Say Her Name: Women Survivors of Chicago Police Torture

Michelle Clopton was in her twenties when Chicago police attempted to force her to confess to a crime she didn’t commit. For 72 hours, she was brutally questioned, deprived of food, and tortured. Today, she is one of the few women to publicly share her experience of abuse. But she’s not alone. 

Under the leadership of CPD Commander Jon Burge, more than 100 Black people were tortured by Chicago police in the ’70s and ’80s to elicit false confessions. 

A group of survivors have created the Chicago Torture Justice Center to begin rebuilding lives, healing, and finding joy. Michelle’s story reveals the unique impact of police abuse on women — and what it takes to survive and thrive.

Produced by Jewél Jackson @JewlJackson1 for Reparations Media | Editorial support from Juneteenth Productions @juneteenthprod2 | Collaboration with Chicago Torture Justice Center @chitorture | Sound design by Will Jarvis @willyfrederick | Music: Sarah Abdullah, Blue Dot Sessions

Follow us: changeagentsthepodcast.com | Donate: donate.stripe.com/4gw2980yG7Ez9bO3cf

Key words: Chicago, police, Chicago Police Department, CPD, John Burge, torture, corruption, brutality, survivor, false confession, prison, incarceration, jail, trauma, mental health, healing, solutions, Say Her Name, plea, accountability rule

Transcript

Producer, Jewél Jackson: [00:00:00] Disclaimer, please note that this episode contains depictions of violence that some people may find disturbing. Please take care when listening.

Michelle Clopton: Yeah, yeah 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: I'm in the south side of Chicago meeting Michelle Clopton at her one bedroom apartment She welcomes me and gives me a tour, pointing out the changes she's made in the kitchen and bathroom. I notice the bold color choice of red throughout. 

Michelle Clopton: You know, I just try to look it up and make it cozy, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's very nice. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Oh, wow, I like this backsplash. 

Michelle Clopton: Yeah, I did that too. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Okay. Michelle is from the South Side of Chicago and comes from a big family with four brothers and one sister. She tells me that her grandmother was a big force in raising her. 

Michelle Clopton: I got a picture of him, um, I'm keeping her, my, my, my mama's dresser.

This is my picture I had since I had been locked up and broken up with. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Wow, wow. Yeah. [00:01:00] Beautiful. 

Michelle Clopton: Yeah. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: In her living room, she points out a photo collage. 

Michelle Clopton: I'm going to keep the pictures. I can't wait to finish. That wall right there is going to be my picture wall and she will be the center of it. And, um, this the bedroom.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: It's been a long time since Michelle had a room of her own. She is newly free after spending 27 years in prison. She was released in 2023. 

Michelle Clopton: See, I got this furniture to me. All that stuff is from the, uh, furniture bank that the Chicago Torture Justice Center sent me to. Wow. Yep, and they paid for it and everything.

No, it's used furniture, but it's, it's good. You can't complain coming home after so long living in a six by half, you know, room with somebody else. A room. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: The Chicago Torture Justice Center offered her more than furniture when she was released. They offered her a community. A community of torture and incarceration survivors, like herself, who suffered abuse at the hands of the Chicago Police Department.

Among them, she is a rarity, [00:02:00] a woman who has publicly come forward to share her story. A story of survivorship and healing that continues to this day.

I'm Jewel Jackson with Say Her Name, Women Survivors of Chicago Police Torture.

When Michelle was in her mid-twenties, she moved back to her hometown of Chicago after experiencing a tragedy in Washington, D. C. Now home, Michelle eventually found herself on a dangerous but familiar path. In high school, an older man introduced her to the illegal drug trade, and now she found herself in that lifestyle again.

Michelle and a friend were asked to pick up a woman, a suspected government informant, and drop her off at an unknown location. They did and drove off. Later, when [00:03:00] the woman was found dead, Michelle and her friend were picked up for questioning. 

Michelle Clopton: They 

put us in separate rooms. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michael McDermott and James Boling were the two detectives.

Michelle Clopton: I was left in a room for about maybe 45 minutes or an hour before they came in and started questioning me. He's mad now, getting in my face, talking, spit flying out of his mouth and pushing me on my shoulders. It started off with pushing and then it became a punch. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michelle realized they were trying to force her into a murder confession.

Detectives continued to come in and out of her room for the next 72 hours, but she refused to lie. 

Michelle Clopton: I stuck to my word. Uh. The next time he came back in there, fouling again, kicking my leg as if he was trying to kick the chair. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: During questioning, Michelle took a lie detector test. 

Michelle Clopton: McDermott reached 

in his inside coat jacket and pulled out some pictures. And he put him in my face.

He wasn't gonna look at, but when I [00:04:00] seen what it was, I turned away. It was a, the victim lying on the ground in the position she was when they found her. So, I turned my head. I didn't want to see that. He started pulling my hair so hard, yanking it, wanting, making, trying to make me look at those pictures.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: The detectives tried to use the results of the lie detector to force a confession out of Michelle. 

Michelle Clopton: He had the papers in the hand. Here, you, something, you failed that lie detector test. I said, I don't give a damn about the lie detector test. You put those pictures in my face trying to put that image in my head.

I know what you was doing. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michelle said she remembers not being allowed to make a phone call or have a lawyer present for nearly two days. For 72 hours, she was only fed once, two White Castle sliders. 

Michelle Clopton: There was a total violation, humiliation, degradation. I mean, oh my God. That is something nobody should have to experience.

You know, you have no right to be putting your hand to get information out of somebody. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michelle was charged with murder and sentenced to 60 years. 

Michelle Clopton: See me is [00:05:00] I'm innocent in the murder part, but I had to take accountability from a part I did play, you know? So, uh, but they still feel, Oh no, they still charged me with a murder.

Yeah. They still charged me with first degree murder because I would not testify. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Eventually, Michelle was able to get the first degree murder charge dismissed, but under Illinois accountability law, Michelle was an accessory to her crime, and her 60 year sentence stood. 

Michelle Clopton: That was mind blowing because I'm like, everybody was like, really?

She's never been to prison. She's never been in trouble. In my mind, I was like, oh, this is the end of my life. You know, you're going to die in prison, you know?

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: And I believe that what happened to her is what happened when Women say, "No, I won't be threatened into taking a plea. I want my right to due [00:06:00] process. I want to take a trial. And I want to prove that I am innocent or not guilty of what I'm being charged with." 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: That's Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor at the Women's Justice Institute in Chicago.

Her work heavily focuses on the impact that incarceration has on women and their families. She's familiar with Michelle's story and knows it's a common one. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: I've also heard that many have been incarcerated for accountability or threatened with accountability. Um, you know, there may be a survivor who, you know, didn't have a choice. She, she acted how she needed to act in order to stay alive. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: According to Illinois law, accountability theory allows individuals to be charged for a crime that someone else has committed. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: And police will say, well, hey, if you don't say A, B, or C, or because we're looking to prosecute, we're looking to get time out of this person, that woman is charged with murder under the accountability theory.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: A 2020 report from the Vera [00:07:00] Institute, a national nonprofit policy and research group, found that more than 90 percent of criminal cases that end in conviction are the results of plea bargaining. The report explains that these deals are struck with no witnesses present and are made without investigation, testimony, impartial fact finding, or adherence to the required burden of proof.

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: Even when you think about, uh, women who are you know, mentally or emotionally into taking time just to hurry up and get back to their children... Her life is seriously disrupted by the time that she would have to spend either in county jail or in prison. She comes home. Maybe she's lost her job. She may have to return to a toxic relationship or unhealthy relationship because of this disruption due to being afraid of what may happen if she has to spend longer time in jail.

Those are the stories that I hear [00:08:00] often from women who are coming home, struggling to find housing, to find employment. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Sandra has firsthand experience. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: I was, I was detained for four days. I would not speak to anyone unless I had an attorney present. I was coerced, I will say, into taking a plea. Um, it was, take this time, or you can exercise your Fifth Amendment rights and go to trial.

But if you're found guilty, you will never go home. You will never see your son. My son was eight years old at the time. And I was specifically admonished that if you ever want to see your son again, on the other side of freedom, you need to take this time. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Sandra did not go home. She was sentenced to 22 years.

That same 2020 Vera Institute report says that the odds of receiving a plea offer [00:09:00] that includes incarceration are almost 70 percent greater for black people than white people. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: I've never been in trouble with the law before. This is my first time, you know, experiencing the justice system. And prior to that, I was, you know, I was taught to trust them, so I did. I trusted them. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Many times, abuses like Sandra's and Michelle's go unreported. In Sandra's experiences, women don't report out of fear. She likens it to the reluctances women feel about reporting sexual abuse. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: It's the same thing whether we're talking about sexual violence, physical violence, mental violence.

Violence, period. Women are rarely believed. We'll tell each other. We just don't tell the powers that be because They're the ones with the power. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: A 2022 peer reviewed article in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence cited that one in four women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime, but only 5% of cases [00:10:00] are reported to law enforcement.

Sandra understands the difficulty of speaking up, but she also knows the danger of silence. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: The injustice can continue as long as we stay silent, but there's strength in numbers. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Confronting governmental systems could help change laws and procedures. 

Sandra Brown, Senior Advisor, Women's Justice Institute: It could change the way arrests are made. It could change the way interrogations happen.

And I think it would make a huge change in the laws that lock up women like Michelle, like myself, like other incarcerated survivors who, who have gotten the message so far that, you know, you broke the law by surviving.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Surviving. Sandra says that's what so much of what this comes down to. Michelle moved to Washington, D. C. when she was 20, after her high school boyfriend unexpectedly died from an asthma attack. His death came just 25 days after Michelle had given birth to their son. [00:11:00] She lived with her sister and nephew, and her son, Khalif, began preschool.

Michelle Clopton: Got back in the work zone, you know. Started off with, uh, you know, just babysitting, keeping the kids, making sure they got back and forth. Taking a class and then working a job at Burger King. Just, just getting back to normalcy of life. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: But a few years later, Michelle was hit with another tragedy. 

Michelle Clopton: I was putting up the groceries and um, my nephew was at the window.

"Auntie, auntie, come outside, come outside." I'm like, what is going on, you know? So I got into a little panic so I put on my shoes and just ran out the house and ran up the street. And I seen him laying on the ground.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Khalif had been hit by a car and later died in the hospital. For He was five years old. 

Michelle Clopton: Yup, and that was just, oh, that was a complete, just a whole nother blow and just, wow, like, wow, you don't see it coming and you ask why and just, [00:12:00] ooh, but when you get there to even think that clearly, cause, at first everything is just cloudy and just like, wow, what is going on?

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Shortly after Khalif's death, Michelle moved back to Chicago to be around her siblings, grandmother, and parents. She struggled with grief. 

Michelle Clopton: I, I'm glad I had that. Somebody there to say, oh, this is not you. Oh, that's not you. All this drinking, you thinking you find it in the bottle. No. You know, everybody don't have that. Or you know…

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michelle said the combination of grief. Anger and numbness impacted the choices she made. 

Michelle Clopton: I can't wallow in it whatever, but I did it in a negative manner. Not a good man, not of good choices at all. It took me going to prison to really just look at it all and say no, because if it had not been for that, there's no telling what it would have ended up.[00:13:00] 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michelle's story is all too familiar in America, but it was compounded by officers who tortured her. Who yanked her hair, punched her, and tried to force a false confession. And she isn't alone. Under former police commander John Burge, CPD used wartime torture tactics to force confessions from over 120 people, predominantly African Americans, throughout the west and south sides of Chicago.

News Clips: Burge has long been accused of overseeing the systematic Torture of more than 100 African American men. It's just the latest payout for police misconduct tied to disgraced Commander John Burge and the officers under him. Victims say Burge began torturing them in the 1970s, but it would be years before anyone listened.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: In 2015, the city of Chicago for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors Ordinance. It acknowledged the acts of torture committed by the Chicago Police Department and John Burge [00:14:00] beginning in the 1970s. Funds were set aside for financial reparations to torture survivors and to create the Chicago Torture Justice Center on the city's south side.

At the Chicago Torture Justice Center, there's a sign that reads, Not for Sale, Our Community, Our Story, Our Legacy, in bold white letters on a red poster. That sign hangs right outside La Tanya Jenifor office. She's the director of re entry services. Underneath the poster is usually a bowl of candy.

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: Everybody calls me Tan. Uh, my mother says it's La Tanya, not La Tanya, so that's what we're gonna go with. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: La Tanya began working with the center in 2018, a year after they opened their doors. The center aims to heal trauma inflicted by police violence onto communities and individuals. Trauma can appear in many different forms and the center has few limits on who is eligible for support.

There are rooms set up for art therapy, boxing, computer, and business classes. [00:15:00] With this open-door policy, survivors can utilize the space for relaxation, laundry, and community. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: I've walked through the door saying it had to be holistic. From my experience of people trying to put me in their box of what reentry was.

And I'm like, we have to create and provide services that are so individualistic that people don't think that they're just a number like they were in prison. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: La Tanya is a torture survivor and was incarcerated for 21 years. It was important to her that the Center use the knowledge of torture survivors and those systematically impacted to help run and create programs for others.

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: I was incarcerated, um, for murder under the theory of accountability. I was not at the scene of the crime, did not fire, um, the fatal shots. I am both connected to the perpetrator and the victim of the crime. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: La Tanya chose not to share the [00:16:00] details of her story for the podcast. As a reentry director, La Tanya helps make the transition from prison to society easier.

That could look like helping a survivor find their birth certificate and social security card or helping them find employment and housing. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: So, we try to make sure that they have just the basic comforts upon their release. Like we are waiting for them at their home when they get there with a welcome home bag.

gift cards, phone, things like that. Like, we don't want you to have to worry about these things. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: The Chicago Torture Justice Center is the first and only space in the United States that is dedicated to the healing of domestic police violence. And there's not a lot of research on peer-to-peer programs like this.

What is known, the most successful take a holistic approach and are culturally appropriate and run by other survivors. La Tanya tells me she's been working on a grant that would help fund a women's only program at the center, a first of its kind. The program would be filled with activities celebrating survivorship of all kinds.

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: What I want [00:17:00] to add is women. I want to, every woman has a voice. I have a platform, and I want them to have access to that. At the Center, we are going to love on each other and not let trauma be the only thing that defines us. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: She tells me why it is important to have spaces dedicated to the healing of women.

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: We've been socially constructed to believe that police would not cause harm to women. We have been marginalized to be baby mamas, sisters, cousins, aunties, foster mom, but never as victims. So, we have to change that narrative and put the responsibility and the accountability on the police for the harm that they cause to women.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: La Tanya was physically beaten and tortured by officers. She told me that it took years for somebody to believe her story. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: Every time a woman comes forward, no matter [00:18:00] what she is saying, it boils down to how many drinks has she had? What were you wearing? Why did you get in the car with him? You become the victim all over again.

You, you are supposed to have such a heightened sense. of what somebody else is going to do. So, women don't come forward.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: At the Center, there is a hallway filled with black banners. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: Let me just say, we are in the hallway of Chicago Torture Justice Center. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: They were created during the movement to form the ordinance. I asked La Tanya to describe what they mean to her. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: So, people would stand, supporters, Movement makers would stand in front of Rahm Emanuel's home holding up these banners.

It was basically such a powerful way [00:19:00] of, like, say their names. Unfortunately, some of these torture survivors are still incarcerated. Some of these torture survivors have passed away. It represents the injustice that the city of Chicago has imparted on all of these individuals whose names are on these banners.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: The banners have names and dates. Representing the victims and when they were tortured. Some date back to 1973, 1979, 1986. They're all black with white writing. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: And people say, it's so dark. And they're like, why, why is it so dark when the rest of the center is so light? And I always say, it's supposed to be.

It represents the worst thing that has happened to all of these individuals.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: There's nearly one hundred banners. I counted them myself. La Tanya points out that there's no women's [00:20:00] names on the banners, though. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: This is really, like, the reason why I have to come forward, because if you notice, there is not one woman's name. On any of these banners, uh, Michelle's name is not on a banner, my name is not on a banner, and that also, to me, speaks of an injustice.

That you all never looked for us, and now that you all have found us, our name is still not up here. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Seeing the banners makes me think of the Say Her Name movement. A national movement that launched in 2014 and brought national attention to the fact that Black women, like Black men, experience police torture.

News Clips: Say her name! 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: A 2022 article published in the National Library of Medicine stated that Black women are 1. 4 times more likely to be killed by police than white women. The violence, and the threat of violence, can lead to deep physical and mental trauma that can impact pregnancy [00:21:00] and correlate to an increased risk of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

La Tanya says this leaves very few places for women to heal. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: If we do come forward, where do we go outside of the police station? Where? We have no place. The church.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Michelle has found healing in the church. 

Michelle Clopton: For me, it stabilizes me. It's a It's a, it's a foundation that, uh, I want to build on because I, I think a lot of this world now, uh, forgets about God. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: That's Michelle you're hearing in the choir. She sings at her little brother's church, where he's the pastor at.

Michelle credits her faith for helping her make it through prison. She remembers seeing women, some who were friends, become mentally depressed or die by suicide. Michelle was determined not to let that happen to her. 

Michelle Clopton: And my motto was that, [00:22:00] uh, it might sound cruel or whatever, but it was the truth. You either gonna do it, go crazy, or kill yourself.

And that was what people did. You know? It sound cruel, but it was the truth.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Doing it means doing the time she told me. 

Michelle Clopton: You gonna get through it. You gonna be okay. You either gonna do that. If you can't, you might lose your mind, or you gonna get to the point where you wanna kill yourself. Those are the three options.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: It's easy to see how happy Michelle is at her brother's church. She glows as her hands sway in praise. She tells me it's a way to also feel connected to her grandmother, who had a major role in raising her. 

Michelle Clopton: That, that lady, when I tell you a godly woman that just walked, ate, slept, and breathed God. Everything she did, just, man. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: One of the most painful things about prison was being separated from her family. 

Michelle Clopton: Your family, they do that time with you, especially if they care. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: During her time in prison, her grandmother, mom, and dad died. She wasn't allowed to attend their funerals or say her [00:23:00] goodbyes. She still struggles with their losses, especially her grandmother.

Michelle Clopton: And I'm glad I had her in my life, you know, the time I had her. I hate I wasn't there to To see her go, but she see, she still here, she still, you know, she see what's going on and I know she can smile. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: In prison, Michelle met La Tanya, the re entry director from the Chicago Torture Justice Center. La Tanya used to do Michelle's hair there.

They told me they spent years together without knowing that they were both torture survivors. It wasn't until after La Tanya was released that they learned the truth through a mutual friend. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: To mine, I was really, really overwhelmed that I had spent the amount of time, that we had spent the amount of time together and never shared that, never discussed it.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: As reentry director at the center, La Tanya was able to help Michelle transition back into society. 

La Tanya Jenifor, Director of Re-Entry Services, Chicago Torture Justice Center: My part was really like, what does she need? Here's the money. We got to purchase this comforter, this and that. So, I was on the background of it 

Michelle Clopton: To me, it's a [00:24:00] lot. It's not much to her, but it means everything because people don't reach out like that.

You know what I'm saying? Organization. This organization, what I love about is they do what they say to come to that and to reach out and for her to reach back and reach out. That means a lot. That means a lot to somebody, people coming home. Thank God for the resources, because a lot of people don't have the support, or they don't reach out.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: Having a community has helped Michelle's healing journey. 

Michelle Clopton: You pretty much know it's other female survivors, because how could I just be the first one? So, it's just to sit in the surrounding of it, like we're in a free environment we in now, as opposed to where we came from. Like, wow, we out here, y'all.

Look what we doing together. Nobody's seen this coming. You know what I'm saying? We're out, we're free, and we're enjoying life. And, uh, we can't get back the time, you know, that we spent, but we can move forward and enjoy the rest of it. 

Producer, Jewél Jackson: And for the future, Michelle says she has goals. 

Michelle Clopton: One of my goals is to open a food [00:25:00] pantry in my brother's church.

He had the space and just, just being there to make an impact. I want to, uh, get to the point where I'm off the road. I'm able to travel and tell my story to, to audiences, conferences, and, um, a motivational speaker. Yeah, that's my main thing.

Producer, Jewél Jackson: And after decades of surviving, she's looking forward to living. 

Michelle Clopton: I, like I said, I just want to enjoy life, enjoy the rest of my time here and do good by others and make an impact. So that slash between the year you was born, that dash, what Michelle, she did her prison time, but she came out and did this also.

And that was, that's it. That's all.

Narrator: Thank you for joining Change Agents, the podcast series looking at grassroots actions and [00:26:00] solutions through stories told from the inside out. Produced by Juneteenth Productions for Reparations Media. The music is composed by Sarah Abdullah. Funding support provided by the Chicago Community Trust, the Field Foundation, and the Wayfair Foundation.

Additional support provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and DePaul University's College of Communication. Subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever you find your podcasts. Follow change agents on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and on our website changeagentsthepodcast.com.