Op-ed: The Inside Story of East Moline Correctional Center

Originally published on Prison Writers

Jereme Carter describes the living conditions in the East Moline Correctional Center which he says has urine on the floors from leaky toilets, black mold everywhere and correctional staff who hate them.

People often ask me what’s prison life really like. If it’s as violent and segregated as seen on TV, or if the food is as disgusting as the slop trays seen in every prison movie ever? The playful side of me sometimes lean into the stigmas and stereotypes of prison. But more often than not, I find myself describing my reality of living in the most in-humane and overly authoritative conditions anyone should ever have to endure. In my experience, the biggest threat that incarcerated people face day to day has not been each other, but rather staff and living conditions that physically and mentally jeopardize our livelihoods and our health.

I arrived at East Moline Correctional Center in August of 2022 on an academic transfer. My initial feeling was one of relief and gratitude because I’d finally made it to a minimum-security facility. After spending the previous ten years in institutions that were much more challenging, surely, I thought that I was finally gaining some sense of solace. I assumed that this being a minimum-security level facility, and the increased movement, meant that the hard days were behind me. To my surprise, the hard days had just begun. East Moline Correctional Center gave me an entirely new perspective of what prison life could be, and how little our health and welfare mattered to those in charge.

East Moline C.C was built in 1895 originally as a mental health facility. In 1980 it transitioned into a prison institution. The structural integrity of the buildings and housing units are beyond livable.

I knew the first day I arrived that this prison had serious health code issues. I noticed on the receiving wing that a lot of cells were boarded up and pad-locked. Upon further inquisition, I found out that there was an overwhelming presence of Black Mold in them, as well as in the showers. A lot of the incarcerated people were complaining of respiratory issues and other health concerns that they believed were linked to the mold.

Mop buckets were placed strategically around the leaky wing to catch the falling water, massive puddles pooled on the floor in our living and recreational areas. I could not fathom how this had not been addressed, I soon found out that things were drastically worse.

I moved upstairs to housing unit twos C-wing after spending approximately ten days in receiving and to my surprise it was more of the same; Black mold, boarded up cells, leaking ceilings, with the added infestation of roaches, mice, and centipedes. To add to the depreciation of my morale, I got a first-hand experience of the aggressiveness of the corrections officers. I spent many nights staying up late chasing rodents out of my cell, waking up the next morning only to find my food had been ravaged by the stealthy little creatures.

That went on for two years until I finally got a break, or so I thought. I had been putting in requests from the day I arrived on unit two to be moved to housing unit three. Rumor had it that it was the best place to be in the entire facility, especially for students like me who desperately needed the silence and solitude.

My first night back there was amazing if I’m being honest. It was exactly what I had been praying for all these years, my very own room even if it was just a cubicle in a dorm setting. It was so peaceful and quiet, at night the count light glowed a neon blue hue which worked wonders on my mental health. During the day time hours, the phones were unoccupied which was a rare event, night shift things got weird. My first night sitting out in the day room, they introduced me to the family of raccoons that frequented the rear entrance. There is this grated door that stays open during the warmer months that has an opening where they enter in through.

I was more than startled when one came right up to me and held its little black gloved hands out for me to feed it. It occurred to me that they had been domesticated. It also occurred to me that they had fleas when I began itching profusely every time I sat out there. About three weeks into my stay calamity struck. It was already known that the roofing there had a leaking problem as well, the housing unit next to it, housing unit four, was already closed because the roof caved in. Just like in the other housing units, the dayroom was collecting water in pools as well from the leaking shower pipes.

The maintenance crew eventually came and shut off our water on the south side where I am housed. They also cut the hot water off as well, so not only were we without a shower, we were without hot water for five months, from September 2024, to February 2025. To make matters worse, our toilets also leak un-controllably.

Every morning we wake up to pools of urine on the bathroom floor directly at the entrance. The smell is so intense that we have placed fans with fabric softener sheets on them to combat the smell. Cleaning up the bodily fluids is a daily task in itself. After dealing with that, we also have the issue of the dust storm that snows over us nightly, blocking our lungs from functioning correctly.

That is only one side of the coin, we also have the staff to contend with. Some officers here are friendly, and for the most part is fair when it comes to dealing with officer/prisoner interactions. However, the majority of them use their job as a license to inflict their brand of punishment upon incarcerated people. As with many things in life, there are levels to them as well. There are those who typically do petty things like write frivolous tickets just to make our time a bit harder, but then you have the die-hard who are blatantly racist and prejudice. It is those who go well beyond their job titles.

It’s surprisingly difficult to choose who among them are the worst of the worst, but there are instances of those few who stand out like a rose in a weed garden. There are three individuals whom I believe deserves mention. In the event that this will be undoubtedly screened, I will leave them nameless.

One officer who has begun building his notoriety amongst us uses his shake down power to bully and abuse prisoners he dislikes, or those who he feels are disrespectful or insolent. The officer in question on shake downs completely destroys your property. He completely dumps everything you own out of your box, removes all of your bedding, and confiscates whatever he chooses without merit. If you address him, he will start the shake down process all over.

Another officer who is notoriously known for his conduct is a little higher in the ranking. This officer is a lieutenant, who have climbed the ranks by physically assaulting prisoners. Said lieutenant has on four occasions since I have been here punched an incarcerated person, grabbed another by the back of the neck and shoved his head against the wall, and physically brawled with two others. The only repercussion was a promotion from officer, to Sargent, to Lieutenant, all accompanied by a paid vacation. Those are only the physical actions that are mentioned, abusive language and targeting also applies.

Out of those two instances, the most egregious of them all is the commissary supervisor. Out of my entire prison stint, I have never encountered a more hateful, rude, mean, racist individual in my entire life. The worst instance occurred in May of 2024 as I sat in commissary awaiting my turn. As per usual the supervisor was in one of his moods.

Out of nowhere he decides to yell loudly out of his window, “I fucking hate Juneteenth, that is the dumbest fucking holiday ever. I don’t know why we even celebrate that crap”. That was the final straw for me personally. That day I wrote the first grievance I have ever written on a staff member, demanding action, demanding he take some sort of D.E.I training or be fired stating he was a direct threat to all in mates.

I have always wondered what the hiring process is for officers, what is required? How is it that they seem to hire the most mentally unstable human beings for this position? Is it by design, is it a pre-requisite for all officers to be this aggressive and abusive? Are they trained to be aggressors or is their true natures unleashed as they gain empowerment over other human beings who happen to be of color and the majority Black?

Where are the checks and balances on them, who’s watching the watchers? We have a serious issue inside of the prison system. Systemic racism is ever present and growing at an exponential rate. With the growing climate and polarization of injustice throughout our country, I feel we have been grossly overlooked.

My only hope is that we will get some level of change on all levels, with figures of authority having intensive testing and selection before gaining these positions. I believe we are due for an overhaul, positions are recycled and are primarily staffed by family members and spouses. If this were a restaurant, the health department would have closed our kitchen. If this facility was a hotel, it would have been condemned due to health and safety hazards. And if this were any other place of business, the officers would have undoubtedly been fired, sued, and arrested for their abuse and shameful behavior.

Until then I will exercise my first amendment right. Agency outlets like Prison Writers provide the platform needed to campaign for change. I will be the voice of my peers, I will cast a shining light on the darkness that shrouds Illinois prison system. For far too long we have been subjugated to unethical treatment, dire living conditions, with only a dismal future to look forward to.

We are at a point to where it is beyond a constitutional issue, it is a human issue, life or death. Our clock is ticking in more ways than one. Whether it’s our sentence or our lives, we are in a race for time.

Who will watch the  watchers?