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 Already short-staffed, according to state Sen. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga,
the Illinois Department of Corrections could lose up to 1,000 prison
guards in the next year because of retirements.
"This is something that just can't wait any longer. ... It's bad
now. What's it going to be like when you lose 1,000 guards?" Cultra
asked Thursday during a conference call with reporters.
Cultra was joined on the call by state Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount
Vernon. Both senators have two prisons in their districts. They said
they are concerned about the staff-to-prisoner ratio at all
correctional facilities.
Each facility in the state has a ratio of about one prison guard for
every 20 inmates, according to figures released by Cultra and Jones.
But, Sharyn Elman, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections,
said the two senators' numbers are flawed.
"You can't do an overall comparison. How would you compare and say
that it would be the same (number of guards needed) in maximum
security facilities as at a minimum security facility? They're
comparing apples to oranges," Elman said.
Elman said that for the state's super maximum, maximum and medium
security prisons, the staffing levels are at one guard for every six
inmates.
The Department of Corrections had a plan to train at least four new
cadet classes, averaging about 150 students per class, during the
fiscal year that started July 1, but state budget constraints could
put a damper on that, Elman said.
She said meetings among corrections staff members are planned during
the next several weeks to determine just how much money is available
to spend on training new guards.
New guards would join the ranks of about 10,000 guards in keeping
watch over the almost 49,000 inmates being held by the state,
according to the Department of Corrections.
That's another number that worries Jones, Cultra and others about
Illinois' correction system.
Illinois prisons initially were built to hold 33,373 inmates.
Corrections officials, however, switched how they determine that
number by counting the number of beds a prison can hold instead of
the number of cells. By doing so, the corrections officials could
show that the facilities were technically not overcrowded.
Inmates have 34 square feet of living space, or slightly more space
than one finds in a typical bathroom, according to the Department of
Corrections.
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Thomson, the newest prison in Illinois, is being sold to the federal
government because the state can't afford to operate it.
"We've passed a lot of laws over the last few years, and we're
putting more and more people into prison, and so our population on
the inmate side is really growing, and the staffing levels are going
down," Jones said.
Gov. Pat Quinn put a hold on one early release program following
political pressure when it was revealed that in 2009 hundreds of
inmates were put back on the streets after serving just a few weeks
of their sentence. Quinn pushed the blame onto Michael Randle,
then-director of the Department of Corrections, for what he called a
"mistake."
Illinois could face a similar situation as California, where the
U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state to decrease its prison
population by about 30,000 because of overcrowding.
Jones and Cultra said they want to see a combination of early
release programs and new hires to combat the discrepancy.
To pay for new guards, and maybe even a new prison, Jones suggested
eliminating the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority. Created in
1995, the authority gives grants to various organizations throughout
the state to administer anti-violence programs. Jones said the state
could save more than $30 million.
Cultra has a more novel way of generating cash for new guards.
"Corrections -- they used to produce their own milk; they used to
have their own cattle operation. There's a lot of things they could
do to not only produce better food, locally, and distribute it
through the prison system; we could save money by doing that,"
Cultra said.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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