LINCOLN, Ill. (WAND) – A senior chaplain at a prison in central Illinois claims she was discriminated against for years and wrongfully fired.
Attorneys for Colleen Bennett-Houston, who holds the title at Lincoln Correctional Center, claimed in a lawsuit filed against the Illinois Department of Corrections that she went through repeated discrimination and retaliation when she reported the issues she experienced at work. It says Bennett-Houston suffered “emotional trauma” and should be paid back money lost when she was let go.
The suit says discrimination began in 2012, when Bennett-Houston was hired as chaplain II at Logan Correctional Center over a male candidate IDOC Chief Chaplain Stephen Keim and Assistant Warden of Operations Kess Roberson wanted more. It accuses Roberson of telling her she wasn’t the person they wanted, then making gender-based comments about her in front of other prison workers – comments it says he didn’t make to male workers.
Bennett-Houston was moved to Lincoln Correctional Center in March 2013 and became senior chaplain. The lawsuit claims she complained to Roberson in writing about how she was treated in July of that year before he became warden at Lincoln. When he became warden, accusations state he would deny her the chance to work on holidays when others were allowed the opportunity, refuse her requests for internet access and reject or delay her requests for inmate movement passes. It claims security officers would delay to her requests for help on purpose, putting her safety at risk, and tell inmates that classes she was teaching were canceled, even when they weren’t.
Bennett-Houston was also helping to care for an inmate who was dying from stage 4 cancer – something the lawsuit claims Roberson tried to stop. It accuses him of threatening discipline for insubordination, then locking her out of her officer when she came back to work after visiting the person.
On Feb. 1, 2016, the lawsuit says she told Lincoln Assistant Director Gladys Taylor about the treatment she dealt with, and then wrote weeks later that she wanted to file a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The IDOC filed to dismiss her on March 16, 2016, then let her go in June of that year. She was first suspended without pay on May 9.
AFSCME Council 31 then filed on Bennett-Houston’s behalf, claiming IDOC did not have grounds to dismiss her. An arbitrator agreed, saying the things IDOC called misconduct were part of her job, then told Roberson to give her the senior chaplain position back, pay her losses and expunge her disciplinary record on Feb. 15, 2018.
The lawsuit claims retaliation continued when Bennett-Houston came back to work. It says IDOC paid her back pay in two halves over a period of six months and took payments for health insurance premiums covering the time before her coverage ended, causing her to only claim close to one-third of the total payment.
WAND-TV reached out to the Illinois Department of Corrections, which on Monday said it can't comment on pending litigation.
The full lawsuit, which details more about Bennett-Houston’s complaints, can be read in the PDF document below.
