NCLEJ Sues Illinois Department of Corrections and Private Contractors Over Disability Discrimination
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 24, 2025
Contact: Patrick Fowler, Communications Strategist | fowler@nclej.org
ILLINOIS – The National Center for Law and Economic Justice filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), and other defendants to secure critical disability accommodations for an individual on Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR). Despite its legal obligations, IDOC often fails to provide even the most basic disability accommodations to people on MSR. Those failures lead to people being sent back to prison when they would otherwise remain in the community with their family and friends.
The lawsuit is brought on behalf of Mark Davenport, a disabled individual on MSR. Because IDOC failed to accommodate Mr. Davenport’s physical disabilities when he was in the community, he was unnecessarily and illegally sent back to prison for four months.
Background
MSR is a form of mandatory parole added onto every incarcerated person’s sentence in Illinois. IDOC is required to release incarcerated people on MSR following the term of their imprisonment. People in IDOC custody must have an IDOC-approved host site to be released on MSR, and loss of one’s host site constitutes a violation of their MSR conditions. In February 2025, Mark Davenport completed his sentence of incarceration and was released from prison on MSR. He has multiple chronic health conditions, including severe degenerative disc disease that causes severe pain and limits major life activities.
Despite IDOC knowing of Mr. Davenport’s disabilities while incarcerated, IDOC did not ensure his discharge location—which was a transitional housing program funded and operated by IDOC itself—provided him with the disability accommodations he was entitled to. MSR host site Henry’s Sober Living House (HSL) placed Mr. Davenport on the third floor and denied him a first-floor room placement and other accommodations despite him struggling to walk and stand. When Mr. Davenport asked for simple accommodations for his condition, he was met with a two-worded response from HSL staff: “Hell no.”
HSL’s disability discrimination exacerbated Mr. Davenport’s pain, leading to an emergency room visit after the first two days. HLS later evicted Mr. Davenport in retaliation for his continued requests for reasonable accommodation. HSL’s eviction meant that Mr. Davenport did not have an approved host site, which was a violation of his MSR resulting in his return to state prison, where he remained for an additional four months.
In July 2025, IDOC sent Mr. Davenport to MSR host site Next Step Recovery (NSR), where he has again been denied reasonable accommodations. NSR has also threatened to evict Mr. Davenport back to IDOC, admitting that NSR is “not ADA compliant.” Mr. Davenport is still at NSR, unaccommodated, living in pain, and fearful that he will be sent back to prison.
The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and monetary damages for the disability discrimination to which Mr. Davenport has been and continues to be subjected. Mr. Davenport seeks an order securing his needed accommodations and ending IDOC’s policies and practices that deny people disability accommodations in IDOC-funded and operated transitional housing programs.
“As a long-time prisoner, I am still facing challenges after a 40-year down payment on my liberty. IDOC has left me to my own efforts. They knew I would face challenges, and their failures to help me have been egregious,” said Mark Davenport. “[These transitional housing providers] have been fully aware of my conditions and the pain I experience from not having the accommodations that I need, and they have done nothing. Some mornings I can’t even get out of bed, but they still take no steps to mitigate the problem.”
“Mr. Davenport has already spent decades in prison but remains in danger of prolonged confinement purely because he is disabled,” said Maya Goldman, Staff Attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. “IDOC and Mr. Davenport’s host sites have adamantly refused to accommodate him, amounting to disability discrimination in violation of multiple federal laws. Mr. Davenport has the exact same right to live in the community as his non-disabled peers, and we are suing IDOC and private contractors to hold them accountable for egregiously violating the rights of our client.”
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice is a legal nonprofit organization that advances disability, racial, and economic justice for low-income families, individuals, and communities across the country through ground-breaking impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. Founded in 1965, NCLEJ fights to protect access to critical benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and childcare, protect low-wage workers’ rights and safety, advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, and fights unlawful debt collection.
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