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"Safety is at the forefront of the agency's operations," Walker
said. "We look forward to having these new correctional officers
join the professional staff at the agency's correctional facilities.
We are also excited that this graduation indicates how close we are
to opening Thomson Correctional Center. More than one-quarter of
these officers will go to Thomson." The six-week course is a
240-hour pre-service security training program. The cadets underwent
a regimen of training sessions that included employee ethics,
professionalism, firearms, control tactics, fire emergency, search
procedures, discipline and report writing, radio communication, drug
awareness, training exercises, and exams.
Prior to this scheduled training, the last correctional officer
class to graduate was in January 2005, when 108 officers graduated.
The agency is planning another cadet training class in the fall.
The new correctional officers will report to various Department
of Corrections facilities throughout the state. Out of the 111 new
officers, 30 will be assigned to Thomson Correctional Center's
minimum-security unit, which is slated to open Sept. 1.
Approximately 75 staff will be employed at the Thomson facility,
including 30 new and 10 transferring correctional officers.
Frank Shaw is serving as warden of Thomson Correctional Center.
Shaw served as warden of Hill Correctional Center as well as
assistant warden of operations at both Hill and East Moline. A
veteran of the Department of Corrections, he joined the agency in
1981 as a correctional officer at East Moline Correctional Center.
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 In May, the Department of Corrections conducted a series of town
hall meetings at Thomson, Port Byron and Morrison to inform
residents about the job opportunities that would become available as
the agency began the correctional officer hiring process for the
Thomson Correctional Center. Nearly 500 people attended the
meetings, which provided information on employment opportunities and
the recruitment process.
The governor has pledged to improve the Illinois prison system.
The governor's most recent re-entry initiative is to develop a
national model meth prison and re-entry program. The
governor's meth prison initiative includes creating two meth units,
one at Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center and one at
Sheridan. In fiscal 2007, the governor will create a 200-bed meth
unit at the 667-bed Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center and
make the entire prison another fully dedicated drug prison and
re-entry program in the model of Sheridan.
Next year, the governor will expand the Sheridan Correctional
Center from 950 offenders to its full capacity of 1,300 offenders,
with 200 of those spaces to be used for another meth unit. As with
the current Sheridan model, inmates in both programs will have
intensive prison-based drug treatment programs, vocational training,
job preparation and mental health services; and upon completion of
their sentence, treatment will continue under a highly supervised
transition back to their communities.
[News release from the governor's
office] |
