
Grace Hauck
Criminal Justice Reporter at USA Today
Investigative Reporter at Illinois Answers Project
Investigative Reporter at Better Government Association
https://t.co/Zy0NsJxQl0 State Investigative Reporter @IllinoisAnswers / @BetterGov. Previously @USATODAY. Email [email protected]
Articles
-
2 weeks ago |
publicsource.org | Grace Hauck
Jason Porter takes comfort in knowing restraint chairs have been banned from Allegheny County Jail. He was strapped down in the controversial device for six hours without food or water in 2020 in what was one of more than three hundred uses of a restraint chair at the jail that year. His experience became another point in a public dataset published online by the state.
-
3 weeks ago |
illinoisanswers.org | Grace Hauck
The Illinois Answers Project’s “Strapped Down” series investigated the overuse, misuse and abuse of restraint chairs in county jails across Illinois. The investigation revealed that, from 2019 to 2023: In Illinois, jails restrained people in chairs on average more than 1,000 times a year. Jails often restrained people for longer than recommended and failed to provide timely mental health and medical attention.
-
3 weeks ago |
illinoisanswers.org | Grace Hauck
The knock came around midnight. The officers told Carty Holland that his son, Andrew, had died at the county jail. “They didn’t tell me how he passed,” Holland said. “The ugliness of it came later on.”Andrew, a 36-year-old man with schizophrenia, had been found unfit to stand trial and was at San Luis Obispo County Jail awaiting transfer to the county’s psychiatric health facility in 2017 when staff observed him hitting himself in the face and strapped him down to a chair in an observation cell.
-
3 weeks ago |
illinoisanswers.org | Grace Hauck
The “Strapped Down” series investigated the use of restraint chairs in county jails. The Illinois Answers Project revealed that Illinois jails use the devices on average more than a thousand times a year and sometimes restrained people with mental illnesses for hours to days on end. For the final stories in the series, we’re examining how three other states have addressed the use and misuse of restraint chairs.
-
3 weeks ago |
illinoisanswers.org | Grace Hauck
Two Iowa jails have made reforms after an ombudsman report found the facilities were restraining people with mental illnesses in chairs for long periods of time. Webster County Jail provided staff with additional training and upgraded its systems for surveillance, documentation and tracking policy changes. Boone County built a padded cell as an alternative to restraint.
Try JournoFinder For Free
Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.
Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →Coverage map
X (formerly Twitter)
- Followers
- 3K
- Tweets
- 4K
- DMs Open
- No

RT @AlexNitkin: New from me: An obscure, perennially resource-starved oversight office is set to take center stage in the Chicago City Coun…

RT @IllinoisAnswers: NEW with the @Suntimes: Gun Stolen From a Room Full of Chicago Cops Ended Up Being Used in a Series of Shootings http…

RT @MattFlenerKMBC: A MASSIVE thank you to @grace_hauck and @IllinoisAnswers for help on our latest RESTRAINED Chronicle documentary at @km…