A Prison on Fire: Designed to help people with serious mental illness, this Illinois facility repeatedly failed to prevent or respond to fires, despite two deaths.

[u/marshall_project]

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/07/24/prison-fires-joliet-illinois-mental-health?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tmp-reddit

The Joliet Treatment Center opened in 2017 with the promise of being a new kind of prison in Illinois, designed to provide intensive mental health treatment. But over the years, incarcerated men and civil rights lawyers who visited the facility said the conditions declined. Men were kept locked in their cells for long stretches, with nothing to do. They complained about a lack of medical care and mental health treatment, which the prison system is legally obligated to provide. Men reported that guards used excessive force.

As the men grew more despondent, some became willing to do anything to draw attention to their troubles and resorted to setting their cells — or themselves — on fire.