WESTFIELD – The Westfield Athenaeum will again collaborate with the Springfield Chamber Players (MOSSO) to present a three-concert series in the Lang Auditorium at the Westfield Athenaeum in 2025.

Athenaeum Director Guy McLain said this will be the fourth year the library will host the Springfield Chamber Players for the concerts, which he called “almost a tradition.” All of the musicians are current or former players with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

WOODLAWN, Ill. (KFVS) – Residents are urged to take shelter following a possible hazmat situation on Interstate 64.

According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, due to an ongoing traffic accident and a possible hazmat situation, a “shelter in place” has been issued for a half-mile radius of I-64 westbound at the 66-mile marker.

Sheriff Jeff Bullard says a chemical truck overturned around the area.

As of around 10 p.m. the hazmat situation has been contained. Crews are remaining on scene to upright the vessel.

The shelter-in-place order remains in place and is precautionary at this time. This order affects residences on Magic Road and Houston Road in Woodlawn.

Residents are urged to remain indoors, close windows and doors, and turn off HVAC systems. Do not use your phones unless necessary.

Additionally, all westbound lanes of I-64 from Woodlawn Exit 69 to Washington County Line are closed.

Traffic going westbound will be detoured at the Woodlawn exit, South to IL HWY 15, and West to US HWY 51 North.

Motorists traveling I-64 Westbound from Mt. Vernon are encouraged to exit at Mt. Vernon 95 exit, travel west on IL HWY 15 to US HWY 51 then North to I-64.

We will continue to update as more information becomes available.

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Our state corrections department relegates people to solitary confinement, locks them behind thick iron doors, and leaves them to languish and suffer there for years and decades on end.

What is even more shocking is that the department is not required by law to report any data on who is subjected to solitary confinement, why they are placed there, or how long they are left to endure this treatment, leaving all of us—including lawmakers—in the dark about its use.

Solitary confinement in Illinois must come out of the shadows. The Illinois House has already passed a bill (HB 4828) to require accurate and reliable data reporting about solitary confinement, including aggregate numbers and information disaggregated by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and other categories, all to be collected and disseminated by the corrections department in collaboration with a third party research university.

The Senate now has a limited four-day window of opportunity in early January to pass the bill during the lame-duck session before the 103rd General Assembly comes to a close. Gov. JB Pritzker must also sign the bill without delay.

What we already know about solitary confinement is alarming, and it makes the need for transparency painfully obvious. Last year, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson condemned our state’s treatment of a man our corrections department sequestered in solitary confinement for nearly three years. Michael Johnson spent “nearly every hour of his existence in a windowless, perpetually lit cell about the size of a parking space. His cell was poorly ventilated, resulting in unbearable heat and noxious odors. The space was also unsanitary, often caked with human waste.”

Panic, rage and worse

Let’s acknowledge that solitary confinement is a form of torture.

Solitary confinement can literally cause the brain to shrink in physical size. According to a leading solitary confinement researcher, isolation conditions cause a range of symptoms, including “panic, withdrawal, hypersensitivity, ruminations, cognitive dysfunction, hallucinations, loss of control, irritability, aggression, rage, paranoia, hopelessness, lethargy, depression, a sense of impending emotional breakdown, self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation and behavior.”

United Nations rules for incarceration conditions specify that under international human rights law, solitary confinement for more than 15 days amounts to “torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.” These provisions are referred to as the “Mandela Rules” after Nelson Mandela, who endured 26 years in prison in apartheid South Africa and came to describe solitary confinement as “the most forbidding aspect of prison life.”

There is no legitimate reason for secrecy around the dangerous use of solitary confinement. Every day, Illinois tortures people in violation of international human rights law and the Mandela rules. A 2024 report by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, in collaboration with Restore Justice and Uptown People’s Law Center, revealed that in a 12.5 -year period, more than 11,000 Illinoisans spent over six months in solitary confinement. Forty-four people spent over 10 years in solitary confinement.

“Sunlight,” as the former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “is the greatest disinfectant.” Transparency in the use of solitary confinement ought to be a no-brainer. Our legislators should get a simple thing done and enact HB 4828 right away. Will they?

David M. Shapiro is executive director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.

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