Massive Government Corruption in Illinois & Cook County Corrections Departments

As part of the ongoing Operation Safe Roads federal investigation that led to a guilty verdict for former Governor George Ryan, another state official and two state lobbyists were indicted July 19, 2007.

Former director of Illinois Department of Corrections' Don Snyder is accused of accepting lobbyists' gifts that may have influenced official decisions. These kickbacks for contracts with those doing business with the Illinois Department of Corrections are illegal. He has now been convicted and sentenced to prison. This is another example of the fact that all contracts with Illinios and C[r]ook County require a 10% kickback (bribe) that goes in the coffers of the corrupt political machine in order to fund re-election and line the pockets of corrupt officials, Democrat and Republican.

Two lobbyists accused of paying the kickbacks also were indicted. John J. Robinson, 59, of Barrington Hills, was Undersheriff of Cook County from 1991 until 2001, and also worked between 1996 and 2003 as a paid consultant and lobbyist for several vendors that did business with IDOC, according to the indictment.

The indictment said Larry Sims, 58, of Pleasant Plains, was a lobbyist for several vendors, including a Pennsylvania health care company awarded millions of dollars in contracts to provide health care services to IDOC inmates during Snyder's tenure. The company received 40 million dollars from the State to provide health services to inmates but did vertially nothing.

The Chicago Office of the US Attorney announced in early 2007 that they had started an investigation of civil rights violations at Cook County Jail in regards to inadequate mental health and medical care as well as excessive force.

In July 2007 I, Dr. Linda Shelton, prevailed in a pro se mandamus action in the Circuit Court of Cook County against the Illinois Human rights authority, a division of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission. A mandamus is a complaint asking a court to order an official to perform their statutory mandatory duty. Pro Se means I represented myself, in this case as plaintiff.

I had made a complaint of systemic abuse, medical neglect, torture including illegal use of forced drugs to shut up inmate complaints and illegal use of medical restraints, as well as battery and excessive force in regards to mental health patients. The HRA declared my complaints "not frivolous" but refused to perform their statutory duty and send in a team to investigate these criminal violations of the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Act.

The HRA represented by their defense counsel AG Lisa Madigan capitulated in July 2007 and agreed to investigate the jail. This occurred after I filed a response to their motion to dismiss, which was impossible for them to defend against.

I have turned over all the evidence I have to the US Attorney so they can coordinate their investigation with the investigation by the Illinois HRA. This included affidavits from 40 former female inmates who state how they witnessed rape, medical neglect, torture and excessive force, as well as other disgusting acts of a minority of the jail staff that is covered up by the entire jail staff. These affidavits are very hard to read due to their content and were collected by Dr. Maisha Hamilton, also a victim of false criminal charges and a false conviction, due to her whistle blower activities.

Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird, presiding judge of Chancery in the Circuit Court of Cook County, is the assigned judge on this case and she has ordered the AG to provide her in by August 2007 an affidavit by the HRA that states they are proceeding with this investigation and an estimate of how long the investigation will take.

The HRA investigated my complaints and sustained them, finding that CCDOC illegally violates the IL Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Act by forcefully injecting inmates with psychotropic drugs without legal justification.

The U.S. Attorney in Illinois released a report (98 pages) in Illinois after their investigation sustaining complaints of gross medical negligence, excessive force, and unsanitary and barbaric conditions at the CCDOC in violation of civil rights. This report includes grotesque descriptions of beatings by guards resulting in death and medical neglect of an incredible and barbaric level including failing to treat an inmate with an open fracture and a leg in a cast with antibiotics, resulting in massive infection and the need to ambutate the limb in order to save the inmates life.

Yet the U.S. Attorney has failed to indict any staff at CCDOC for murder or felony violation of civil rights. This is like investigating a gang and then going to their leader and stating: We found you are engaged in drug dealing, murder, extortion, and prostitution. We are giving you two months to clean up your act. Please get back to us with a plan.

Are we living in the twighlight zone? Do we have ANY rights? Does the FBI and U.S. Attorney serve any purpose or care about the people?

It is my opinion that the jail should be put under federal supervision and the present Sheriff Dart of Cook County, former Sheriff Sheahan and the top administrators should be held fully accountable for what amounts to many instances of negligent manslaughter in addition to many other crimes.

A civil society should not tolerate abuse of the mentally ill and even the most vile criminal should be treated humanely. A society should be judged not for how they treat their most notable and prominent citizens, but how they treat their most needy and despised citizens. We have a long way to go before we can claim the high ground in this evaluation. As long as torture exists in American, our Constitution and Bill of Rights are in jeopardy.

My letter to the HRA follows:

From: Linda Lorincz Shelton April 10, 2006

Joseph Mengoni, Chairperson
Human Rights Authority
Chicago Region
West Suburban Regional Office
P.O. Box 7009
Hines, IL 60141-7009

Dear Mr. Mengoni:

I am writing to ask you to investigate the systemic violation of the Mental Health and Developmental Disability Code (MHDDC) by Cermak Health Services of Cook County (CHS) at 2700 S. California Ave., Chicago. CHS is part of Cook County Jail (CCJ) and houses inmates on medical and psychiatric tiers. This is compounded by the extreme incompetence of the medical and psychiatric staff and their grotesque malpractice, amounting to outrageous abuse of patients/inmates. You may want to refer this to your intake unit. I know you have the ability to refer your findings to prosecuting authorities. I ask that when you are finished you provide your report to the FBI Civil Rights Division for prosecution, because the ongoing and willful abuse of patients is so grotesque. It clearly is a criminal violation of §5/6-102 and is a pattern of conspiracy to violate rights under color of law (a federal felony) as well as an illegal penalty on the exercise of constitutional rights (a federal crime.).

Just because a person is an inmate at CCJ does not mean that physicians and medical staff at CHS can violate the MHDDC. Medical staff at CHS, under direction of the Director of Psychiatry, Dr. Carrington, use involuntary forced injections of Ativan® repeatedly, on a daily basis, to shut up inmates, silence complaints, punish infractions of jail rules of conduct and in retaliation for complaints. These injections are rarely used because an inmate is a danger to themselves or others. The MHDDC is grossly violated on a regular and sanctioned basis. The Medical Director sanctions its use in this fashion.

I am a civil rights activist and whistleblower. I have been illegally arrested and repeatedly incarcerated at CCJ on the Cermak medical and psychiatric women’s tiers. I have multiple medical problems as described in Exhibit A, a letter from my cardiologist. Please note that I have been evaluated, at my request by a nationally renowned forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Rappaport, a nationally renowned forensic psychologist, Dr. Maisha Hamilton, psychiatrists at the University of Illinois and the chief of clinics at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Chicago, Dr. Leo Weinstein. All agree that I do not suffer from ANY MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER EXCEPT FOR PTSD AND A LOW LEVEL OF DEPRESSION. They are all powerful witnesses in my civil rights and malpractice suits. I would be more than happy to share their reports with you.

I was incarcerated on the women’s medical tier at CHS from 5/10/05 to 5/27/05 and injected at least three times with Ativan®, against my will, to shut me up, on 5/16/05, 5/18/05 and 5/23/05. I had gone on a dry hunger strike, as a protest, and as much as possible loudly complained about violation of my civil rights by pounding on the cell door and throwing water under the door into the hall. The jail staff, in violation of law and my constitutional rights, had denied me a call to an attorney at any time (except collect and attorneys don’t take collect calls from possible new clients); although acting pro se on numerous torts against corrupt State and County officials as well as in several bogus criminal cases, brought in retaliation for my civil rights and whistleblower activities, where I was later found not guilty, denied me access to the law library, pen, paper, grievance forms, a way to file motions or contact opposing counsel, or even a way to notify courts that I was not able to attend hearings and being held incommunicado; denied me medication for asthma, vasospastic angina (cardiac chest pain) and severe neurocardiogenic syncope with episodes of asystole– with the excuse that they believed I was faking my medical problems and having anxiety attacks (endangering my life); and exposed me repeatedly to tobacco smoke and cleaning solutions, to which I have life-threatening sensitivities (they trigger severe asthma attacks). Please note that sedatives such as Ativan® are CONTRAINDICATED in severe asthma attacks and may lead to death.

I was again incarcerated, by a rogue judge issuing illegal orders, from 12/14/05 to 12/30/05 with no bail, on the Cermak women’s acute psychiatric tier (2W) and illegally injected with Ativan®, against my will, to shut me up, on 12/14/05. The Illinois Appellate Court overturned the judges orders and released me on 12/30/05, changing the bail order back to a personal recognizance $10,000, essentially invalidating the incarceration (court documents provided upon request – case # 04 CR 17571-03). I again was incarcerated, by a rogue judge issuing illegal orders, there on 1/6/06 to 1/20/06. The Illinois Appellate Court again invalidated the judge’s orders and freed me (court documents provided upon request). While incarcerated I witnessed repeated mental and physical abuse of inmates by jail staff, medical and psychiatric staff. I was repeatedly physically assaulted, battered and abused. I was denied my usual medications and through the malpractice of jail physicians and mental health workers falsely diagnosed as malingering, faking my medical conditions and suffering from anxiety. The standard method of medical examination and diagnosis by Dr. Nakamoto on 2W is to look at the inmate fully clothed from across the room or across the desk and to diagnose the person that way, assuming what they say is false because they are crazy inmates and just want attention and want to manipulate them. Nurse Johnson, Dr. Nakamoto, Dr. Carrington and mental health worker DeVito were particularly sadistic, incompetent and continually falsely assumed that my asthma attacks, presyncope and severe dehydration were “anxiety” and a “personality disorder.” Of NOTE, when I was released on 1/20/06, I was immediately brought to the University of Illinois Hospital emergency room by my son and admitted for severe dehydration with severe orthostatic vital signs, an inability to stand without assistance, borderline renal failure from severe dehydration, untreated prolonged chest pain and joint injuries from physical abuse. I had dropped in weight from 165 lbs. to 140 lbs. in 14 days, evidence of a life-threatening level of dehydration, which proves CCJ and CHS’s severe malpractice and medical neglect. It took immediate infusion of four liters (one gallon or 8.8 lbs.) of IV solution to stabilize me.

The specific violations, of the MHDDC, include failing to permit patients/inmates to refuse medication, failing to inform patients/inmates that their rights to refuse medication have been denied, failing to prepare the paperwork necessary to document restriction of rights to refuse medications, using forced medication to shut up patients/inmates and punish infractions of jail rules, failure to inform the patient/inmate’s family, regular physician, attorney and the Human Rights Authority, failure to adequately document the reason for forced medication and failure to keep records readily available to HRA concerning the use of forced medication. Of course, since it is a jail there may be a gray area concerning a patient/inmate’s right to call family members and the HRA, as well as their right to be free from restraints. Peneologic considerations may or may not override these rights.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter. I look forward to your thorough investigation and the resulting civil and criminal enforcement of patient/inmates’ civil rights under the MHDDC.

Sincerely,
Attachment Linda Lorincz Shelton, Ph.D., M.D.