 The loss of 1,970 beds at the Lincoln facility would force Illinois
to squeeze 48,743 into 49,030 beds at the state's 27 prisons,
leaving only 287 beds available statewide.Guards, advocates and
the state Department of Corrections, or DOC, say this limited space
creates a difficult and dangerous situation because few beds are
available for new inmates and inmates who need to be separated from
the general prison population.
Gov. Pat Quinn said Logan is one of seven state facilities
recommended for closure because of budget shortfalls. Quinn
spokeswoman Brie Callahan said lawmakers did not give the governor
enough money to run state government for a full year.
Logan's 1,970 inmates would be sent to other prisons, and plans
for the transfers have been filed with the Legislature's Commission
on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or COGFA, which will
play a role in deciding if Logan or any state facility closes.
The Department of Corrections estimates it could save $9 million
this year by closing Logan, though questions surround the additional
cost to other prisons that take in Logan's inmates.
John Maki, president of the Illinois chapter of the John Howard
Association, one of the nation's largest prisoner advocacy groups,
said closing one prison and shuffling inmates throughout the rest of
the system will make prison overcrowding worse.
"The Department of Corrections is already understaffed ... (and)
the prison population is way beyond capacity and getting close to
maxing out the bed space," Maki said.
DOC spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said the "blueprint capacity" for
Illinois prisons is around 33,000 inmates, but renovations and
additions have pushed actual capacity to 51,000.
"This is like a puzzle, and we're trying to put the pieces
together," Elman said.
The plan to solve DOC's puzzle would send 1,500 medium-security
inmates from Logan to other prisons, and a similar number of
minimum-security inmates from across the state to gymnasiums at 11
other prisons, said Elman.
"Medium-security inmates will never be going into gyms," Elman
said "Only minimum-security inmates may be shifted around."
Medium-security inmates include convictions for drug or property
crimes as well as those cycling out of prison for more serious
charges. Minimum-security inmates are almost never those convicted
of violent crimes.
Randy Hellmann, shift supervisor for Pinckneyville Correctional
Center in Pinckneyville, said it doesn't matter who sleeps in the
gym, because adding 1,500 inmates to overcrowded prisons is inviting
violence.
The most recent data from the DOC annual report for 2010 show
that there were 3.1 inmate-on-staff assaults per 1,000 staff members
per month. DOC also reports 4.1 inmate-on-inmate assaults per 1,000
inmates per month. In 2010, there were 7,703 security staff members
in DOC and 47,504 inmates.
"With today's population, and the low number of staff in these
facilities, this is the making of disaster," said Hellmann. "You
have an opportunity here for inmates to take over certain parts of
the facility."
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Maki said if Logan closes, and inmates are shuffled, Illinois
could find itself in the same situation as California, where the
U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state to start releasing inmates
because of overcrowding.
"This will certainly ... invite legal challenges," Maki said. "It
seems obvious that this violates the Eighth Amendment dealing with
cruel and unusual punishment, and invites a human rights case."
Not only would Logan inmates occupy gym space at other prisons
statewide, but they would live in medical housing units and behavior
segregation cells. Elman said the 300 to 500 Logan inmates would
fill nearly every open medical bed or segregation cell.
Maki pointed out that filling medical and segregation units with
healthy and well-behaved inmates means that inmates who are sick or
need to be kept away from others will have no place to go.
"Without medical and segregation units, you're looking to
jeopardize the safety of inmates and the safety of staff," Maki
said.
Another 130 to 180 inmates from the medium-security facility at
Logan are scheduled to be sent to Illinois' supermax prison, Tamms
Correctional Center in Tamms. Elman said those inmates would be sent
to Tamms' minimum-security work camp, and not the 23-hour-a-day
isolation units in Tamms' supermax wings.
Quinn has blamed lawmakers for sending him a $33.2 billion state
budget when he wanted a budget closer to $36 billion.
State Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, who shepherded the DOC
budget through the Senate, said no one should be surprised that a
smaller state budget is forcing this showdown.
"With the budget that was passed, clearly reductions are needed
in the Department of Corrections," said Steans. "Many difficult and
painful options are thus on the table."
Lawmakers return for the fall veto session at the end of October
to address Quinn's threatened closures, among other issues.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]
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