Support Sentences: Reporting What Happens Behind Closed Cell Doors

George Christopher found dead in Champaign County jail after suffering a stroke

This January is the two-year anniversary of Sentences! Thank you, dear reader, for following and to those of you who have made a donation. I’ve been publishing stories that other media outlets refuse to cover. These are stories that are too often hidden behind prison walls. They are stories that others won’t touch because they are afraid of the backlash from donors. Or they simply continue to believe that the lives of Black, Brown, and poor white people don’t matter.

The first story I reported on for my Substack was about Tillie Deitz who died at the Champaign County jail. Other local media briefly reported on the death of a woman at the jail in October 2022, but failed to do any follow up investigation. I talked to Deitz’s mother and interviewed Bethany Little of WIN Recovery.

Another death occurred recently at the Champaign jail on May 22, 2024 without any coverage in the local media. George Christopher was a 51-year-old Black man found on the floor of his cell in the middle of the night after suffering a stroke. I only found out about it from reading a state report that was created thanks to organizing by activists. But what is the point of having state reports, if nobody is reporting on them?

Please consider becoming a monthly donor to Sentences, upping your donation, and a sincere thanks to those of you continuing your subscription this year.

The Illinois Deaths in Custody Project, formed by a group of prison abolitions, kicked off a campaign to document, archive, and mourn the deaths of all of those in the state who have died in jails and prisons. My friend Erica Meiners invited me to do an interview with them and they cited my articles about deaths in the Champaign County jail. In 2021, the Illinois Death in Custody Reporting Act (IDCRA) was signed into law due in part to their labor. The state maintains a spreadsheet dating back to 2019, a list that now totals a tragically high number of some 850 people who have died.

Among this list was a case I hadn’t heard about earlier this year, a man at the Champaign County jail who became ill, was taken to the hospital, and died due to a brain aneurism. He was pronounced dead on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with Sheriff Dustin Heuerman’s office to find out more. They first told me there was “no in-custody death” on that date. Only after I cited the state report did they send me three police reports about the incident.

The reports show that George Christopher died after he had a stroke late night in a jail cell. According to a police report, shortly after 2 a.m., Christopher was found by his cellmate, “lying on the floor, but his shoulder was leaned back against the bunk, almost sitting up but kind of on the side of his hip.” The cellmate rattled on the door until a guard showed up, and then “a bunch of CO’s [correctional officers] ran in.” Officer Pratt reported finding Christopher “face down” on the floor. Sgt. N. Roberts tried speaking to Christopher who said he had “felt dizzy” after returning from the bathroom.

Guards retrieved a wheelchair, but it was “too large to get around the fixed tables.” They attempted to help Christopher get up but “he couldn’t control his body weight.” They lifted Christopher up, placed him into the wheelchair, and wheeled him to the booking area. Christopher vomited “multiple times” in a trash can while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

Taken to Carle Hospital, by around noon he had “no brain activity.” He was pronounced dead at 4:06 p.m. that day.

I talked on the phone with Coroner Laurie Brauer who was recently sworn into office after the November elections. She read from the autopsy that said the natural cause of death was a stroke. There was nothing suspicious found. The coroner’s office no longer holds inquests. It was a closed case.

George Christopher was booked into the jail on May 9, 2024, almost two weeks before he was found dead. The previous year he was charged with aggravated drunk driving after a car accident. Driving at night on Highway 72, he swerved to avoid an animal, drove off the road, and flipped the car. All three passengers were thrown out of the car and one of them died. For the accident, Christopher was sentenced to 14 years in prison (he had other DUIs in Champaign County, although not since 2010). Christopher was from Indianapolis, Indiana, but it appears he also lived in Champaign-Urbana. That’s all I could find out about him personally and I could not track down any of his family.

In Cook County, after 18 people died in 2023 at the Cook County jail, the board of commissioners held a public hearing where families of the deceased spoke out. Of course, Cook County holds around 5,000 people on any given day, and Chicago is a big city with big city problems.

Here in Champaign County, three people have died in the jail in the last three years without a critical murmur. Tillie Deitz died at the jail in 2022, Raymond C. Gwin died in 2023, and George Christopher in 2024.

There has been little media attention and no scrutiny from public officials for this unnecessary loss of life. People at the jail are in the “custody” of the sheriff who has a responsibility to protect them. Sheriff Heuerman is not made to explain whether his deputies were following protocol. State law requires that guards do wellness checks every 30 minutes. Who knows how long George Christopher had laid on the floor after suffering a stroke. Did guards take too long to get him medical attention, unable to get a wheelchair past immovable tables? Could his death have been prevented? We will likely never know.

Do you think stories like this should get a spotlight? Donate to Sentences so I can continue to cover these unreported stories. People shouldn’t die a quiet death in a cold jail cell with no questions asked. Support Sentences so I can keep telling the stories of what happens behind closed cell doors.