Faith Leaders Speak Out Against Morgue Conditions, Pray For Deceased

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Friday, Rev. Marshall Hatch (shown above) of New Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church led members of the Leaders Network in a prayer vigil outside the Cook county medical examiners office on the West Side in hopes of improving conditions in the morgue there. Complaints about the conditions at the facility date back to 2010.
Friday, Rev. Marshall Hatch (shown above) of New Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church led members of the Leaders Network in a prayer vigil outside the Cook county medical examiners office on the West Side in hopes of improving conditions in the morgue there. Complaints about the conditions at the facility date back to 2010.

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Conditions at the Cook county medical examiners office morgue are currently under investigation by the Cook County Inspector General and the Illinois Department of Labor. Recent finding revealed that coolers there (similar to those shown above) are designed to hold 300 bodies but actually contain over 360.

Several African American faith leaders are so outraged by the published reports and images of the stockpile of unburied bodies at the county morgue that they organized a prayer vigil, set up a hotline and are demanding a meeting with Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.

Friday, Rev. Marshall Hatch of New Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church and Ira Acree, pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, led members of the Leaders Network (LN) in a prayer vigil outside the county medical examiners office on the West Side where the morgue is located.

Every human being deserves dignity in death. County officials must be held accountable to the citizens and to God for this sacred trust. Given the level of disorganization and neglect at the morgue, any one of these bodies could have been any one of us, said Hatch.

In recent days, televised images showed dozens of bodies wrapped in blue and clear plastic piled like junk cars on shelves in the morgue. The deceased were said to be unclaimed corpses some children and indigents remains. A morgue worker blew the whistle, setting Preckwinkle and county officials back on their heels. Publicly, Preckwinkle would only say that the county was investigating the matter. Then she announced last week that there would be reorganization at the medical examiners office, including management changes and the addition of new positions.

Hatch said that LN extends its support to the changes and would like to see a citizens panel set up that would be authorized to issue periodical reports on conditions at the morgue and the panel would also act as a community advocate.

LN sent a letter to the county board president requesting to meet with her. Hatch said a spokesperson from the county presidents office contacted the organization and plans for a meeting are in the works.

Preckwinkles press secretary confirmed in an e-mail to the Chicago Citizen that she will meet with Hatchs group.

The president is planning to meet with the clergy, but we are in the process of outreach and scheduling that meeting, said Liane Jackson. She said nodate or time has been confirmed.

Hatch said LN had called attention to the county morgue last spring.

We sounded the alarm about eight or nine months ago when the state funding was cut off for indigent burials, Hatch told the Chicago Citizen. Now that it has reached crisis point, we see that an overwhelmed morgue really means that they dont know whose bodies are in there. Now that the state funding has been cut back on, we want to help them to clean up the mess there.

Conditions at the morgue are currently under investigation by the Cook County Inspector General and the Illinois Department of Labor --- which is looking into employee safety. Complaints about the conditions at the facility date back to 2010. A recent finding revealed that coolers there designed to hold 300 bodies actually contained over 360.

Faith leaders were firm in their call for transparency in any overhaul Preckwinkle decides to make at the medical examiners office.

This is immoral and it is disrespectful of the families of the dead. As pastors, we are moved with compassion to offer pastoral care for these unnamed souls, said Rev. Cy Fields, president of Leaders Network.

LN also set up a hotline for people with relatives at the medical examiners office.

On Saturday, Bishop Claude Porter, head of Proviso-Leyden Council for Community Action and chairman of Interfaith Illinois, launched a petition drive urging county board support for Preckwinkle and Sheriff Tom Dart and called for the two to change the morgues burial policy.

Porter also urged donation of wood to build caskets for the decedents and recommended that some in county correctional custody help to construct them.

This would save needed money for the county and the taxpayers, he said.

The LN pastors believe that by partnering with faith leaders and others in the community, public trust in the medical examiners office could be restored.

By Rhonda Gillespie

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