A coalition of advocacy organizations sent a letter urging Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to step in and help save the life of Janiah Monroea Black transgender woman currently forced into solitary confinement at Logan Correctional Center and at risk of ending her life.
Addressed to Pritzker and Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton, the letter asks them to immediately require "the Illinois Department of Corrections ( IDOC ) to end the extended and unnecessary segregation of Janiah Monroe, a Black transgender woman, and to provide Ms. Monroe with the surgery she desperately needs."
Monroe is a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit Monroe v. Baldwin, filed on behalf of five women who are transgender and detained in Illinois prisons, aimed at reforming the larger systemic crisis regarding how IDOC treats the hundred or more transgender prisoners in its facilities throughout the state.
The organizations signing onto the letter include AIDS Foundation Chicago, American Friends Service Committee Chicago, Black and Pink Chicago, Center on Halsted, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Chicago Abortion Fund, Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago House, Children and Family Justice Center, Equality Illinois, Friends Who March, Indivisible Oak Park Area, Men4Choice, Midwest Access Coalition, Mijente, Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, Pride Action Tank, She Votes Illinois, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, Social Change, Unitarian Universalist Prison Ministry of Illinois, Women's Connection Project and Women's March Illinois.