"I had no ia that I was about to be tortured for s," Anthony Gay said.
Contents:
- ILLOIS’ ANTHONY GAY ISOLATED CONFEMENT REFORM BILL PASS HOE
- ANTHONY GAY APPEALS FOR HELP OM FERAL PRISON
- CHARGED FOR STEALG HAT AND $1, ANTHONY GAY RELEASED AFTER 22 YEARS OF SOLARY NFEMENT
- ANTHONY GAY AWAS FED SENTENCG WHILE PLANNG ANTI-SOLARY NFEMENT EVENT
- THE ANTHONY GAY LAW
- AFTER 22 YEARS OF 'PSYCHOLOGIL TORTURE' IN SOLARY CONFEMENT, ANTHONY GAY FIGHTS FOR STATE LAW RTRICTG ITS USE
ILLOIS’ ANTHONY GAY ISOLATED CONFEMENT REFORM BILL PASS HOE
Once aga behd bars he lls “prsive” for yet another crime he says he did not m, activist Anthony Gay is now a North Carola feral prison * anthony gay bill *
Romanucci & Bland, LLC and Illois State Reprentative LaShawn Ford (D- Chigo, 8th District) together announce that The Anthony Gay Isolated Confement Rtrictn Act, Illois Hoe Bill 3564 (formerly HB 182 2020) was approved by the Hoe of Reprentativ the eveng of April 22. The bill is named for former mate Anthony Gay who was held solary nfement for two s, cludg 15 years of a prolonged sentence as a punishment for behavr rultg om his isolatn. Durg his extreme isolatn, he was nied appropriate and necsary mental health treatment which ma impossible for Gay to port wh prison l and regulatns, leadg him to btally mutilate himself untls tim and endure years of mental and physil torture.
Most recently, Brian and I ttified together favor of HB 3564, which I’m honored has been named the Anthony Gay Isolated Confement Bill. I will keep up my fight for change Brian’s name, ” said Anthony Gay, former solary nfement mate. “The Anthony Gay Act is signed to protect at a legislative level the nstutnal rights of some of the most vulnerable members of our populatn.
The Anthony Gay Isolated Confement Rtrictn Act, would: -Lim a mted person to no more than 10 nsecutive days isolated nfement a 180-day perd. Anthony Gay was released om prison Augt of 2018 and has filed a feral lawsu agast former Illois Department of Correctns (IDOC) director John Baldw, current IDOC director Rob Jefeys, Wexford Health Sourc, a private pany that provis medil and mental health re to IDOC mat, the warns and assistant warns of stutns at which Anthony Gay was imprisoned, and several employe of IDOC and Wexford.
ANTHONY GAY APPEALS FOR HELP OM FERAL PRISON
“I rapidly terrated,” Gay said. “I stantly terrated, and started experiencg symptoms of mental illns and stead of removg me om the environment, or providg aquate mental health treatment, they punished me for .” * anthony gay bill *
District Court for the Central District of Illois, charg the Defendants wh torture of Gay, vlatg the Eighth Amendment’s prohibn on cel and unual punishment, the Amerins wh Disabili Act, and the Rehabilatn Act.
The State’s treatment of Gay creased his torture and ed him to take erratic and irratnal actns, which clud extensive samplg of repeated and severe self-mutilatn, cludg cuts to the Platiff’s scrotum, arms, legs, and eyelids. Rather than providg the necsary and sential psychiatric re, the State pursued crimal charg agast Gay, which extend his prison sentence for years and ed his mental ndn to terrate a blatant vlatn of his nstutnal rights, the lawsu stat. Spurred by a Chigo Tribune vtigatn volvg a man who spent two s isolatn after beg nvicted of stealg a hat and a sgle dollar bill, a proposed state law would lim how long an Illois prisoner n stay solary nfement.The Anthony Gay Isolated Confement Rtrictn Act would bar the Illois Department of Correctns om placg an mate isolatn for more than 10 days a six-month perd.
CHARGED FOR STEALG HAT AND $1, ANTHONY GAY RELEASED AFTER 22 YEARS OF SOLARY NFEMENT
Photo ptn: Anthony Gay and (right set) his self-mutilated arm * anthony gay bill *
It also would require IDOC to give isolated mat accs to group therapy, medil appotments, tnal class, job assignments and exercise when outsi their cells.Anthony Gay be emotnal while speakg March 10, 2020, about his years solary nfement. Now you’re torturg someone.”The bill is named for Anthony Gay, a Rock Island native who entered prison 1994 as a young man, nvicted of robbery after brawlg wh another teen who told police that Gay took his hat and stole $1.
Gay expected to serve as ltle as 3½ years.Instead, a fight wh a fellow mate led to Gay’s first stt segregatn, phg him to a downward spiral that rulted 22 years solary nfement. Shortly after the isolatn started, Gay began self-mutilatg and attemptg suici.Alone for 23 hours a day and starved for human ntact, Gay took extreme steps to get attentn. Once, he packed a fan motor si a gapg leg wound; another time he cut open his scrotum and serted a zipper.Srs are visible on Anthony Gay's arm while he worships at the Church of Peace Rock Island 2018.
ANTHONY GAY AWAS FED SENTENCG WHILE PLANNG ANTI-SOLARY NFEMENT EVENT
* anthony gay bill *
Gay cut himself repeatedly durg his s solary nfement. (Brian Cassella / Chigo Tribune)As his md began to terrate, Gay beme antagonistic toward his guards and ocsnally threw ure or fec at them, unlawful acts of fiance that stretched his origal sentence to more than two s behd bars.In Livgston County, where Pontiac Correctnal Center is suated, the state’s attorney’s office lodged a seri of 21 dictments agast Gay between 2000 and 2004 for the many tim he threw his own bodily fluids at guards.
The Illois Department of Correctns would later intify Gay urt filgs as one of a few dozen mat whose mental illns were so acute and dangero that they required full patient re.
THE ANTHONY GAY LAW
Chigo, IL - Sce 2018, Anthony Gay has bee a symbol of the stggle agast wrongful nvictns Illois. As a teen 1994 Rock Island... * anthony gay bill *
But a Tribune vtigatn found his psychiatric treatment often nsisted of a therapist shoutg qutns to him through a door.As he reunted how his mental health erod isolatn, the normally stoic Gay broke down tears Tuday durg a news nference promotg the proposed legislatn.
If the state had followed through wh s plans, Gay would have spent the rt of his life alone si a cell the size of a parkg space.“Instead of beg removed (om solary), I was buried eper,” he said. “I was schled to die solary nfement.”On his darkt days, Gay clung to the ia that he would fd a way to end IDOC’s isolatn polici.“My goal always was to get out and make a difference for the others still there,” he told the Tribune this week.
AFTER 22 YEARS OF 'PSYCHOLOGIL TORTURE' IN SOLARY CONFEMENT, ANTHONY GAY FIGHTS FOR STATE LAW RTRICTG ITS USE
While Illois has signifintly rced the number of days juvenile offenrs spend isolatn and no longer segregatn as a punishment for young people as part of a nsent cree between the partment and the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn of Illois, those polici do not extend to the adult populatn.Ford has phed unsuccsfully for solary nfement reforms for nearly four years, but he believ the bill has s strongt chanc of passg durg the current legislative ssn given Gay’s volvement. The bill, which is assigned to the Hoe Judiciary-Crimal Commtee, is expected to be taken up after the March 17 primary electn, Ford said.Anthony Gay wh one of his attorneys, Maggie Filler of the MacArthur Jtice Center, at Cool Beanz Coffee Hoe Rock Island 2018.