Medical & Mental Health Care in Illinois (IDOC)
How health care works in Illinois prisons — requesting care through the facility sick-call process, the contracted medical provider, the absence of a medical co-pay, the counselor-to-grievance-officer-to-Administrative-Review-Board grievance process, and federal court oversight under the Lippert consent decree.
Medical, dental, and mental-health care in Illinois prisons is administered by the IDOC Office of Health Services and delivered at each facility by a contracted health-care provider. Services, staffing, and wait times vary by prison and by the person’s medical needs, so specifics are confirmed with the individual facility where the person is held.
Requesting medical, mental-health, and dental care
An incarcerated person initiates care by submitting a sick-call request (also called a health-care request) to the facility’s health-care unit. Each IDOC facility operates an on-site health-care unit and a pharmacy that dispenses medication as prescribed, and the department runs chronic-care clinics for conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, asthma, seizure disorders, HIV, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis. Three facilities provide on-site dialysis.
Mental-health care and dental care are requested through the same health-care-unit process. The level of mental-health services depends on the facility and the person’s classification; routine, urgent, and emergency mental-health needs are handled through the on-site health-care unit, with referral to higher levels of care as determined by clinical staff.
Family members cannot request or schedule a person’s medical, dental, or mental-health care, and IDOC staff generally cannot discuss a person’s health information without that person’s authorization. Concerns from outside are typically raised by the incarcerated person through the sick-call and grievance processes described below.
Cost — no co-pay
Illinois does not charge a medical co-pay. The state eliminated the inmate medical co-pay in 2019, so people in IDOC custody are not billed a fee for submitting a sick-call request or being seen by health-care staff. Prescribed medications are dispensed through the facility pharmacy.
The contracted provider
Comprehensive medical care in IDOC facilities is delivered by a private company under contract with the department’s Office of Health Services. Wexford Health Sources held this contract for many years. IDOC transitioned to Centurion Health effective July 30, 2025, so the department is currently contracted with Centurion Health.
Health-care contracts are re-bid and can change. The current vendor and the terms of its contract are confirmed on the IDOC Health Services page or with the facility.
Raising a problem — the grievance process
A medical, dental, or mental-health complaint is raised through the IDOC grievance procedure, the same multi-step process used for other grievances:
- Counselor. A grievance ordinarily starts with the person’s counselor, who attempts to resolve the issue informally.
- Grievance officer. If the counselor does not resolve it, the person files a written grievance with the facility’s grievance officer, who reviews it and makes a recommendation to the warden (Chief Administrative Officer).
- Administrative Review Board (ARB). A person who is dissatisfied with the facility-level outcome may appeal to the Administrative Review Board, which reviews the grievance for the director and issues a final decision.
Emergency grievances — those involving a substantial risk of imminent personal injury or other serious or irreparable harm — may be submitted directly to the warden (Chief Administrative Officer), bypassing the counselor and grievance-officer steps, for expedited review. Filing deadlines and the exact routing are set by IDOC’s grievance rules and the facility.
Independent and court oversight
Illinois prison health care operates under a federal court consent decree in Lippert v. Jeffreys (formerly Lippert v. Godinez / Lippert v. Hughes), a class-action case covering people in IDOC custody with serious medical and dental needs. The consent decree was approved in 2019 and commits the state to systemic reforms in prison medical and dental care, with progress overseen by a court-appointed independent monitor who issues public reports to the court.
Separately, the John Howard Association of Illinois — an independent, nonprofit prison-monitoring organization that is not part of IDOC — tours Illinois prisons and publishes reports on conditions, including health care. It is a watchdog and reporting body, not a government agency, and does not adjudicate individual grievances.
Verify Before Acting
Sources
This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.