Marshall Project investigation revealed Illinois DOC ignored fire hazards at Joliet mental health prison, killing two

On July 24, 2026, The Marshall Project, WBEZ, and the Chicago Sun-Times published a joint investigation documenting more than 70 fires at the Joliet Treatment Center — an Illinois Department of Corrections facility opened in 2017 to provide intensive mental health treatment — over the preceding three years. The investigation found that incarcerated men, denied adequate mental health care and confined to their cells for long stretches with little treatment, set themselves and their cells on fire in desperate attempts to obtain help; at least a dozen men set themselves on fire, two of whom died.

The investigation's central case is Jason Stephens, who set a fire in his cell on the night of July 27, 2024. Security camera footage and fire department records show that guards took more than ten minutes to enter the hallway after smoke began billowing from his cell, then sprayed pepper spray and a fire extinguisher through the food slot before walking away with Stephens still locked inside. When firefighters arrived, guards blocked the ambulance at the prison gate for nearly 28 minutes — arguing over paperwork while Stephens lay unconscious with a charred airway — before allowing it to leave. Doctors at a Chicago-area hospital performed a tracheotomy but could not save him; Stephens died at age 38 approximately two weeks later. A second man, Latrell Edwards, died in early 2025 after a November 2024 cell fire.

Government records reviewed by the investigation documented years of uncorrected fire safety failures: cellblocks where Stephens was housed lacked sprinklers and had inoperable or disabled alarms; the facility could not produce an evacuation plan at its annual inspection. The Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office flagged these violations in 2023 and again in an inspection conducted days before Stephens' death. As far back as 2020, the Joliet Fire Department had raised the gate-delay problem with prison administrators — without resolution. The Illinois Department of Corrections declined to answer investigators' questions, citing pending litigation, and refused to release incident reports; The Marshall Project filed suit to obtain the records.