ILLINOIS ANSWERS PROJECT
Warning: The following article includes mentions of self-harm.
Franklin County Jail restrained two mentally ill men in chairs for prolonged periods, in violation of state standards and county policies, a new report from an Illinois disability rights watchdog group found.
The jail provided inadequate medical and mental health care and improperly restrained Travis Wade Braden for 68 hours in 2022, as well as another man for 27 hours, said the report from the Human Rights Authority of the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission, a state agency.
The development comes months after the Illinois Answers Project featured Braden’s story in a statewide investigation that found county jails restrain people in chairs on average more than 1,000 times a year, often in ways that violate their own policies and last longer than manufacturers recommend.
The investigation also raised questions about the lack of oversight and accountability of county jails in Illinois. While state standards require jails to report every use of a restraint chair to the state unit charged with monitoring jails, that never happened in nearly 40% of the 5,500 known incidents from 2019 to 2023–including the incidents at issue in the new report. What’s more, it’s unclear how often the state probes the reports it receives.
Braden said the “horrible” experience still haunts him in nightmares. In messages to Illinois Answers, Braden said he was “seriously not mentally well” and needed a physician’s care but was instead subjected to what felt like punishment and torture.
Safety Restraint Chair Inc. states someone may only be restrained longer than two hours under medical supervision by a doctor or nurse. Credit: Sebastián Hidalgo, for The Illinois Answers Project
“Being restrained in them is like being in closed extremely tight spaces without any ability to move or scratch an itch or wipe sweat from your head,” Braden wrote in a message.
Braden, 38, was incarcerated again in 2023 and is currently at the Joliet Treatment Center, a facility for convicted felons with severe mental illness, on charges of fleeing police and shoplifting.
Many of the people restrained across Illinois in the five-year period analyzed by Illinois Answers had mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Some sheriffs and jail administrators say their facilities are overcrowded, understaffed and ill-equipped to handle detainees in crisis, and that they face delays in transferring detainees to state psychiatric facilities.
The HRA, which published the report in September, investigates complaints of disability rights violations at various types of facilities, including jails. The report said the HRA received complaints about Franklin County Jail pertaining to four people, including two concerning the use of restraint chairs.
The HRA concluded the facility violated Illinois County Jail Standards–the minimum standards set out by the state–as well as multiple of the jail’s policies. The report said the jail restrained the men beyond the 10-hour limit set by the chair manufacturer, failed to involve medical and mental health providers in a timely manner, and did not pursue other options for de-escalation, among other failings.
The county responded to the HRA’s findings privately, according to Anthony Rothert, general counsel for IGAC. “Based on the response, however, the Human Rights Authority considers the matter resolved and determined a referral to an enforcement entity was unnecessary,” Rothert said.
Current Franklin County Sheriff Kyle Bacon told Illinois Answers that, due to pending litigation, he could not comment further on the report or its findings.
“I will say that we have fully cooperated with the IGAC and have worked closely with them to ensure that we satisfy the recommendations made within their final report,” Bacon wrote in an email.
68 hours in a restraint chair
Braden was restrained in a chair for 68 hours over a weekend in February 2022, with breaks every few hours to walk, eat or use the restroom, the report said.
The HRA report did not identify any complainants by name, but Illinois Answers verified Braden’s identity through public records.
Braden had been at a hospital for 11 days prior to the incident after swallowing a carabiner. He had a history of ingesting items and self-harm, the report said, and jail staff restrained him upon return from the hospital because they feared he would harm himself again.
Jail staff told HRA investigators the jail is “not equipped to handle a detainee with these significant behaviors.”
Jail policy requires staff to limit restraint to two hours “unless emergency circumstances exist,” to contact command staff if duration exceeds two hours, to consult a medical professional for restraint beyond two hours, and to obtain a face-to-face evaluation by a physician within four hours. But there are no records showing that happened, the report said.
The jail did not contact a crisis worker until Monday morning, after Braden had already been restrained for 60 hours, the report said. The crisis worker recommended the patient go to a psychiatric hospital and told staff to provide that recommendation to the state’s attorney to help a judge decide on placement. There was no evidence that the jail immediately followed this recommendation, the report said.
That same morning, a nurse “became aware” Braden had been restrained in a chair for days, the report said. She expressed concern and recommended Braden instead be restrained in a safety smock–a thick smock designed to prevent suicide–if restraint was deemed necessary.
The lieutenant declined the nurse’s offer to help send Braden to a hospital, notified the sheriff – then David Bartoni – of the nurse’s concerns, and gave orders to keep Braden in the chair “for safety reasons due to history of self-harm,” the report said.
While Braden exhibited “ongoing self-injurious behaviors” and “aggression towards officers,” the report said, there was no documentation of a physician consult or nursing checks while he was restrained, nor any evidence staff tried other interventions, such as the smock or enhanced supervision.
Travis Braden was restrained in a chair for 68 hours in Franklin County Jail. Credit: Provided by Travis Braden
Braden later filed a grievance with the sheriff for “cruel and unusual punishment,” alleging he was not allowed to sleep and was denied pain medication while recovering from surgery, the report said. There was no record of a written response to the complaint, according to the report.
“I mean who wouldn’t be screaming upset in that situation after hours and days of no sleep,” Braden wrote in a message.
A letter obtained by Illinois Answers shows the HRA was looking into Braden’s complaint as early as June 2023.
Braden also filed a federal civil rights complaint in November 2023 against more than a dozen members of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and a doctor and nurse employed with Advanced Correctional Healthcare, the private medical provider contracted with the jail. The case is ongoing, and Braden is representing himself.
In court filings this summer, the defendants denied the allegations and demanded a jury trial, arguing they were not deliberately indifferent to Braden’s medical condition and that the force used was “reasonable under the circumstances at the time.” The physician and nurse charged in the case denied that Braden suffered any injury as a result of their actions.
An attorney representing members of the sheriff’s department declined to comment on the HRA report, and an attorney representing the nurse and doctor did not respond to requests for comment.
Jessica Young, president of Advanced Correctional Healthcare, denied any wrongdoing and said the company is proud of the work of its staff.
The HRA report found the jail also violated its policies in restraining another mentally ill man in May 2022, several months after the incident involving Braden.
The jail restrained the man due to “self-injurious behavior” for approximately 27 hours, the report said. During that time, he received three breaks for the bathroom and four to walk, as well as periodic releases of an arm or a leg for a stretch.
The man was restrained for approximately 15 hours before a crisis worker met with him, the HRA report found. The worker recommended he be released, but the man remained in the chair for another 10 hours. Again, the report found the jail violated its policies requiring officers to notify command staff and obtain medical consultations.
A court-ordered fitness evaluation later found the man unfit for trial, and he spent six weeks at a state psychiatric facility before returning to jail, the report said.
Accountability and reform
The restraint chair incidents scrutinized in the recent HRA report were never reported by Franklin County to the Jail and Detention Standards Unit within the Illinois Department of Corrections, the state unit charged with monitoring jails’ compliance with state standards.
Under Illinois County Jail Standards, jails are required to submit reports to the state unit for a variety of “extraordinary or unusual occurrences,” including the use of restraint chairs. Dava Vice, an administrative assistant at the jail, said in an email that the reports were “supposed to be completed” but were not.
Franklin County Jail used restraint chairs dozens of times from 2019 to 2023, Illinois Answers found. Credit: Google Earth
Illinois Answers also reviewed the state unit’s annual inspection reports of Franklin County Jail for the years 2019 to 2024 and found inspectors made no mention of restraint issues. The inspections also indicated the jail was properly submitting “extraordinary or unusual occurrences” forms to the state, even when it was not.
In addition to its findings, the HRA issued numerous recommendations to Franklin County Jail focused on retraining, documentation and communication.
The report also said that, when a crisis worker recommends inpatient hospitalization, jail administration should work with the state’s attorney and judge to determine the appropriate legal steps for treatment or hospitalization.
Beyond Franklin County, the HRA has previously found violations pertaining to the use of restraint chairs in other Illinois jails, including in Coles, Fayette, and Winnebago counties. A recent Illinois Answers investigation found that interventions from watchdog groups at one of those jails spurred some initial reform, but that reforms waned over time due to administration change and a lack of sustained oversight.
Braden has also asked the HRA to investigate Williamson County, just south of Franklin County. In April 2022, Braden was transferred to Williamson County Jail, where he says he was again restrained in a chair for days. He filed a federal civil rights suit against staff at that jail, as well as another complaint with the HRA, which voted to table the matter.
Braden’s suit, as well as another filed in 2023 alleging prolonged restraint, is ongoing. In both cases, the defendants have denied the allegations and demanded a jury trial, according to court filings.
The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Braden has repeatedly tried to gain legal counsel and bring attention to his cases in recent years. In a handwritten letter to Illinois Answers, Braden said he wants compensation and for the staff involved to be held accountable.
“I want these chairs removed from the jails,” he wrote.
This article first appeared on Illinois Answers Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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