Anthony Gay’s s solary nfement led to self-mutilatn. Now a proposed law to lim prisoner isolatn Illois is named his honor.

Contents:

• POETRY BY ANTHONY GAY
• ANTHONY GAY’S S SOLARY NFEMENT LED TO SELF-MUTILATN. NOW A PROPOSED LAW TO LIM PRISONER ISOLATN ILLOIS IS NAMED HIS HONOR.
• GAY V. STATE OF ILLOIS
• 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

POETRY BY ANTHONY GAY

”Gay entered the Illois Department of Correctns 1994 as a young man, nvicted of robbery after brawlg wh another teen who told police that Gay took his hat and stole a sgle dollar bill.

ANTHONY GAY’S S SOLARY NFEMENT LED TO SELF-MUTILATN. NOW A PROPOSED LAW TO LIM PRISONER ISOLATN ILLOIS IS NAMED HIS HONOR.

Shortly after the segregatn started, the cuttg and suici attempts 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. (Brian Cassella/Chigo Tribune)By keepg Gay isolatn, the state ntued the creasgly discreded practice of segregatg prisoners om others for long stretch.

The Amerin Correctnal Associatn — the anizatn that provis expected practic for prisons across the untry — issued new standards 2016 that lled for lims on rtricted hog, cludg a provisn that prisoners wh mental illns should not be placed solary nfement for an extend IDOC spokwoman cled to ment on Gay’s rceratn or the treatment he received.

The Tribune tablished a timele of his nfement by reviewg thoands of pag of urt documents, medil rerds and ttimony transcripts and nductg terviews wh Gay, his relativ, his lawyers, prosecutors and prison experts. A feral judge orred the Illois Department of Correctns October to improve s mental health servic — a groundbreakg lg ma after Gay ttified about his troublg treatment Gay’s telligence and an extraordary abily to articulate his mental terratn solary nfement, his lawyers believe he uld be a pivotal voice the growg prison reform movement. ”A rough begngGay’s early fay life his native Rock Island wasn’t always was raised a workg class neighborhood by an nt and uncle who adopted him, although his blogil mother, who had endured stggl of her own, lived the same Quad Ci town along the Mississippi River.

GAY V. STATE OF ILLOIS

(Brian Cassella/Chigo Tribune)He avoid a ser crimal rerd until age 18, when he fought another young man om a nearby block after Gay says the teen sulted his sister.

Gay was acced of takg the other man’s hat and $1 after beatg plead guilty to robbery exchange for a sentence of probatn, but that was soon revoked after he was ught drivg whout a license. And was solary nfement — one Illois prison or another — where Gay would rema for more than 8, 000 panic settg durg those early weeks, he first sought attentn by rememberg somethg he had done when he was 12 years old back Rock Island.

CHARGED FOR STEALG HAT AND $1, ANTHONY GAY RELEASED AFTER 22 YEARS OF SOLARY NFEMENT

‘I was skg’Gay’s next transfer was to an Illois facily synonymo wh tough prison life — the sprawlg Pontiac Correctnal Center Livgston County, where Gay said ndns the prison were worse and he spent most of his time alone and stgglg wh his mental state.

By repeatedly earng disciplary tickets, Gay was slowly eatg through all the good time built to his sentence, phg his release date up to, and eventually beyond, his seven-year 1998, Gay’s nduct rulted his transfer to what was then the newly opened Tamms Correctnal Center, a maximum-secury facily sentially signed to hoe the state’s worst offenrs. ”Lawyers terveneTherapists diagnosed Gay wh antisocial personaly disorr and narcissistic personaly disorr, scribg him as manipulative and anx their not.

ANTHONY GAY AWAS FED SENTENCG WHILE PLANNG ANTI-SOLARY NFEMENT EVENT

He ntued to mutilate himself, but rrectns officials typilly dismissed as a manipulative there’s no doubt Gay was tryg to manipulate the rrectns staff to elic their ncern, the extreme self-harm was also — and simultaneoly — a symptom of a major psychiatric disorr, his attorneys say. “The Illois Department of Correctns was well aware that solary nfement was drivg Anthony sane, but throughout nearly his entire rceratn they did almost nothg to amelrate , ” said attorney Anton Romanucci, who is reprentg Gay his feral, a feral monor blasted the state Department of Correctns a report released 2018, cryg the ndns for mentally ill mat. ”Gay garnered the attentn of prison reform advot as far back as his earlit time at Tamms, as lawyers monored the ndns there and exprsed ncern about years of isolatn for mat urt he ught the notice of downstate prosecutors, who also wanted to make a statement about prison 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 excrement at guards.

The sentenc should have been “prumptively ncurrent, ” Ma argued, bee Gay had been ctody the whole time and not on bond, as spelled out state eventually looked at the law himself and agreed wh Ma’s argument. The prosecutor didn’t ndone what Gay had done, but he also did not want Gay and his lawyers to wage a protracted legal battle when he uld quickly rectify the sentencg error.

Uphoff lost his re-electn bid 2016 after his opponent received the endorsement of the unn reprentg Pontiac rrectns real hope of eedom for the first time s, Gay stopped harmg himself as much his fal months of rceratn. He was released this past days later, Gay told his plete story urt for the first time, ttifyg a class-actn lawsu filed more than 10 years ago by another mate named Ashoor Rasho, a se that has led to the feral monorg of the state Department of Correctns.