On March 11, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the Illinois Department of Public Health released a joint press release announcing that Legionella bacteria had been detected in two Illinois prisons-Stateville Correctional Center and Joliet Treatment Center. However, an IDOC spokesperson has now confirmed that the actual number of prisons with confirmed Legionella in the water supply is five. Legionella was also found in Graham Correctional Center, Kewanee Life Skills Re-Entry Center, and Stateville Northern Reception and Classification Center. Legionella is the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially fatal type of pneumonia. Legionella bacteria primarily moves from water to a person’s lungs through one of two methods. It can be breathed in through water droplets-while talking a shower, for instance or through aspiration, where water is swallowed and “goes down the wrong pipe” into the lungs. Local activists are now calling for increased oversight of Illinois prisons. They suggest that the Illinois Department of Public Health should create a unit within the agency that is tasked with monitoring and investigating public health conditions inside the state’s prisons. In an effort to improve transparency at the IDOC, last month, the Illinois State house unanimously approved a bill that would give legislators greater access to the state’s prisons. The proposal is currently stalled in the Senate. To read more about the Legionella Bacteria found in five Illinois prisons, click here. To read our firm’s white paper on Legionnaires’ disease and COVID-19, click here. For more information on Legionnaires’ disease, check out the National Academies of Sciences Management of Legionella in Water Systems Report here. Contact Jules Zacher for a 100% free consultation today. THE MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE HAVE BEEN PREPARED BY JULES ZACHER, P.C. FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE NOT LEGAL ADVICE OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL COUNSEL.