of treatments at Rushville, but most
respondents did not think these treatments had been helpful. Their reports are supported
by experts: for more than 20 years the American Psychiatric Association has objected to
civil commitment laws, calling them a “serious assault on the integrity of psychiatry”
(Schwartz, 2000).

Note about our graphics: In some cases, you might notice that the percentages we discuss
in this report look a little different from the diagrams that you see (the ones with the stick
figures). For instance, maybe a diagram will show that 2 out of 4 people gave a certain
response on our survey, but in the text you can see that the exact percentage of people
who gave that response was actually 45% (which is not quite the same as 2 out of 4
people). This is because we rounded the percentages to try to make our diagrams as
understandable as possible, and we noticed that showing exact percentages by only
shading part of a person made them look a little confusing.
1

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 10
More than 2 out of 3 respondents (69%) said that
they received individual therapy, and nearly 2 out
of 3 respondents (62%) reported that they
received group therapy.

67%

Most of these respondents said these types of
therapy had not been helpful for them or their
release. This was partly because the respondents
voiced numerous concerns about the therapists
at Rushville, including that they were judgmental,
unsympathetic, and had high turnover.

have been sent to
solitary confinement

Rushville uses a tier system to measure
treatment progress. If a resident shows
improvement according to therapists and
evaluators, they move up to a higher tier level.
More than 3 out of 4 respondents (78%) said the
tier system at Rushville was not fair at all. They
felt people at Rushville were assigned to tiers
randomly or for unclear reasons.

'• '• '• '• '•
' '' ' '

Many respondents reported that being civilly
committed was a life-long sentence.
Respondents also strongly expressed that being
civilly committed wasn’t helping anyone—not
themselves, and not the communities they came
from.

Rushville uses ineffective and harmful
practices to detain people.
Rushville uses the following tools (see Ineffective
Practices table, next page) to assess each
resident's risk of reoffending, prevent re-offense,
and track "treatment" progress. All these tools are
controversial. Risk assessment materials are tools
that are used to predict the likelihood that an
individual will act in a certain way (namely,
reoffending). They’re based off predictive
algorithms and past criminology studies.
But research does not show that these tools
work (Hoppe, Meyer, De Orio, Vogler, &
Armstrong, 2020). None of these tools (or risk
assessment tools in general) support Rushville
residents' healing, treatment, or progress, and

•••••

“No component of the
therapy is used
exclusively for the
treatment of sex
offenders. This is NOT a
mental health facility, it is
a […] holding facility
designed to [take] as
much time - and as much
life - of the inmates as
possible."
—Rushville survey respondent

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 11
thus, none of these tools make communities safer.
The data gathered from these tools often end up
harming residents' chances at release in court. No
equation can predict a given individual’s behavior,
and data about the past behavior of a group of
people cannot predict the future behavior of any
specific individual.

"Part of the facility's socalled 'mission statement'
is to provide 'state of the
art' and 'sex-offender
specific' treatment, but
the course of treatment
offered has been proved
outdated[.]”
—Rushville survey respondent

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 12

Regulation and Evaluation Tools at
Rushville
Rushville uses the following tools to measure treatment progress and control residents’
behavior. Many of these measures rely on risk assessment data, or data that draws
correlation between an individuals’ characteristics and their behavior. Behavioral risk
assessment measures rely on the false pretense that human behavior can be predicted.
These tools raise a host of ethical red flags, as they use generalized statistics to make
decisions about individuals’ freedoms. Instead of imposing retroactive consequences for
individuals’ historic behaviors, risk assessment tools justify punishing individuals for their
“risk” of committing behaviors that have not already occurred. These tools are punitive, not
rehabilitative.
Residents at Rushville have criticized the following tools. They have reported that the use of
the penile plethysmograph is humiliating and that the images and sounds shown to them
during the exam is disturbing. Residents also report that the use of a polygraph creates a
culture of distrust that is a barrier to cultivating a healing treatment environment. When
residents raise such concerns, question the accuracy of these measures, and refuse to take
polygraph tests or PPG exams, they are punished further. 2

STATIC-99R
What is it?

The STATIC-99R is a ten-question diagnostic survey about an individual’s
personal and criminal history. The rationale for the test’s algorithm and
weighting is not revealed by the test’s creators.
Except for those who committed themselves, all residents are examined
using the STATIC-99R.

What is it
used for?

The STATIC-99R is used along with several psychological evaluations to
determine the likelihood that someone will reoffend, which informs
decisions about whether or not someone will be civilly committed.

Critiques

The questions on the STATIC-99R exam discriminate against people who
have had “any male victims” and those who have not lived with a romantic
partner. In addition to normalizing violence against women, this results in
queer people and younger people being ranked as higher risk.

Even if diagnostic tests do not influence the initial commitment hearing, polygraphs and
PPGs will ultimately become important in determining an offender’s progression through
treatment, risk level, and potential for release (Vogler, 2021, p. 126).
2

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 13

Studies of the STATIC-99R's accuracy rate are highly variable, at best it's
only found to be about 70% accurate (Barbaree, Seto, Seto, Langton, &
Peacock, 2001). The test rarely produces outcomes that qualify someone
to be civilly committed and can allow for bias to be disguised as objective
calculations in legal proceedings (Vogler, 2021, p. 126).

Penile Plethysmograph (PPG)
What is it?

A penile plethysmograph device is attached to the individual's penis while
they are shown sexually suggestive content. The device measures blood
flow to the area, which is considered an indicator of arousal.
11 survey respondents reported experiencing a penile plethysmograph.

What is it
used for?

The PPG is used to determine a resident’s treatment progress and assess
risk of reoffending.

Critiques

Critics debate both the efficacy and morality of the PPG. Further, the
guidelines for administration of the PPG are vague and variable between
facilities (Blumberg, 2018).

Chemical Castration
What is it?

Chemical castration is when an individual is prescribed drugs to alter their
hormonal chemistry. At Rushville, chemical castration includes
administering anti-androgens such as Leuprolide and Eligard as well as
Estrogen (Estradiol). 25 survey respondents reported experiencing
chemical castration.

What is it
used for?

To limit arousal and sexual functioning (such as preventing erections).

Critiques

The hormonal therapy used for chemical castration can have major side
effects that impact both physical and mental health such as bone density
loss, infertility, and depression (Lee & Cho, 2003). The ethics of chemical
castration are highly contested, and many critics question the legality of
allowing the state to alter a person's body (Scott & Holmberg, 2003).

Polygraph
What is it?

Sometimes referred to as a “lie detector test,” a polygraph test measures
bodily responses while an individual is asked a series of questions.
116 survey respondents reported experiencing a polygraph.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 14

What is it
used for?

To determine a resident’s treatment progress and assess risk of
reoffending.

Critiques

Studies of polygraph tests accuracy rates are highly variable (Grubin,
2010). Polygraphs are considered to be so unreliable that they are
inadmissible in Illinois courts.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 15

Key Finding #2
Civil commitment at Rushville
disproportionately harms people from
marginalized groups.
Racial
Demographics
at Rushville
■ 52% white

tttttttttt
■ 31% Black

14% more than one race, Hispanic or Latino, or Native American*
Black and Indigenous people are
overrepresented at Rushville.
A little more than half of respondents (52%) said
they were white. Nearly 1 out of 3 respondents
(31%) were Black/African-American, nearly 1 in 10
(9%) reported more than one race, 3% were
Hispanic/Latino, and 2% were Native American. 3
LGBTQ+ people are overrepresented at Rushville.
Slightly more than half of respondents said they
were heterosexual or straight (54%). Over 1 in 4
respondents (26%) were bisexual, and 11% were
gay or lesbian. The Rushville population is
disproportionately LGBTQ+: in the Illinois general

Racial Overrepresentation at
Rushville
Black

Native
American

Rushville
Survey

31%

2%

IL General
Population

14%

0.7%

The percentages shown in this graphic do not add up to 100% because 3% of respondents
identified as another race that's not listed here or did not report their race.
3

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 16

LGBTQ+ Overrepresentation at Rushville
Gay or
Lesbian

Bisexual

Transgender

Two Spirit

Rushville
Survey

11%

26%

3%

1%

IL General
Population

2%

2%

0.5%

unknown

population, 2% of people report that they are bisexual, and 2% report that they are gay or
lesbian (The Williams Institute, 2019). 4
Most respondents (95%) said that they were not transgender. 3% of respondents described
themselves as transgender women. This is six times more than in Illinois generally, where
0.5% of the general population is transgender (Flores, Herman, Gates, & Brown, 2016, p. 3).

Disabled people are overrepresented at
Rushville.
We have ample anecdotal evidence that
disabled people are overrepresented at
Rushville, face unique hurdles when advocating
for themselves in court and with staff, and are
not receiving adequate care. We attempted to
gather quantitative data that shows how
disabled people are overrepresented, but errors
in our survey design make drawing a clear
quantitative conclusion difficult.
Many respondents at Rushville reported that
they did not have a disability but that they did
receive care for a disability. Since we'd consider
someone who receives care for a disability to be
disabled, this shows us that we did not provide
respondents with a clear definition of disability.

LGBTQ+ Demographics
at Rushville

•••••

11111
•••• •
11111
■ 54% straight

■ 26% bisexual
■ 11% gay or lesbian

The percentages here do not add up to 100% because 9% of Rushville survey respondents
listed one of the following sexuality: pansexual, queer, same-gender loving, Two Spirit,
asexual/grey-asexual, or other/self-described.

4

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 17

Disability, Mental Illness, and Low Education Overrepresentation at Rushville
Disabled

Mental Illness

High School
Degree or Less

Rushville Survey

26%

68%

48%

IL General
Population

21%

4%

41%

We also received feedback that the survey itself was not accessible to many cognitively
disabled people inside Rushville which means that their perspectives are underrepresented
in these responses.
Nevertheless, our quantitative data still shows that people in Rushville are
disproportionately likely to have a physical or mental disability. 26% of respondents at
Rushville said they had some form of disability, compared to 21% of adults in Illinois (Illinois
Department of Public Health, 2014, p. 8). 5 Survey respondents reported needing assistance
in forms such as mobility aids, psychiatric medication, diabetes treatment, physical
therapy, pain management, dialysis, and learning aids.
If we count mental illness as a disability, the discrepancy widens, with 68% of Rushville
respondents stating they were diagnosed with a mental illness compared to just 4% in
Illinois diagnosed with a “serious mental condition" (Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, 2015, p. 10). Survey respondents reported being diagnosed by a
clinician with conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and paraphilic disorders. Though
32% did not report a mental illness, according to Illinois law, a mental illness diagnosis is a
required condition for civil commitment, meaning everyone at Rushville is considered by
the state to have mental illness, even if they did not self-report this in the survey.

People with a high school degree or less are slightly overrepresented at
Rushville.

Statistically comparing the overrepresentation of disabled people within Rushville to the
general population is difficult because definitions of disability vary widely study by study in
the field. Because we did not define disability when asking Rushville residents if they are
disabled, we are not able to compare our data to a study that used the same definition of
disability as us (since we didn't use one at all). The study on prevalence of disability in
Illinois that is cited here defined disability as either or both having an activity limitation due
to physical, mental, and/or emotional problems or using a mobility-related aid.
5

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 18
About half of the respondents at Rushville (48%) had a high school degree or less education
compared to 41% of Illinois residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Respondents reported
that the treatment program is not accessible to many people inside. One respondent wrote,
"Many if not most inmates are learning disabled and will never go home. Not because they
are actually dangerous but because they lack the ability to complete the written work
required in treatment." This suggests that the “treatments” that Rushville offers are not
useful to a large portion of residents, which means that in practice residents are given a life
sentence since they are unable to complete the necessary work to advance toward release.

Why are people from marginalized groups overrepresented at Rushville?
Recent data from The Williams Institute argues that the "heightened rate of policing and
incarceration of Black Americans and the stigmatization of Black sexuality" is one potential
reason that Black people are civilly committed at disproportionate rates (Hoppe, Meyer, De
Orio, Vogler, & Armstrong, 2020, p. 13).
The Williams Institute report also suggests that the overrepresentation of queer people in
civil commitment is related to the STATIC-99R risk assessment tool that determines if
people with sex offenses in Illinois will be marked "sexually violent persons" and sent to
Rushville. Those who perpetrated an assault against someone of the same sex are deemed
higher risk, which means that gay/bisexual men and men who have sex with men are overly
criminalized.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 19

Key Finding #3
Rushville is a violent place with poor
living conditions.
Survey respondents experienced violence
or discrimination from staff members or
other Rushville residents.
More than 3 out of 4 respondents (76%) had
experienced discrimination from prison staff.
26% of respondents reported that they had been
physically harmed by staff and 8% said that they
had been sexually harmed by staff.
Nearly 2 out of 3 respondents (65%) said
Rushville staff had purposely put them in places
where they could be hurt by other residents.
Nearly 3 out of 4 (74%) respondents had
experienced discrimination from other residents.
Most respondents (87%) said they had
experienced verbal harassment from other
residents, and many also said they had been
physically assaulted by other residents.

2 out of 3
said Rushville staff put them
in places where they could
be harmed by other
residents

Many survey respondents shared stories
of times that staff were homophobic or
transphobic (discriminatory towards
LGBTQ+ people).
Residents sent us testimonials detailing their
experiences with homophobia and transphobia.
We asked permission from these residents to
share their testimonials publicly through our
digital archive. On the next page, a document
from the archive describes a resident’s
experience with transphobic harassment.

3 out of 4
experienced discrimination
from staff

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 20

Letter from Samantha detailing transphobia

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Above: A letter sent to us details the transphobia a resident experienced regarding her
body and form of dress (Samantha, 2020).

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 21

Survey respondents reported receiving
poor quality and insufficient healthcare.
Third-party healthcare providers, including
Wexford Health, have been under fire for
mistreatment and neglect in recent years.
Residents have criticized facility staff for
insisting on using handcuffs, including “black
box” handcuffs that can cause permanent wrist
damage, 6 on residents who are brought to
hospitals. Insufficient medical care is an urgent
issue at Rushville, especially given the long-term
nature of detainment and the aging population.
In 2018, Rushville began releasing residents
whose diagnoses were confirmed to be
incurable and terminal. Many residents’
infections or diseases may not have become
terminal if Rushville listened to resident
concerns and provided prompt and preventative
medical attention when their concerns were first
raised.
For example, a resident who was diagnosed with
terminal liver cancer was released in early 2019.
During his time in the free world, he was
hospitalized and received palliative care. He
shared with us that he began seeking treatment
for abdominal pain and early symptoms of liver
cancer several years before he ever received
any medical attention or screening. He died in
the fall of 2019 at the age of 59. His death, and
many others, were preventable.

i tttt
1out of 5
said they had been
sexually assaulted by
other residents

“People are dying. The
medical care is not trying
to save them. They leave
them on the unit when
they should be in the
hospital. So much death
here, more than I've seen
in my entire life.”
—Rushville survey respondent

Overall, Rushville is not a safe or healing place.
Though Rushville was built with the stated purpose of providing treatment, it often causes
or exacerbates harm. Residents are physically and emotionally unsafe, subjected to
discrimination, physical or sexual violence, and medical neglect. Inadequate nutrition and
health services cause new health issues or exacerbate preexisting health issues. These
violent conditions bring about more violence, not healing or "treatment."

6

"Black box" handcuffs are handcuffs that have a plastic shield over the keyhole, preventing
tampering and further hindering mobility.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 22

Key Finding #4
Rushville is a life sentence.
Between 2006 and 2020, more people at
Rushville died than were discharged.
According to a response to the Freedom of
Information Act request that In These Times
reporter Sarah Lazare made in the summer of
2020, 76 people died in custody at Rushville
since the facility opened in 2006. During the
same period only 30 people were discharged
from the facility (Lazare, 2020).

People at Rushville have been there, on
average, for nearly a decade and counting.
At the time of the survey, the length of residents’
detention at Rushville ranged from 6 months to
21 years, and the average amount of time people
had been at Rushville so far was 9 and ½ years.
Indefinite detention with infrequent releases has
led many residents to feel that they have
received a death sentence.

Many people at Rushville wait years before
receiving a civil commitment hearing.
Nearly 2 out of 3 respondents (63%) had been
civilly committed officially through a hearing. 4%
had civilly committed themselves. Another 1 out
of 3 of respondents (33%) were still awaiting
their hearing, meaning they were detained
without having been sentenced.

9½
On average, respondents had been
at Rushville for 9½ years and
counting.

"This is a life sentence
after the completion of a
criminal sentence. We are
treated worse [than]
prisoners. This is a
sentence of Death by
incarceration. Not a
revolving Door program.”
—Rushville survey respondent

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 23

Recommendations
Ending civil commitment
The primary authors of this report came to this work because of their own personal
experiences of sexualized harm. Not everyone involved with this project has been sexually
assaulted, nor has every person inside. But sexual violence does occur in civil commitment,
and Rushville’s practices exacerbate our culture of sexual harm through forced treatment,
recounting traumatic experiences, forced confinement, and experiencing the lack of bodily
autonomy that comes with all forms of detention. We see similarities in our experiences and
stand against Rushville’s practices, declaring that none of us can be free of sexual harm
until we are all free of sexual harm.
United by our opposition to sexual violence and our commitment to building a world where
no one experiences sexual harm, we do not believe it is possible to build that world so long
as civil commitment continues to exist. Instead of investing in punitive and carceral
systems, we strive for a world where bodily autonomy, free and culturally relevant
therapeutic practices, transformative accountability practices, and consensual and
pleasurable sex are abundant.
We know that ending sexual harm and closing Rushville will not happen overnight. We
understand that this work must be done step by step. To that end, we’ve proposed steps
toward abolition below, which are directly informed by feedback from people detained at
Rushville.

End civil commitment
Start by
shrinking it

Reallocate resources that are earmarked for expanding Rushville’s
capacity or bolstering its punitive and surveilling practices.

Make Rushville
voluntary

Make Rushville voluntary, giving people the autonomy to choose
healing when they are ready and able to put in the work. We know that
there are people inside who want treatment. We do not believe that
treatment can happen without their consent.

Less People In
Provide
education
about civil
commitment
for people
serving

Provide education about civil commitment for people serving criminal
sentences before they are released. Educating people who are
incarcerated can prevent them from self-committing and help them
advocate for alternative recovery supports that are located in their
communities of origin.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 24

criminal
sentences
Eliminate the
STATIC 99R

Risk assessment evaluations disproportionately impact LGBTQ+
communities, especially individuals who were accused at a young age.
Removing this assessment process helps to address the disproportionate
impact of civil commitment on LGBTQ+ communities.

Invest in
voluntary,
communitybased
treatment
options

Providing more pathways for people to access healing and accountability
in their communities of origin helps people disrupt cyclical patterns of
trauma that exacerbate their risk of causing sexual harm.

More people out
Release
people at
higher rates

Voluntarily relocating people to facilities that may serve their specific
needs such as adult and elderly care facilities and voluntary
psychiatric hospitals can address the needs of residents while
providing them with individualized care and shrinking the population
of Rushville.

Make
conditional
release more
accessible

Create transparent and accessible pathways for accessing conditional
release. Rushville residents deserve to have clear objectives that they
can work toward in their treatment process.

Instate
therapistpatient
confidentiality

People inside civil commitment facilities should be entitled to the
same privacy protections as any other therapeutic client. The fear
that things they’ve shared in therapy will arise during their court
proceedings is a barrier to authentic treatment. No Rushville resident
should fear self-incrimination when trying to meaningfully engage with
treatment or access help.

Invest in
voluntary
communitybased
treatment
options

Creating more pathways toward healing and accountability in
communities of origin allows Rushville residents to make stronger
cases for their own release via mandatory supervised release or
clemency.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 25

Help those inside now
Allow external
monitors to
survey the
facility

Rushville must be subject to the same oversight and accountability
that is required of IDOC by independent evaulators such as the John
Howard Association.

Expand
access to the
outside world

Expand access to the outside world by allowing greater access to
physical and digital media will strengthen connections between
residents and the outside world and prepare residents for reentry.

Offer more
one-on-one,
confidential
therapy

People inside report that there are limitations to the benefits gained
from group therapy and that they would like more spaces where they
can speak freely and privately. Expanding one on-one therapy,
provided that residents are allowed therapist-patient confidentiality,
will increase support offerings inside.

Immediate actions by people on the outside
Send in care
packages

Send in care packages that contain food, gender affirming products,
toiletries, and cooking supplies.

Educate
yourself and
others

Educate yourself and others about civil commitment, the societal and
interpersonal causes of sexual harm, sex offender registry/legislation,
and misconceptions about the impact of the criminal-legal system on
survivors.

Challenge
stigma

Challenge stigma that shames people who have caused sexual harm
or denies their ability to grow and change.

Support
transformative
justice
initiatives

Support or launch transformative justice initiatives in your community.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 26

Conclusion
Rushville Treatment and Detention Facility must close.
Change is long overdue. As these survey findings make clear, civil commitment is MESSED
UP! People inside Rushville are experiencing violence, trauma, and danger. No one should
have to experience the terror and dehumanization that people at Rushville endure every
day. No one should be punished. No one should be detained or forced to live in a place they
do not want to live with people they have not agreed to live with. We believe in the abolition
of all prisons, including civil commitment.
People inside Rushville have been saying the same thing for years in letters to their friends,
in lawsuits, on phone calls with their families: Rushville does not make us safer. The people
who are detained at Rushville are not safe, and we are not safer because they are detained
there. Rushville does not "cure" people, it cannot prevent harms that have not occurred, it
cannot heal trauma or harm. While anecdotal reports do reflect incremental improvements
to conditions after recent leadership changes at Rushville, the fact remains that Rushville is
not a treatment center, it is a prison full of people who are serving de facto life sentences.
Many people inside want to grow and change, and they want to do that work at home, in
their communities.

Rushville residents must continue to grow, heal, and take
accountability for the harm that they have caused.
We do not defend or condone the serious harms that led to people’s detainment at
Rushville. We believe that everyone at Rushville must face the consequences of the harm
that they've caused and work to rectify it.
At the same time, we know that accountability is only possible when all parties consent to
the process. People cannot be accountable for the harm that they’ve caused or heal from
the harm that they’ve experienced without their consent. We know that many Rushville
residents are victims of abuse themselves. Forcing people to receive treatment that they
do not want to receive is ineffective and cruel; especially when “receiving treatment” means
reliving their own trauma through retelling it to a revolving door of therapists or
experiencing emotional, physical, or sexual violence from staff or residents.

Transformative justice is the way forward.
We believe in principles of transformative justice:
Harmful actions should be met with consensual accountability and healing.
No one should be thrown away.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 27

Anyone can grow or change.
Consequences are an inevitable outcome of our actions, but punishment is cruel and
unnecessary.
People cannot practice accountability or heal if they do not have agency over their bodies,
spaces, and time. We believe that civil commitment makes transformative justice
impossible because it removes people from the communities and relationships where real
healing and accountability can happen. Rushville residents must address the consequences
of the harm that they caused, but this kind of transformation cannot take place in a place
like Rushville.

The work goes on.
We work to see the end of civil commitment and the growth of true systems of
transformative justice. We hope to spread this report widely, continue educating the public
about civil commitment and the unique experience of sex offenders in our criminal/civil
punishment systems, and fight for reforms that will work towards the abolition of all forms
of incarceration.

Our Projects
Communitybased,
participatory
action
research

In addition to learning and sharing more from the people at Rushville,
we continue to conduct community-based, participatory action
research at the Big Muddy Correctional Center, another civil
commitment facility in Illinois.

Publicly
accessible
archive

We continue to amplify the voices of people detained in civil
commitment through a public digital archive of the stories and
documents that people inside have generously given us permission to
share.

Educational
materials

We are developing a publicly accessible resource to help others learn
about and teach about civil commitment and abolition. These
materials will be publicly accessible on our website.

If you want to follow along with our work and view the civil commitment archive, visit our
website at InsideCivComIL.com. We will continue sending updates to our incarcerated
family via snail mail.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 28

Acknowledgements
This report would not have been possible without the generosity and vulnerability of
Rushville residents. These individuals shared their time, hearts, and words with us. We could
not be more grateful for their bravery. This survey and report were created by a scrappy
and evolving team of dozens of unpaid volunteers (and a few interns) over the course of
seven years. We are thankful for each contributor's thoughtfulness, creativity, and passion,
especially Maria Rebecca Valeriano-Flores, and Emma Peyton Williams, who were the
primary authors on this report.
The production of this survey (including printing and mailing many drafts, paying
respondents, creating our digital archive, and orchestrating events where people helped us
with the survey and learned about the findings of the report) was supported by the
Calamus Foundation, Illinois Humanities, the People’s Law Office, Uptown People’s Law
Center, and the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago. Also, this project’s digital archive,
website, and research was developed through collaboration with graduate programs at the
University of Chicago and University of Washington Information School. We are grateful to
Maya Simkin, Emily Parrish, Brianna Suslovic, aurelius francisco, Lee Jasperse, Cameron Day,
La Suarez, and Lauren Shade for all the work that they put into this project.
Finally, we are thankful for the beautiful graphic design magic that Gabriela Garcia Greco
used to help format previous drafts of this report, and the wisdom of the folks at Research
Action Design: a beautiful collection of comrades who use research to fuel social change.
Thanks for helping us try to do the same.

I n s i d e I l l i n o i s C i v i l C o m m i t m e n t | 29

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