After death of mentally ill inmate at Danville Correctional Center, mother files wrongful-death lawsuit

Lisa Johnson-Barker, left, whose son, Markus Johnson, died in 2019 while suffering a mental breakdown in the custody of Danville Correctional Facility, visits his grave with surviving family members in Zion, Ill., on May 26, 2023. Markus Johnson slumped naked against the wall of his cell, skin flecked with pepper spray, his face a mask of puzzlement, exhaustion and resignation. Four men in black tactical gear pinned him, his face to the concrete, to cuff his hands behind his back.

The country’s jails and prisons have become its largest provider of inpatient mental health treatment, with 10 times as many seriously mentally ill people now held behind bars as in hospitals. Estimating the population of incarcerated people with major psychological problems is difficult, but the number is likely 200,000 to 300,000, experts say.

Days after his birth, he was taken in by Lisa Barker Johnson, a foster mother in her 30s who lived in Zion, Illinois, a working-class city halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Markus eventually became one of four children she adopted. Like many of them, he obtained a pistol. He used it to hold up a convenience store clerk for $425 in January 2017, according to police records. He cut a plea deal for two years of probation.

By mid-August, he said he was visualizing “people that were not there,” according to case notes. At first, he was acting more aggressively. But his energy ebbed, and he gradually migrated downward — from standing to bunk to floor.

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