Attorney Peter Francis Geraci Accepts Pro Bono Appointment in Moline, IL.

Geraci Law trial attorneys Peter Francis Geraci and Jonathan Parker traveled to the E. Moline Correctional Ctr., a minimum-security state prison in East Moline Illinois. Why the road trip? Chief judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern district of Illinois Ruben Castillo appointed Peter Francis Geraci, from the federal courts trial bar list of attorneys willing to accept pro bono appointments. The three cases judge Castillo assigned were all filed pro se by a 30-year-old Cook County jail pretrial detainee, alleging bad jail conditions, and lack of proper mental health medication. The assignment is to consolidate the three lawsuits into one complaint, and to proceed with the prosecution of these prisoner claims. When the plaintiff was an inmate at cook County jail, he complained of in January, overflowing toilets, and retaliation for making complaints. He also complained of failure of guards and healthcare workers at the jail do provide him with the medication he was taking before he was incarcerated. He later was sentenced on a criminal charge, and transferred from cook County jail to E. Moline Correctional Ctr.
As Geraci and Parker approached the correctional center, which is three hours west of Chicago on Interstate 88, the sign don’t pick up hitchhikers was the first indication. Rounding a bend, the correctional center appeared high on a hill just east of the Mississippi in East Moline. This is a minimum-security prison. The atmosphere was much different, Geraci said, from the other state prisons in Illinois, some of which are maximum security, and most of which are in downstate Illinois. E. Moline Correctional Ctr. is the only Western Illinois state present. It is just south of the federal prison that stands vacant in Thomson  Illinois, a town of about 600 people

Downtown East Moline is very worn out this is a picture of the main drag at 11 AM that goes along the river as you had to the Mississippi. This road is below the Mississippi River Bluff up on the bluff is a brand-new road that runs between Davenport and Moline and extends into East Moline where all the new stuff is.

Here’s a view from the east bank of the Mississippi, with Attorney Parker, just north of East Moline. The river is pretty high, and starting to flood little bit. Farther north, by Cedar Rapids Iowa, during our trip, there were serious flood issues up into Wisconsin. This is about 100 miles south of where the blood problems are right now.  The area around the quad cities, Moline Davenport, Rock Island and East Moline, is the only place in its journey to the Gulf of Mexico where the Mississippi runs east to west. There is a kind of a similar area around New Orleans, where the river goes in a crescent, which is what gives New Orleans its name Crescent City.