Republicans call for state hiring restrictions

By Caitlin Rydinsky

Republicans in the Illinois House are proposing changes to state hiring practices after the revelation that a Department of Correction’s administrator had a criminal record and gang ties.

Xandrian McCraven, who was employed as the senior advisor to the IDOC chief of parole, was discovered by a Chicago Sun-Times investigation to have had more than 24 arrests and links to gangs. McCraven has held several state jobs since 2000, including a position at the Department of Child and Family Services. When the story broke, McCraven was on paid leave. He has since been fired by the IDOC.

Rep. Dennis Reboletti, a Republican Elmhurst, says he supports giving a convicts second chances, but there are positions within state government that they should not hold. Rep. Reboletti and Republican Rep. John Anthony of Plainfield proposed barring gang members from working at the IIDOC, the Illinois State Police, Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice and the DCFS. “What you have to understand is gangs are coming to the 21st century. They are using every tool they can possibly use. They are building up people to actually represent them in these locales. I know. I’ve lived it; I’ve seen it. I’ve watched it,” says Anthony of his experience as a police officer working with gangs.

For someone to be restricted from employment under the plan, he or she would have been convicted or have had evidence of membership to a gang or gang activity documented by a court.

Wheaton Republican Rep. Jeanne Ives’ proposal would go a step further by banning the state from hiring anyone convicted of two or more criminal offenses such as a felony, class A misdemeanor or DUI. “We got a lot of unemployment out there in Illinois, and if you can’t actually abide by the laws, why should the taxpayers be paying you?” asks Ives. “There are a lot of unanswered questions here about the hiring practices, and we do need to have a full investigation.”

Since the reports on McCraven’s past, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kirk Dillard has called on Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, to fire Illinois Department of Corrections Director Salvador Godinez. “We need a full-scale review of IDOC operations beginning with the removal of Director Godinez. The 10,000 hardworking, rank-and-file correctional employees deserve better than this.” Reboletti supports Dillard in the GOP primary, but says that it does not affect his proposal.

Dave Blanchette, a spokesman for Quinn, said in a written statement that the administration has zero tolerance for unethical behavior. Blanchette said McCraven was hired under former Gov. Rob Blagojevich and inherited by the Quinn administration. “After this individual’s background came to our attention, the governor directed the Department of Corrections to review the individual’s employment status, at which point discrepancies in his previous application were identified. He was immediately terminated from employment,” Blanchette said. Gov. Quinn is sticking by Director Godinez, who Blanchette says has “one of the toughest jobs in the country.”

Republicans say they want a hearing next week on this issue. Steve Brown, a spokesman for  Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, said that no hearings are planned at this point. He said that “first we would need a bill” before any hearing would be scheduled.

Illinois Senate approves more budget bills

By Jamey Dunn

Illinois Senate Republicans supported legislation today to spend unexpected tax revenue on the state’s old bills but rejected the rest of a budget plan crafted by Democrats of both legislative chambers.

Education spending, which the Senate approved Wednesday, passed without Republican support, and the vote totals for the rest of the about $35 billion Fiscal Year 2014 budget looked the same today. The one exception was that most of the Republicans in the chamber voted in favor of a measure that would put an unexpected income tax revenue windfall toward the state’s stack of unpaid bills. House Bill 206, the supplemental appropriation that would pay down bills this fiscal year, now heads the Gov. Pat Quinn. The education budget bills — Senate Bill 2555 and SB 2556 — await a vote in the House. The legislation also includes the payments to debt service, employee health benefits and pensions.  “I think it’s a responsible use of the additional billion dollars that came in from income tax,” said McHenry Republican Sen. Pamela Althoff.

House and Senate Democrats crafted the budget this year after cutting Republicans out of talks a few weeks ago. Here’s a breakdown of the bills:

HB 208 is the operational spending for state education agencies, as well as some higher education costs, including student aid.

HB 213 is human services funds and Medicaid spending.

HB 214 is general services spending, the General Assembly’s budget and the constitutional officers' budgets.

HB 215 is public safety and transportation spending, Illinois Department of Corrections budget, capital construction spending for the next fiscal year and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources budget.

The bills give some lump sums to state agencies to allow for flexibility in funding programs and personnel costs. Sponsors said the hope is that agencies can manage spending and meet the requirements of the new public employee union contract, which includes pay raises. However, the proposal does not include funding for previous raises still owed to state employees. Democratic Sen. Heather Steans of Chicago said $60 million is in an escrow account that can be used to start to pay down those wages. But she said she does not know of any immediate plans to pass a supplemental bill explicitly for the back pay. A representative from Quinn’s budget office said during a Senate budget committee hearing yesterday that the administration does not plan to provide all the back pay without a supplemental spending bill because it would likely require layoffs, something Quinn’s office says he wants to avoid.

Quinn and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are backing a spending bill to cover the back wages, but as of today, the bill is sitting in the House, still on second reading. It could not pass in its current from before tomorrow's adjournment deadline. However, the measure could be drafted into a different bill and still make it through by the end of the day tomorrow. “There is strong bipartisan support in the General Assembly for HB 212, the supplemental appropriation to pay wages owed to caregivers, correctional officers and other state employees dating back nearly two years,” said Anders Lindall, a spokesman for AFSCME Council 31. “Public servants shouldn’t have to wait a day longer for the wages they earned, and Illinois taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay another penny of interest or legal costs incurred by the state’s continued failure to fulfill its responsibility to its employees.” The raises were not paid to workers in 2011 because Quinn said that lawmakers did not approve the funding for them.

Sponsors of the budget plan said that paying off bills this fiscal year with the additional revenues would make next year’s budget less painful. They said the spending for next year fully funds programs and agencies and will keep them from having to budget from crisis to crisis, as has been the case during the past few years. “We should not have any providers getting notices next June that they’re not going to be getting payments,” Steans said. Such notices went out to childcare providers last year and providers of in-home care for the elderly this year. In both cases, lawmakers approved additional spending late in the fiscal year to keep the programs afloat. The budget would reduce many human services operations by 3 percent from Quinn’s proposed budget. Grants would be cut by 1 percent from the budget introduced by Quinn, but many areas, such as community mental health, would be shielded from the reduction. The Department of Corrections would see a $70 million increase that supporters say was needed to avoid further prison closures.

Republicans complained that the rest of the budget does not reflect their priorities and that funding went to programs without proven results. They hit on $1.5 million included for a program that is a perennial target for their criticisms: Grow Your Own Teachers. Republicans said the program, which works to encourage minority residents to become teachers in the state, is too expensive and pointed to historical statistics that show that the bulk of enrollees drop out before receiving teaching certificates.

Democratic Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge acknowledged the past problems with Grow Your Own Teachers, but noted that it has improved its stats. He said that after the program was unable to show lawmakers that its results justified its spending line, they program was cut and restructured. He said now the graduation and placement stats are better. “When we said to them last year, your data isn’t good enough they came back” with improvements, Kotowski said. “We’re seeing progress as a result of the policy decisions and the changes that we made here as a byproduct of the appropriations process.”

Republicans said the money would be better spent on K-12 education or restoring some of the Medicaid cuts made last year. “Including things like this in this budget undermines the credibility of the budget overall because they lead to the conclusion that the budget is more of a political document than it is an outcomes-based reflection of priority,” said Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican.

AFSCME: Prison assault is product of overcrowding

By Jamey Dunn

Union officials say the attempted sexual assault of a corrections officer in the Danville Correctional Center illustrates the dangers associated with the state’s overcrowded prison system.

According the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents corrections employees statewide, an inmate who was housed in a gym at the medium security prison was in a separate housing unit doing laundry for other inmates housed in the gym. He allegedly lured a corrections officer into a laundry facility by claiming a machine was broken, punched her in the jaw and attempted to rape her. The union’s account says the guard was saved when another inmate responded to her screams and halted the attack.

The Department of Corrections denies that the officer was alone at the time of the attack. “The corrections officer who was assaulted was absolutely not the only officer with the inmates at the time. IDoC procedure calls for three: two officers and a control officer. That proven effective level of staffing was in place during the shift covering this assault,” Tom Shaer, a spokesman for the department, said in a written statement.

The department acknowledges an attack occurred but gives few details. “Danville Correctional Center is on lockdown after an assault on an officer early this morning. No serious injuries were sustained, and a thorough investigation is under way. Any physical contact with a guard is unacceptable, but again, fortunately, the officer was not seriously injured,” said a written statement from the department. “The Illinois Department of Corrections takes all incidents very seriously, as safety and security are our constant priorities. We have interviewed the officer, who is at home, other staff and inmate witnesses as we gather all the facts. Director [Tony] Godinez has also talked to the officer and extended his continued thanks for the fine work being done by this experienced individual and all DOC personnel.”

Gov. Pat Quinn has closed several corrections facilities including halfway houses, juvenile detention centers, a super-maximum security prison in Tamms and a women’s prison in Dwight. Quinn said that the state’s budget woes made the closures necessary. Women from Dwight were moved to the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln. Men from Logan swapped places with women at the Lincoln Correctional Center. As part of the transition, an estimated 600 male prisoners were bused to six other prisons to be housed in gymnasiums filled with bunk beds. The department describes the situation as temporary, but it has yet to give specifics on its plan to stop putting prisoners in gyms. “It’s a temporary dorm setting. Obviously, we have no control over the inmates that we receive into the system,” corrections spokeswomen Stacey Solano told Illinois Issues last month when asked about the prisoners in gyms.  Similar conditions existed at other low level security facilities before the closures. However, inmates are housed on large wings instead of in gyms.

AFSCME sued to try to block the closures, arguing that they would create an unsafe environment for its members. But the Illinois Supreme Court sided with Quinn. “The men and women who work in our prisons provide for the safety of the public, and they deserve the safest possible working conditions,” AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer said in a written statement today. “Their job is difficult, but the choices of politicians have made it worse. The state has ignored its responsibility to provide the resources needed to maintain safety, and now workers are bearing the terrible consequences.”

 The Danville Correctional Center was designed to hold 900 inmates in single cells. By putting more than one prisoner in each cell, the department pegs the prison’s operational capacity at 1,862. According to the union’s count, at 1,931 the prison is currently over operational capacity.

AFSCME says that the prison is also understaffed. The union’s account of the attack says that the officer was alone in the housing unit. “Although prison directives require that two officers be posted on each unit at all times, they are routinely circumvented by management on the overnight shift, leaving a single officer alone. The union has repeatedly objected to this practice at Danville and elsewhere, fearing just this sort of opportunistic and predatory violence.”

However, a spokesman for DoC said that the department does not leave mandatory guard positions open. “In every correctional facility, there are mandatory posts. The Department of Corrections covers every mandatory post and does not leave them vacant,” Shaer said. The most recent report on the Danville facility from the prison watchdog group The John Howard Association is from 2011. The report says that like many DoC facilities, Danville was “plagued by staff vacancies.” The report predicted that understaffing could be an issue for the prison. “As more staff near retirement age, vacancies may cause problems in the near future.”

The Danville attack comes after recent reports of violent incidents at maximum security facilities, including the murders of three inmates at the Menard Correctional Center. But Anders Lindall, a spokesperson for AFSCME Council 31, said problems are not exclusive to the higher security facilities. “The dangers of crowding and violence are not only at the max security level. Every facility in the system is interdependent on others,” Lindall said.

Despite the department’s statement, Lindall said it is “on going practice” at some facilities to cover staffing gaps by having officers from mandatory posts cover other duties on the night shift. He said the union has “repeatedly” raised concerns about it. “You have an inmate who is housed in a gym and an officer who was left alone on a housing unit — all circumstances about which we have sounded the alarm in the past. This shouldn’t have happened.”

Department of Corrections seeks more funding for current fiscal year

By Meredith Colias 

After projected savings from prison closures fell short, the Illinois Department of Corrections is asking for more funding for the current fiscal year.

The department is seeking $41.8 million in supplemental appropriations to cover its costs for FY 13, which ends June 30. According to Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget office, the department had to spend $30 million it had not included in its budget to keep the Dwight and Tamms Correctional Centers open through a legal fight with public employee unions. Agency officials estimate that running the two prisons cost the state about $62 million per year and that the department did not save the full amount projected from prison closures because court challenges delayed the closings for several months. Both prisons are now closed.

The department also prematurely estimated it could save $19.2 million by stopping guards from collecting 15 minutes of overtime while they stood through the morning roll call. Department officials said during a budget hearing today that they were unable to realize those savings, and they now need to reconcile how to cover that cost.

Other problems, such as overcrowding, continue to plague the prison system. Inmates at minimum-security prisons are being housed in bunks in prison gymnasiums. A department spokeswoman said the agency is doing the best it can under difficult circumstances. “It’s a temporary dorm setting. Obviously, we have no control over the inmates that we receive into the system,” said Stacy Solano.

Anders Lindall, spokesmen for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, said the prison closures only added to the problem, with 49,000 inmates in prisons built for 32,000. “I don’t think from the beginning it was credible to claim that closures would save money,” he said. “They didn’t turn those thousands of inmates loose. They transferred them to other facilities, and they had to transfer staff [and still pay] to safely incarcerate them,” he said.

Three inmates have been murdered in the Menard Correctional Facility this year. A report released today from the prison watchdog group the John Howard Association says that inmates complained about the dangers of putting multiple prisoners in one cell. “Several older inmates reported that they had trouble with younger and aggressive cellmates. Additionally, housing inmates with long-term sentences alongside inmates with short-term sentences can be problematic. This was the situation of the inmate who was allegedly murdered by his cellmate in January 2013,” said the report. The authors of the report noted some positive developments at Menard since the association’s 2011 monitoring visit. “Menard has made several improvements, including reducing its segregation population, notably of inmates suffering from mental illnesses; attempting to isolate and reduce lock downs by housing inmates by aggression levels; and working with staff to strengthen communication and accountability.”

“We take every assault as seriously, no matter to what degree, extremely seriously,” Solano said. The department has reviewed security procedures and is aiding prosecution efforts, she said. “That sends a message to staff and inmates that we are not going to stand for this.”

DoC still working out policy for former Tamms prisoners

North segregation wing at Pontiac Correctional Center

By Jamey Dunn

Inmates who were transferred from a now-shuttered super-maximum security prison in Tamms  remain in relative isolation at the Pontiac Correctional Center with no immediate possibility of rejoining the general prison population.

The Tamms Correctional Center closed in January, and most inmates were transferred to the maximum-security facility in Pontiac. Pontiac Warden Randy Pfister said that for many of the prisoners, this was not their first time at Pontiac. “Many of the ex-Tamms offenders had already spent time at Pontiac Correctional [Center]. They’re very familiar with Pontiac Correctional Center,” he told reporters after leading them on a tour of Pontiac last Friday.

On the day of the visit, Pontiac held 1,948 inmates. According to the John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group, Pontiac is designed to hold 1,800 inmates. The Department of Corrections lists the prison’s capacity 2,152. It costs almost $32,000 to house a prisoner at Pontiac for a year. Pfister estimated that about half of the men serving time at Pontiac will be behind bars for the rest of their lives.

Former Tamms prisoners fall under two general categories. About 50 of them are in disciplinary segregation at Pontiac. Pfister said that serious infractions of the rules in the prison system, such as assaults or possession of contraband, land inmates in long term segregation. Inmates who rack up more than a year of segregation are typically transferred to Pontiac to serve their disciplinary time. “Violate the rules or the policies or procedures of the Department of Corrections; basically it’s the same as if you break a law on the streets.”

The former Tamms prisoners in segregation live under the strictest conditions at the facility. They spend the vast majority of their time and take all of their meals in small cells by themselves. The cell doors are covered in Plexiglas and metal grating. The addition of Plexiglas is one of the infrastructure changes made specifically for the former Tamm’s prisoners. Reporters were not allowed on the wings where the “worst of the worst” of former Tamms inmates are housed at Pontiac. “The North segregation [where former Tamms prisoners are held], it’s a different atmosphere,” said Frank Turner, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 494. Turner, who is a corrections officer at Pontiac, said prisoners in other cell blocks have more incentive to exhibit good behavior because they have more opportunities to earn rewards.

The inmates in North segregation are allowed five hours of recreation time a week. They take that in large rust-colored metal cages in the prison yard. Segregation prisoners are not allowed to bring anything into the cages, dubbed recreation pods by DoC. There is a pull-up bar, and Pontiac staff said prisoners often exercise or yell back in forth to prisoners in other pods when they are in the yard. There is a system at Pontiac for stepping down segregation prisoners to less restrictive conditions, but Stacey Solano, a spokeswoman for DoC, said that no former Tamms inmates have been placed under a different security classification than their status was at the super-max prison. Pfister said some inmates in segregation at Pontiac should never be returned to a general prison population because of the dangers that they present and their inability to follow the rules.

Cell in North cell house where Tamms prisoners reside

About 160 of the former Tamms inmates fall into a category called administrative detention. Those inmates are held outside of the general prison population because of safety and security concerns. One possible reason why an inmate might be placed in administrative detention could be gang ties that are causing rivalries or disputes in the general population. Many of the former Tamms prisoners who fall into this category get to take yard time with up to five other inmates. That means they can play games, such as basketball. When reporters entered Pontiac on a warm spring day last week, several former Tamms inmates where doing just that on courts that are surrounded by high chain-link fence topped with razor wire. They joked with reporters and greeted them.

Recreation pods where segregation inmates get yard time.

Inmates in administrative detention typically get more time in the yard than those in segregation Pfister said they can spend up to nine hours a week outside. Administrative detention inmates are reevaluated every 90 days to determine if they still need to be separated from the general population. However, DoC  has no plan in place for integrating any of the former Tamms inmates. Solano said that DoC is developing a policy to transition Tamms inmates back into the general population, but has no timeline for when that might happen. She said former Tamms inmates could earn additional privileges at Pontiac if their 90-day evaluations are positive.

Basketball courts where some former Tamms inmates play.      

Laurie Jo Reynolds, founder of the group Tamms Year Ten that was pushing for reforms at the prison but now supports its closure, said that DoC’s administrative detention policy was one of the group’s major concerns when it came to Tamms. She said prisoners under the classification could find themselves at Tamms with no explanation for how they got there because the prison intelligence that sent them there was classified and often flawed. “The thing about going to Tamms was there were no clear criteria. It was very unclear why people were at Tamms.” But she said, “At least people who were in segregation at Tamms knew why they were in segregation.” She said those in administrative detention did not have due process to challenge their status. Reynolds said those in administrative detention now are generally experiencing better conditions than at Tamms, but they still have no way of knowing when they might return to the general inmate population. “There’s way less men in administrative detention over at Menard [Correctional Center], but it’s the same situation over there.” While a few former Tamms inmates were sent to Menard, the majority of them ended up at Pontiac.

Former Tamms prisoners in both categories are restricted on how they can move around the prison when they are out of their cells. The warden said the prison is using a combination of security protocols pulled from rules applied at Tamms, under Pontiac's current segregation policy and on the former death row at Pontiac, which now houses Tamms inmates that are in administrative detention. He said former Tamms prisoners are always accompanied by a guard when they are moved, and a prison sergeant is always nearby.

Cell doors for segregation inmates from Tamms.

Pfister said that so far, the former Tamms prisoners have not made life much more difficult at Pontiac. “Other than that mass hunger strike, we have had absolutely no issues. There’s been no ex-Tamms offenders involved in any violent assaults or involved with any thing out of the ordinary that doesn’t occur here with regular segregation inmates,” he said. Several of the former Tamms inmates joined some Pontiac inmates in a hunger strike shortly after they arrived at Pontiac. The Tamms inmates complained that they were being treated differently from the other Pontiac prisoners.

Among their demands, they asked that private property that they had in Tamms be returned to them. “Many of the issues were property issues,” said Pfister. “Because we got over 100 of them in a two-day period, it took us a little while to get their personal property.” Segregation inmates from Tamms also asked that the Plexiglas be removed from their cells, a request that has not been accommodated. “We totally opposed that because those men were in Tamms, and they were not behind Plexiglas, and they were fine,” said Reynolds. Tamms Year Ten was not associated with the hunger strike, but the group is working to ensure that former Tamms prisoners do not encounter discrimination in their new placements at other prisons. She said that she thinks that Pfister is doing his best to treat former Tamms prisoners like the other inmates at Pontiac. However, she said there is also the possibility that inmates might have an issue with individual guards. “I really did fully believe that he was treating everyone the same. I really think that is his whole mantra in life.”

Pfister said of the inmates in his prison: “We just deal with them professionally and respectfully and treat them like a man. They’ve already been judged; that’s not our job.”

The warden said that the hunger strike has ended, but he said some prisoners held out for a long time. “I think the longest one was just under 50 days,” he said. Despite the hunger strike, Reynolds said that much of the feedback from inmates and their families after the move to Pontiac has been positive. “This is [a] very good experience that you’re seeing our guys having and that the family members are happy about.” She said that there was concern that DoC employees might take out their frustration over the recent prison closing on Tamms inmates. “We were so terrified that these guys were going to go there and be really treated badly, and they would act out, and there would be a lot of tension.” But Reynolds said the reality at Pontiac is very different. “The staff and everybody was so nice to the parents, they were just in shock.” She said the visitation process at Pontiac is much easier for families to negotiate. For Tamms visits, they have to mail in paperwork and undergo a screening each time. Often, they would make the trip to the prison in the state’s southern tip only to be turned away. “The Tamms visitation policy was such a circus of nonsense that they put family members through.”

Reynolds said she has major concerns about the isolation polices at Pontiac, but she said for former Tamms inmates, just getting to eat an orange, smell the grass and see the sky on a regular basis is an improvement from their lives at the super-max facility. “They’re having sensory experiences at Pontiac. They weren’t having them at Tamms.”

Pontiac's visiting room. Inmates are not allowed contact with visitors.

Prison workers did not have much to say about the Tamms inmates creating any specific new safety problems. They said they are most concerned with the overcrowding in the system that is being exacerbated as Gov. Pat Quinn’s closes corrections facilities. Quinn says the facilities must be closed to cut costs as Illinois struggles to find fiscal stability. Nearly 150 staff members from the recently closed Dwight Correctional Center for Women were scheduled to start work at Pontiac today. Turner said that housing two inmates in a cell has become more widespread at Pontiac, and it can lead to more violence. “I know that there’s more than a handful of fights inside those cells with the double celling. We’ve been fortunate here that we haven’t had anybody killed as they have in Menard,” he said. Three Menard inmates have died recently, and a former Menard prisoner has been charged with murder in one of the cases. “When you start jamming segregation high-aggression inmates together like that, when you have no room to move them around as in Pontiac — we don’t have the ability to move inmates around a lot because we do not have the bed space — it’s going to create a problem sooner or later,” Turner said.

He said that the crowding at other prisons also makes it difficult to execute inmate management policies. “We’ve got 33,000 beds, and we’ve got 49,000 inmates. You know, the math doesn’t add up. And they’ve announced that they’ve got six institutions that we’re putting cots in the gymnasiums. The writing’s on the wall. If you’ve got more inmates than you’ve got beds, there’s going to be a problem.” He said the conflicts that result from overcrowding at lower security levels mean that more inmates will likely rack up segregation time and potentially be sent to Pontiac. At some point, he said, there just wouldn’t be any more room at the higher security level prisons for more dangerous inmates. “You’re going to have to take inmates that don’t fit the criteria at a lower institution because you don’t have enough beds at the higher security level.” Turner said the additional staff from the Dwight closure will help to take some pressure off guards at Pontiac, who he says have been working a high level of overtime. “Unfortunately they’re closing a facility. That’s taking beds away. That doesn’t make any sense.”

For more on the debate surrounding the closure of Tamms super-max prison, see Illinois Issues June 2102. 

Illinois Issues also toured a minimum security prison in Vienna. You can read about that facility at the Illinois Issues blog.

Quinn says public safety is his top priority for concealed carry law

By Jamey Dunn

Gov. Pat Quinn said any concealed carry bill in Illinois would have to contain safety restrictions to get his approval.

“The court did say for the reasons of public safety that reasonable limitations can be applied...and I think it’s important that we stress that. Public safety comes first,” Quinn told reporters in Chicago today.

After a federal court ordered the General Assembly yesterday to approve a concealed carry law within 180 days, supporters said they would not be as willing to compromise on a more restrictive bill. “We just wanted them to work with us in the past, and they never wanted to,” Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Harrisburg Democrat, said of those who did not back his concealed carry legislation. After Quinn stated publicly that he would veto the bill, Phelps’ bill legislation did not get enough votes to pass when it was called on the House last year. His proposal required training for a concealed carry permit and put limits on where guns would be allowed. But now that a court has signed off on concealed carry, Phelps and others say they will likely present a less restrictive plan. “You can’t argue with the courts,” he said.

Quinn did not get specific on what he wants to see in a bill, but he said public safety is his priority. “We’re going to take a look at everything: not only bills that have been introduced in Illinois, but the laws that exist in other states. We want to get the very best law that protects public safety. That’s where I’m coming from, and I’m going to insist on that, and,frankly, you don’t have a law until you have the governor’s signature.” Quinn said it is up to Attorney General Lisa Madigan to decide whether to appeal the ruling. “I’ll trust her judgment.”

The governor used the news of the ruling to again call for the ban of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips in Illinois “We are not going to have people marching along Michigan Avenue or any other avenue in the state of Illinois with military style assault weapons, weapons that are designed to kill people,” Quinn said today. During the veto session, the legislature overturned a veto that Quinn used to tack such a ban onto another bill. After that vote, he said he planned to back such a proposal through the legislative process.

Quinn commented on another court ruling today. The Illinois Supreme Court yesterday lifted a court order that had been preventing the governor to move ahead on a plan to close several Illinois Department of Corrections facilities. “I’m happy the court ruled in our favor, and now we’ll carry out what the court told us.”

While the Senate voted to override Quinn’s vetoes of the money for the facilities, the House let the vetoes stand. Quinn used his veto pen to remove $19.4 million for the super-maximum security prison near Tamms and $21.2 million for the women’s prison in Dwight from the budget passed by lawmakers in the spring session. In addition to the prisons, he plans to close three transition centers meant to help inmates re-enter society. He also cut $8.9 million for a youth prison in Joliet and $6.6 million for a youth prison in Murphysboro. Quinn said without the money to fund them, the facilities cannot remain open. “We’ll follow the proper legal process in order to go through the court system, but the bottom line is last week the Illinois General Assembly did not override my veto, I vetoed money for these prisons and other facilities,” Quinn said today.

 But the Quinn administration has not released a timeline for the closures and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 plans to continue its appeal, which is pending in a lower court. “AFSCME members are extremely disappointed in this ruling. The injunction is vital to upholding the union’s right to seek judicial review of an arbitrator’s findings on crucial health and safety concerns. Nonetheless, we intend to vigorously pursue that appeal. This ruling doesn’t change the fact that closing any prison will worsen severe overcrowding throughout the correctional system, making the remaining prisons more dangerous for employees, inmates and ultimately the public,” Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME Council 31, said in a written statement.

Quinn's budget cuts stand

By Jamey Dunn

During the Illinois General Assembly's fall session, the House did not take up Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget vetoes, which eliminated funding for several state facilities he plans to close.

Quinn cut a total of $57 million from the budget that lawmakers sent to him, and most of the money was funding for prisons and other Illinois Department of Corrections facilities that the governor says he intends to shutter as part of a cost-savings plan.

He vetoed $19.4 million for the super-maximum security prison near Tamms and $21.2 million for the women’s prison in Dwight. In addition to the prisons, he plans to close three transition centers meant to help inmates reenter society. He also cut $8.9 million for a youth prison in Joliet and $6.6 million for a youth prison in Murphysboro. The Senate voted to override the vetoes last week, but the House did not take a vote on the issue, which all involved said was largely symbolic. Even if the House had voted to reject Quinn’s changes, he would not have been bound to spend the money to keep the facilities open.

Still, downstate legislators in support of keeping the prisons open wanted a chance to argue their case on the House floor before the House ended its veto session today. “I had the best speech ever,” said Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Harrisburg Democrat. He said the closures would hurt areas of Illinois that are already economically depressed. “Tamms is a huge economic engine for that little area down there. It’s just going to be devastating for that area and for my district. The governor always says he is the jobs governor, but he is not proving it right now.” Phelps said that today was the last day to vote on the vetoes.

Quinn had been lobbying hard against an override in both chambers. “Today is a victory for the taxpayers of Illinois. The Illinois House of Representatives sent a strong message about their serious commitment to reducing spending the state cannot afford,” a written statement from Quinn’s office said.

Critics of Tamms say that the prison's high staffing numbers and low number of inmates wastes money. They claim that its policy of extreme isolation for prisoners, who often spend only an hour outside of their cells each day, equates to torture. The treatment of inmates at the prison has been condemned by a number of international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. Those in favor of closing Tamms argue that it would help other woefully understaffed prisons reach required staffing levels because staff from the closed prisons would be transferred.

But those opposed say the closures will make the state’s already overcrowded prison system even more dangerous. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sued to keep the prisons open on the basis that the closures would put their employees in danger. So far, one arbitrator has sided with the union, saying the closure violates its contract, and one sided with Quinn, saying that the prisons could be closed safely. It is likely that a court will make the final call.

A spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, Steve Brown, said Madigan did not call the bill because it would have been “at best, a symbolic kind of vote” and that the House was unlikely to reject the cuts because Republicans were not on board. House Minority Leader Tom Cross said yesterday that he would not support an override vote because he believes Quinn plans to shut down the institutions no matter what. “We have a fiscal problem in this state, and we have to recognize that someday, that we don’t have a lot of extra money.”

Quinn is pushing lawmakers to use some of the money from his vetoes to fund the Department of Children and Family Services, which took an almost $90 million hit under the budget crafted by the House. Brown said negotiations over that spending, as well as facility closures, continue. “There’s pretty wide-ranging negotiations going on over changes in the budget,” he said. “The give and take that will continue to go on is probably the most important thing in that area.”

Vienna has cleaned up its act, but overcrowding is still a problem

By Jamey Dunn

While the Illinois Department of Corrections has fixed some of the serious maintenance issues at the Vienna Correctional Center, the overcrowding in the prison is hard to overlook.

The minimum security prison in southern Illinois became the subject of scrutiny after the John Howard Association, a Chicago-based prison watchdog group, released a report last year detailing conditions that the report called “deplorable” and “unfit” for the inmates living there. Several news outlets asked to tour that prison and others in the state, but Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration initially denied those requests. Newspapers then ran editorials critical of the lack of transparency. WBEZ Chicago threatened to sue the administration to gain access, and Quinn then relented. DoC announced in October that reporters would be allowed to tour three of the state’s prisons: Vandalia Correctional Center, another minimum security prison plagued by reports of substandard living conditions; Pontiac Correctional Center, a maximum security prison that would absorb prisoners from the super-maximum security prison near Tamms as part of Quinn’s facility closure plan; and the prison in Vienna, where DoC officials led reporters on a tour on Friday.

With an average daily population of a little more than 1,600, the prison now holds twice the number of inmates it was designed to house. However, warden Randy Davis said the facility’s emphasis on education, vocation and recreation makes that number manageable. “Could we drop a couple two or three hundred [prisoners]? Yeah, that would be great. ... Do I think for the most part we are extremely overcrowded? Not really. Not based on the fact that we try to get the inmates out a lot of the institution. We make every effort to get them into recreation, vocational training, education programs. My thing is, I like to see inmates out and about and doing things. It’s easier to operate. You have less problems,” said Davis, who has been warden at the facility since December 2012.

Vienna Correctional Center consists of several building, including six housing halls that were built in the 1970s and resemble dorms, albeit far less cushy than the average college freshman expects today. Most cells in those units hold two prisoners and are about 7 feet by 6 1/2 feet. Some cells hold only one prisoner and have a toilet. Davis said older inmates with health problems are typically assigned to them. Two of the cells entered by reporters had holes in the wall. Davis said there used to be shelves in the cells, but they were removed, and the holes should have been filled. The hole in one cell did not penetrate the wall completely but instead resembled a small cubby. In another unoccupied cell, the hole had been taped over.

The housing units are not air-conditioned, and some inmates complained that they are also not heated well. Inmates can open windows covered with metal screens in their cells. “I’ve had times that it’s been awful cold in here. Awful cold. And you wore [all] your clothes and everything just to try to keep warm and still chatter your teeth,” said Richard Nicholson, who has been at Vienna for two years, serving time for residential burglary. “I wore my hat, my coat and every piece of clothing I had just to keep warm.” He is scheduled for release later this month.

During the day, prisoners in the units have to go outside, but they must be present in their cells for counts that occur four times daily. They have keys to their doors, so they can lock up their belongings. In the yard outside one of the housing units, two prisoners played a bean bag toss game commonly seen at college parties, while two others argued about football. Inmates lifted weights, attended to jobs, such as cleaning, and played basketball. Some hung out in their rooms reading, sleeping or watching television. Some of those who cannot afford a TV sat in the common rooms of the housing units watching the shared set in each building. Each unit has a shared bathroom with three toilets, two urinals and four showers shared by about 60 prisoners. Davis said work had been done to address the leaky pipes and mold problems described in the John Howard report. The shower that a reporter saw had been freshly painted within a few days before the tour. Davis said keeping the bathroom paint fresh and the plumbing in the old building workable is an ongoing battle. “Our plumbers and our pipe fitters stay very busy.”

Davis said he is most proud of the vocational and educational programs, housed in their own dedicated building, which looks a bit like an old brick school. The prison offers several vocational programs, including a body shop, a mechanics program and a cosmetology course. Visitors to the cosmetology program could almost imagine they had stepped into a barbershop outside of the prison’s gates. A row of chairs with salon hair dryer hoods runs down the middle of the room. Posters of people modeling hairstyles hung on the walls. Inmates in the program worked at their stations — which include a large mirror and styling chair along with clips, combs, trimmers and other essentials — cutting, shaving and styling other inmates’ hair with intense focus.

But the vocational and educational programs are not an option for prisoners who never make it past the waiting lists that average 50 to 100 inmates long, depending on the program. About half of the inmates at Vienna are only serving a year or less there. “That is key. That is absolutely where the rubber hits the road. While we don’t control who comes in, when we send people out, we’re hoping they come out better so they don’t come back in,” said DoC Director Tony Godinez. “So we’re re-shifting our program efforts to those individuals that are going to be leaving us soon because it makes more sense to re-divert those program efforts to those individuals — education, vocational studies, drug treatment. Because those are the individuals that are actually leaving soon, that could potentially come back, not the person that’s doing 40 years.” Inmates also work in the prison, but there are only about 650 jobs available.

Building 19, which is one of only two original 1965 buildings left at the facility, gained a level of public infamy after the John Howard report and ensuing news stories, but its conditions have been well-known among Vienna prisoners for some time. If you ask an inmate about 19, odds are he has something to say. The building houses the prison’s intake center, and new prisoners live there until permanent placement at one of the housing units. Davis said inmates typically live there for about 10 days, but he said it sometimes takes longer to place offenders who have gang affiliations because they must be kept away from inmates in rival gangs. About 500 inmates are in the building at any time.

One inmate, who did not want to give his name, said he had been living in Building 19 for his entire six-month sentence, which was scheduled to an end in a few weeks. Davis said that in some cases, inmates with short sentences do spend all their time at Vienna living in Building 19. The John Howard Report was especially critical of the conditions there, detailing disrepair and disgusting living arrangements. “On both floors, windows were broken and without screens. As a result, birds had flown into the living areas and built nests in the light fixtures. Inmates complained that mice, cockroaches and other insects were everywhere.”

Reporters did not find such conditions on their tour last week. Most windows had been repaired, although a few were still boarded up here and there. The inmate who spent his six-month sentence in 19 said he was bothered by spiders and mold in the building. Another prisoner, Marcus Johnson, who said he had been in Building 19 since he arrived at Vienna in September, said there had been a mouse crawling in the hollow frame of his bunk bed, but prison workers put out traps and the mouse stopped making its appearances soon after. Nicholson, who lived in Building 19 in 2010, had this to say: “Back then, I’ve got to say that it wasn’t real good. It needed a lot of work. The bathrooms dripped on you whenever you were using them, the piping. I imagine they’ve got that fixed by now. But I would say that building is not really fit for people.” But he said that there had been recent improvements all over the prison. “Lately, they’ve really been cracking down and doing quite a bit.” Davis said that after he was hired last year, there was no time to replace the original 1960s windows before the winter. “We did board up the windows last year,” he said. “We just didn’t have time to get that fixed.” He pointed out that the prison is in a rural area, where even homeowners usually have to deal with some pests. “You’re going to have mice, and you’re going to have bugs.” But he said that the prison has switched pest control vendors since the John Howard visit, and he said he has seen improvement.

However, another section of the report still rings true. “As JHA entered the second floor, we saw hundreds of inmates with nothing to do except pace around the room or huddle around a small television in the corner of the room. A Vienna staff member seemed to recognize the stunned look on our faces. ‘This is a nightmare,’ he said quietly to one of JHA’s staff. ‘This should not be.’” It would be difficult for anyone who walked into Building 19 for the first time not to be a bit shocked at the row after row of metal bunk beds. Reporters were not allowed into a full wing, which typically houses about 100 inmates, but they walked past one. Inside, inmates called out for them to come talk to them and pointed to the room and the dozens of other inmates around them. But even in the wing that reporters entered, where most inmates had gone out for recreation, they got a feeling for what it was like for the residents. On an average weekday, inmates in building 19 get one to two hours of yard recreation. They get an hour in the gym about every three days. Davis said he hopes to convert a large room, now used to store laundry, into an indoor recreational area for 19 because once winter comes, outdoor recreation would be limited. Inmates in building 19 also take their meals in the prison cafeteria. But the rest of their time is spent on their wing of the building, penned up indoors with 100 other men. Most sit on their bunk beds, reading or watching television if they have one.
The hours kept by the prison’s cafeteria are another indicator of the issues caused by crowding. Breakfast service begins at 4:45, lunch at 9:30 and dinner at 3:30. Davis said that schedule is needed to have time to prepare food for and feed the more than 1,600 inmates.

“It’s overcrowded. Living amongst 104 inmates at a time is kind of hard, but that’s something you’ve got to deal with,” Johnson said. “Being amongst that many people, going to the restroom, we’ve got to wait because there’s like five or six sinks and it’s like 30 or 40 or 50 inmates at a time need to use the restroom or even the phone. You know, it’s kind of hard, but we all try to adapt to it.” Johnson said most inmates find something to do, such as reading books, and try to keep to themselves. “But you’ve got a lot of guys. That’s a hundred different personalities that you’ve got to deal with. People have their days where you say one thing, and they want to fly off the hinges.” Johnson is serving a two-year sentence for drug possession, and he said he does not know when he will be assigned to another housing unit. When asked what the hardest part of prison life was, he said: “The hardest? I mean, Building 19. Building 19 is the hardest. If you get me away from as many inmates at one time in one room then I’m all right. But right now, I can’t do nothing but just deal with it.”

Vienna Lt. Michael Turner, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 415, said the parts of the prison that reporters visited on the tour were representative of what the rest of the prison looks like. “What you saw ... is typical. It’s an institution. It’s not a brand new institution. It’s not an ancient institution. It’s one that needs a little TLC daily. We do the best we can to do that. Resources are very, very limited,” he said. Turner said the major issues are,  “in my opinion, I think more than the structure of the institution or the shape the institution is in, the overcrowding and the understaffing.”

Davis said the staff totals about 100, with about 60 corrections officers on duty on a typical weekday. He said the prison is about 70 people short of recommended staffing levels, and that security shifts would not be fully staffed if it weren’t for mandatory overtime for guards. Overtime shifts are 16 hours. “You can’t watch everything. You can’t control everything. You do what you can, and really, that’s all you can do,” Turner said. “Staff are tired. We’ve been doing this consistently since the beginning of the year.”

John Maki, executive director of the John Howard Association, said he is glad that DoC has fixed some of the maintenance issues that his organization highlighted, but he said the real problem is the number of inmates in the prison. “Prison overcrowding, you can’t make repairs in the facility to solve that problem.” He said Vienna was once a model for rehabilitation. “It used to be this crown jewel of the DoC. It was a place where people got educations. With the numbers they have, they can’t provide those services to everyone. It’s just not possible.” However, Maki said the public should not point the finger solely at IDoC. “This is a problem that the Department of Corrections cannot solve.”

The Department of Corrections is working to implement a new program that would allow prisoners to earn up to 180 days off their sentences in exchange for completing classes, working and participating in vocational programs. A similar program, known as the Meritorious Good Time program, was ended in 2010 when Quinn took heat for the DoC allowing inmates out after serving only weeks of their sentences. Advocates, including Maki, have said that shutting down that program contributed to the crowding at Vienna and other lower-security prisons in the state. Godinez said the new program should be up and running by early next year. “February. I hope it’s sooner than that. But we have to do this deliberately. There’s no rush in getting people out. Remember our mission — our core mission — is public safety.”

Maki said the only way to solve the crowding problem is to get lawmakers, law enforcement leaders, advocates and members of the public together “and ask ourselves what kind of prison system do we want to have?” He said that criminals should be punished. But for some, there might be different, cheaper ways than prison sentences. ‘Prison is only one form of punishment, but for low-level offenders, prison is not the appropriate form, and it’s very expensive” He noted that taxpayers are shelling out an estimated $22,000 per prisoner per year for incarceration at Vienna. “This model costs us money.”

As for the conditions of the prison system overall, Godinez said: “We have done the best that we can with the limited resources that we have. ... We’re running on a budget that we had six years ago with 4,000 more inmates and 3,000 less staff.”

Lawmakers keep busy on the second day of veto session

By Jamey Dunn

During a busy veto session day today, lawmakers voted to override Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget vetoes, approved a bill that would require publicly traded corporations to share some tax information with the public and passed a resolution that could bar the way for pay raises for public employees.

Budget vetoes
The Senate voted to override some of Quinn’s changes to the budget they approved in the spring. Quinn signed the budget sent to him by the General Assembly, but he vetoed $19.4 million that was included to run the state’s only super-maximum security prison, located near Tamms, and the $21.2 million included to operate a women’s prison in Dwight. In addition to the prisons, he plans to close three transition centers meant to help inmates reenter society. Quinn also cut $8.9 million for a youth prison in Joliet and $6.6 million for a youth prison in Murphysboro. The chamber approved putting funding back for the corrections facilities.

“Our prison population is at an all-time high, our prisons are severely overcrowded and our staffing levels are down,” Sen. Gary Forby, who called for the override, said in a prepared statement. Tamms is located in Forby's district. “I hope that today’s Senate vote sends a clear message to the governor that he needs to stop fighting us on this issue. He needs to use these funds to manage the overcrowding of our prison system and ensure the safety of employees and inmates.”

The governor has been lobbying lawmakers to uphold his changes. “I had to make those vetoes in order to have money for the Department of Children and Family Services, and also because we can’t be spending millions of taxpayer’s dollars on prisons and juvenile justice camps that are half empty and in one case totally empty,” Quinn said. “The concept that we’re going to keep open Murphysboro, which is a juvenile justice camp, at a cost of millions of bucks and then take away money from neglected and abused children is I think really upside down. So I hope we prevail. We have two [chambers], and we’re going to fight hard in both places to uphold my decision.” The bill will now go over to the House.

Quinn is under no obligation to spend the money even if the General Assembly votes to restore it. However, he cannot spend the money elsewhere, such as on DCFS costs, without the approval of lawmakers.

DNR funding 
After a failed attempt at the end of the spring legislative session to approve revenue to fund the state’s struggling Department of Natural Resources, the bill passed in the Senate today. Senate Bill 1566 would increase vehicle registration fees by $2, which would bring the cost of registration for a standard passenger vehicle to $101 annually. The proposal would also allow the DNR to charge out-of-state visitors park entrance fees and charge all visitors access fees for certain park features, such as beaches and horse trails. A previous plan of charging entrance fees for all park visitors was scrapped in lieu of the proposed increased vehicle registration fee. “If you live in Illinois and you have an Illinois plate, it’s open season. Go to any park you want to,” Hutchinson said of the plan the last time it was up for a vote. The measure has already passed in the House, and a Quinn spokesperson said the governor plans to sign the bill.

Republicans who opposed the bill said that the Quinn administration chose to underfund DNR and spend the money on other programs.

Corporate tax info 
The Senate approved Senate Bill 282, which would require publicly traded corporations doing business in Illinois make some tax information public.

Senate President John Cullerton, who sponsors the bill, says that the measure is meant to help legislators make more informed tax policy decisions. “It’s not a gotcha to the business community. It’s actually something that helps us have a better tax structure.”

Under the proposal, corporations would submit tax information such as their incomes, tax liability and tax credits they receive to the secretary of state. The information would not be made available to the public until two years after the information is filed. At that time, it would be available to the public through a searchable online database.

Leaders of business organizations have balked at the idea of having to release information they say is private. “I think tax information is proprietary and confidential and should not be publicly released,” said Mark Denzler, vice president and chief operating officer of the Illinois Manufacturers Association. “The reaction from the business community ... has been pretty reflexively negative,” said Palatine Republican Sen. Matt Murphy. He said that he recognizes that Cullerton is not trying to hurt businesses, but he said, “I think at its core it sends the wrong message.” Murphy called on Cullerton to compromise with businesses.

Cullerton said business groups have not come to him with any suggestions for compromise so far, but he said he hopes that might change. “Sometimes, people’s willingness to negotiate increases after it passes one chamber.” The bill has an influential House sponsor in Chicago Democratic Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie and also has the support of Quinn.

Cullerton said he is open to changes being made to the bill in the House. “If there is some reason why some of these things that we’re asking to be disclosed should not be, and there’s a rational basis for that, I can take it out.”

State workers pay raises 
The House approved a resolution stating that it will not include money for state employee pay raises in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget, which takes effect in July. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sponsors House Joint Resolution 45, said it is “a clear message from the House, to both the negotiators, both sides, that we don’t see room for salary increases. We just don’t see it.”

Quinn is currently negotiating a new contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Quinn said today that he told the union there is no money for raises under the new contract. “I honor the workers all the time. I have never said anything other than I really appreciate their public service. At the same time, if the state has these severe financial challenges, we’re all going to have to realize that that’s the reality and we’re not going to be able to have raises.” Union officials say the resolution undermines collective bargaining.

Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME Council 31, said the union has offered to forgo pay increases in 2013 in exchange for concessions from the state. “In reality, state employees have voluntarily done more than anyone to help the state close its budget gap — agreeing in 2010 and 2011 to unpaid furlough days, wage deferrals, health plan changes and other concessions that saved the state more than $400 million, and offering in the current round of negotiations to accept no pay increase in 2013 as part of a comprehensive settlement,” Lindall said in prepared statement.

Assault weapons ban 
The Senate also voted to override a veto that Quinn used to tack an assaults weapon to another bill.

SB681 would allow Illinois gun owners to purchase ammunition from in-state dealers through the mail. However, after a mass shooting in Colorado movie theater in July, Quinn used his veto pen to attach a ban on semi-automatic rifles, high-capacity magazines and .50-caliber guns onto the bill. Many lawmakers agreed that Quinn overstepped his authority by hijacking a bill that is at best tangentially related to the issue. “If the governor wants to do that, then he probably needs to find someone who introduces that bill and then we have a discussion about that bill,” said Okawville Republican David Luechtefeld, who sponsored SB 681. If the House also votes to override the veto, the underlying legislation would become law.

Quinn plans to keep pushing for a ban. “In the past six months, our nation experienced two violent shootings with an assault weapon in everyday settings: A gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon to kill six worshipers at a Sikh temple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Illinois also lost one of its own, Petty Officer 3rd Class John Larimer, in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre with an assault weapon that left 12 dead. As the governor has said, there is no place in Illinois for weapons designed to rapidly fire at human targets at close range,” Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for Quinn, said in a prepared statement. “A statewide ban on assault weapons is good public safety policy, and we will vigorously pursue this cause.”

The House has canceled its session for tomorrow, but the Senate is scheduled to start its session at 10 a.m. 

Future of state prisons is likely up to the courts

By Jamey Dunn

The future of Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close several state corrections facilities will likely be determined by the outcomes of dueling court challenges.

Gov. Pat Quinn scored a victory when an arbitrator ruled that his plan to shutter a super-maximum security prison near Tamms, a women’s prison in Dwight, adult transition centers in Decatur, Carbondale and Chicago and youth prisons in Joliet and Murphysboro would not endanger workers.

Arbitrator Steven Bierig said in his rulings that the best course of action would be to keep the prisons open. However, he said that Quinn’s administration had taken steps to ensure that the plan would be safe and not present a danger to prison workers.

Abdon Pallasch, a Quinn budget spokesman, said the administration would not resume the closures until getting the green light from a court. Quinn’s administration has asked a Cook County court to sign off on the ruling and also asked that a court in Alexander County remove a hold that was placed on the plan.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents prison workers, has asked the judge to keep the block in place. In a rare move, the union is also asking the court to nullify the arbitrator’s ruling. “AFSCME has only once before challenged an arbitrator’s decision in court,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer said in a written statement. “Since we believe this decision clearly violates the state’s public policy that requires the employer to provide a safe work environment, we have asked the judge to vacate the arbitrator’s award and submit the case back to the arbitrator to correct his mistakes with regard to the interpretation of the state’s health and safety law.”

The Quinn administration has also asked the Illinois Supreme Court to step in, but Pallasch said that so far, the higher court has not responded to the request. He said that because the courts operate at their own paces, the administration has not set a new timeline for closing the prisons and other facilities. Quinn had planned to close the facilities by the end of August, but legal battles with AFSCME delayed the closure. “The courts can do whatever they want,” he said. “Obviously, we would love it as soon as possible. It’s costing us an extra $7 million a month, so the sooner the better.”

Judge issues order halting prison closures

An Alexander County judge has issued a restraining order to block Gov. Pat Quinn’s plans to close several state corrections facilities.

 According to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, Judge Charles Cavaness issued the order today in Alexander County Circuit Court.

Quinn had intended to shutter a super-maximum-security prison near Tamms, a women’s prison in Dwight, adult transition centers in Decatur, Carbondale and Chicago and youth prisons in Joliet and Murphysboro, but AFSCME sued to block the closures. The union argued that moving prisoners to other overcrowded facilities would create unsafe working conditions for its members. In his order, Cavaness wrote that the closures "have the potential to make the prisons that remain more dangerous for employees."

An arbitrator ruled Friday that the closures violate the union's contract with the state and ordered Quinn and AFSCME to resolve the issue through ongoing contract negotiations.

Last month, Quinn temporarily stopped layoffs and the transfer of inmates, saying he would hold off on implementing his plan while legal proceedings played out. However, Kelly Kraft, a Quinn spokeswoman, said the administration is not backing down from the closure plan. “We are examining options.” She said Quinn hopes to resolve the matter quickly.

Arbitrator: Prison closures violate union contract

By Jamey Dunn 

An arbitrator ruled today that Gov. Pat Quinn’s plans to close several state corrections facilities violates union contracts.

The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees sued earlier this month to block the closure of seven state facilities. Quinn had planned to shutter a super-maximum security prison near Tamms, a women’s prison in Dwight, adult transition centers in Decatur, Carbondale and Chicago and youth prisons in Joliet and Murphysboro. The union and the administration agreed to take the issue to an arbitrator.

Most of the facilities were scheduled to close August 31, but Quinn agreed to put a temporary hold on the closures while legal proceedings played out, and the Associated Press reported this week that Department of Corrections officials sent letters to employees telling them to continue reporting to work.

Arbitrator Steven Bierig wrote in his finding: “The state violated the contract when it moved to close Department of Corrections Facilities and Department of Juvenile Justice Facilities prior to the conclusion of impact bargaining with the Union. The matter is remanded to the parties to conclude bargaining prior to the closure of said Facilities. The parties are ordered to conclude impact bargaining within 30 days of the date of this Award, unless agreed upon otherwise.”

AFSCME, the state’s largest public employee union, and the Quinn administration are currently negotiating contracts because the union’s previous four-year contract expired in June. Both sides agreed to extend the terms of the previous contract and seek the assistance of a mediator for future negotiations.

Today's ruling move comes the day after Cook County Circuit Court Judge Richard Billik Jr. told Quinn to submit vouchers to the comptroller’s office for AFSCME pay raises, which are under dispute. The judge has yet to decide whether the state must pay the raises, but he ordered Quinn to set aside the money so it will be available if he rules in favor of the unions. Quinn refused to pay the raises, saying that the General Assembly did not include the money in last fiscal year’s budget.

“Today's decision is another important step forward," Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31 said in a written statement. "Gov. Quinn's reckless rush to close prisons despite the consequences has been halted for now, but our work to protect the public safety continues. There is no rationale for closing these facilities. They were fully funded by the legislature, which recognizes that closing them would destabilize the entire prison system, worsen dangerous overcrowding and put the safety of employees, inmates, youth and the public at risk. We urge Gov. Quinn to drop his push to close needed prisons, undermine communities and destroy good jobs.”

AFSCME has asked a judge to make the ruling binding and order the state to comply. However, the Quinn administration has filed an appeal and asked that the ruling be vacated. "As we work to move Illinois forward by closing tax payer funded facilities the state no longer needs that are empty, half full, outdated and expensive to operate--it is disappointing that progress to make Illinois a better place and to put its financial house in order continues to be halted," Kelly Kraft, a Quinn spokeswoman, said in a written statement. "We remain committed to our closure plans and are eager to resolve this matter as quickly as possible."

Governor says reporters should not tour prisons

By Jamey Dunn

Gov. Pat Quinn said today that he stands behind the Illinois Department of Corrections denying a reporter entry into state prisons.

When asked whether reporters should be granted tours of prisons, Quinn said: “I don’t believe in that. ...When it comes to our security of our prisons, I go with the correctional office [and] the director that I have in the Department of Corrections. Security comes first, and it isn’t a country club.” The question came after a report from WBEZ Chicago that DoC denied a reporter’s request to tour a minimum security prison in Vienna to investigate reports of prisoners living in squalid conditions. According to WBEZ, Quinn’s administration told reporter Rob Wildeboer that he could not go into the prison because of security concerns. The department has denied other requests by reporters to tour prisons, including a request from Illinois Issues in April to tour the super-maximum-security prison near Tamms. (For more on Tamms, see Illinois Issues June 2102.) Quinn has recently come under fire for a lack of transparency in the DoC.

Quinn said that he plans to look into reports of dangerous living conditions in the Vienna facility.

The governor has also temporarily halted any transfers of prisoner related to his plans to close seven corrections facilities. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 has sued to block the closures, claiming that they will create unsafe working conditions for its members. The union is suing to stop the closure of Tamms, as well as a women’s prison in Dwight. It is also suing to keep open adult transition centers in Decatur, Carbondale and Chicago and youth prisons in Joliet and Murphysboro. Quinn has stopped closure plans until another hearing is held next week.

“The state remains committed to our closure plans; however, as we will be back in court August 17, we have agreed to stop inmate transfers related to the closures for the time being. We offered to properly hear AFSCME’s grievances on an expedited basis, and we now look forward to resolving this matter as quickly as possible through the arbitration process set out in the collective bargaining agreement,” Quinn spokeswoman Kelly Kraft said in a written statement.

AFSCME sues to keep prisons open

By Jamey Dunn

The state’s largest public employee union is suing to block Gov. Pat Quinn’s plans to shut down several correctional facilities on the grounds that the closures would create unsafe working environments for its members.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 is seeking an injunction against the closure of seven facilities. Two of the facilities are prisons, a super-maximum-security prison near Tamms and a women’s prison in Dwight. The union is also suing to keep open adult transition centers in Decatur, Carbondale and Chicago and youth prisons in Joliet and Murphysboro. According to AFSCME, Quinn’s closure plan would result in the transfer of almost 5,000 prisoners, including youth offenders. “Many of the inmates that will be moved are those who have been intentionally segregated in the correctional system because of the danger they pose to guards and to other inmates. Almost a thousand maximum security female inmates will be moved, and several hundred maximum security youth will be moved as well. The insertion of these inmates into the overcrowded prisons of the state will inevitably foment unrest that will put employees, other inmates and the general community at risk,” said AFSCME’s complaint.

According to the complaint, AFSCME is suing to protect its members from the “risk of injury and death” that the group says they would face under Quinn’s plan. “Inmates are being sent to prisons that are too crowded, too short of staff or lacking appropriate security features to safely incarcerate them,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer said in a prepared statement. “We’re asking the court for an injunction to prevent the state from moving forward with any closure until the related grievances have been resolved.”

Lawmakers approved a budget that contained money to keep facilities open for the current fiscal year, but Quinn used his veto pen to reject the money and has moved forward with closures. “They’re going to be closed. I do believe that we have to see our budget as what our priorities are,” Quinn said when he announced his changes to the budget. He called on lawmakers to instead use the money to defer other cuts that were in the budget, including an $86 million reduction to funding for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.  The State-Journal Register reported that the agency recently issued layoff notices to 600 employees as part of a restructuring plan that would result in a net reduction of 375 jobs. The department claimed that the layoffs were a direct result of the budget cut.

Legislators opposed to the closures have asked Quinn to hold off on shutting down the facilities until they have a chance to act on the governor’s vetoes. “Anyone who calls to keep these outdated, half-full, expensive facilities open is calling for the continual waste of taxpayer dollars on facilities the state no longer needs, ” Kelly Kraft, a spokesperson for Quinn, said in a prepared statement. “The overall population is down from last year, and female entries into the system are declining. Inmates will be safely and securely transitioned into appropriate facilities fully capable of securing offenders and resulting in costs savings to Illinois taxpayers. Some will say that money was provided in the budget to keep these facilities open, when in reality, legislators made a choice on how to spend taxpayer dollars: choosing outdated, half-full, expensive prisons over educating our children and keeping them safe.”

Report of assaults stirs new debate over prison closures

By Jamey Dunn

Lawmakers and unions officials are asking Gov. Pat Quinn to but the brakes on prison closures after reports of recent assaults have surfaced.

The Associated Press reported that a corrections officer was stabbed at the Stateville Correctional Center and another guard was stabbed at the Pontiac Correctional Center in the last six weeks. The AP also reported that more than a dozen weapons have been found during recent searches of inmates cells, and that two prisoners were found unresponsive in the cell they shared. Officials from the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents prison guards, said that the two had overdosed on heroin. A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections said she could not comment on the incident because it is part of an ongoing investigation. According to the IDOC, both inmates survived.

Legislators and union leaders say the reports bolster their arguments against closing some of the state’s corrections facilities.


Last week, Gov. Pat Quinn made clear his intentions to move forward with the closures with a few strokes of his veto pen. Quinn signed the budget sent to him by the General Assembly, but he vetoed $19.4 million that was included to run the state’s only super-maximum security prison located near Tamms and the $21.2 million included to operate a women’s prison in Dwight. In addition to the prisons, he plans to close three transition centers meant to help inmates reenter society. The prisons and transition centers are scheduled to be closed on August 31. (For more on the debate surrounding the closure of Tamms, see Illinois Issues, June 2012.)

Quinn also cut $8.9 million for a youth prison in Joliet and $6.6 million for a youth prison in Murphysboro. The facility in Joliet is slated for closure on November 30, and the Murphysboro facility is scheduled for closure on August 31.

Quinn’s administration said that the assaults have nothing to do with the governor’s closure plans. “There is no evidence of an increase in weapons found or assaults within the facilities as a result of the closure plans,”  Stacey Solano, a spokeswoman for the IDOC, said in a prepared statement. “As common practice, to ensure safety and security within the facilities, IDOC often searches for contraband and removes it. Inmates found to be in possession of contraband, or those who display negative behavior, are swiftly and appropriately disciplined.” 

However, opponents today called for the governor to halt the closures until lawmakers return for their fall veto session scheduled for November. They said the legislature should have a chance to vote to override the governor’s vetoes before the facilities are shuttered. “They should be halted. The governor should halt them, and he should wait for the General Assembly. ... The General Assembly worked very hard on this budget. They did allocate money to keep these facilities open,” said Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31.

Lawmakers who oppose closing prisons argued that news of recent assaults undermines Quinn’s claims that the prisons will be safe after the closures. “Every prison now is overcrowded,” said Sen. Gary Forby, a Benton Democrat. “You’re going to hurt officers. You’re going to hurt prisoners. You’re going to hurt the state of Illinois.” Forby said that he and other opponents of the closures plan to lobby lawmakers to reject Quinn’s vetoes of corrections spending. “We’re going to try to override him. I’m going to stick to my guns.”

Republicans said Quinn should not have vetoed the money for prisons and then urged for spending elsewhere, such as the Department of Child and Family Services. Quinn also plans to close mental health centers and centers for the developmentally disabled as part of an effort to save money and move away from institutional care.

Sen. David Luechtefeld, an Okawville Republican, said Quinn rejected the money for facilities and “in the next breath, he doesn’t say to ‘pay some of our bills.’” He added, “It’s to simply spend the money someplace else.”

Rep. Mike Bost, a Murphysboro Republican, said: “We did our jobs. We put the money in the budget. We showed where our priorities were.”

Quinn argues that the facilities are a drain on the state’s budget, and money to fund them should instead be used to fund things that he sees as more pressing priorities. “Anyone who calls to keep these outdated, half-full, expensive facilities open is calling for the continual waste of taxpayer dollars on facilities the state no longer needs,” Kelly Kraft, a Quinn budget spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement. “The overall population is down from last year, and female entries into the system are declining. Inmates will be safely and securely transitioned into appropriate facilities fully capable of securing offenders and resulting in costs savings to Illinois taxpayers. Some will say that money was provided in the budget to keep these facilities open when in reality, legislators made a choice on how to spend taxpayer dollars: choosing outdated, half-full, expensive prisons over educating our children and keeping them safe,” 

Frank Mautino, a budget point man for the House Democrats, said that the budget bills would not have had the support to clear appropriations committees and reach a floor vote in the House if they had not contained funding for the state facilities targeted for closure. “Facility closures were the linchpin of the budget. ... Amongst the committee negotiations is where it became the linchpin,” he said.

Mautino, from Spring Valley, said that while there were not explicit agreements that he knows of between lawmakers and Quinn’s office to trade votes on other issues for assurances of facilities remaining open, Quinn had staff at committee meetings, and he should know that the budget would have been shot down without the funding for state institutions. “That’s how you put a budget together,” Bayer said. “Now it’s like: ‘Heads I win; tails you lose.’ The governor got many of the things he wanted.”

He criticized Quinn for not making public all the details of his plans for closing facilities and moving staff and prisoners to new locations. “If the department has a plan, we think they have an obligation to present it, to show us that things aren’t going to be out of hand. They haven’t done that. I don’t think they can do it,” Bayer said. “They’re taking places that are already overcrowded and making them even more overcrowded and trying to lead us to believe that it won’t be any more dangerous.” But Solano said the governor’s staff met with union representatives last week, briefed them on the plan and answered their questions. “The closure of multiple facilities is an ongoing process, and the department continues to work with the union as it moves forward with responsibly carrying out the closures.”

Bayer said the union has not ruled out taking legal action if Quinn proceeds with the closures, which AFSCME maintains would create unsafe working environments for some of its members. “We’re exploring all options,” Bayer said. “We’re very concerned about the dangers that are going to be exacerbated by this move.”

Unions and lawmakers push back on facility closures

By Jamey Dunn

State employee unions and some lawmakers are voicing their disappointment as Gov. Pat Quinn moves forward with the closure several state facilities.

 Quinn’s administration confirmed that plans to close a super-maximum-security prison near Tamms, a women’s prison in Dwight, a juvenile justice center in Murphysboro and a juvenile justice center in Joliet are moving forward. Three centers used to transition inmates back into society would also be closed. The facilities are scheduled to close by August 31, except the juvenile justice center in Joliet, which is scheduled for closure on October 31. (For a comprehensive look at the debate over closing Tamms, see Illinois Issues, June 2102.)

Lawmakers included money in the budget to fund all state facilities through the next fiscal year, and the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, a legislative panel, refused to sign off on the closures when members voted during the regular session. However, the ultimate decision belongs to Quinn.

Legislators from southern Illinois, who pushed for putting funds in the budget to keep state institutions open, struck back at Quinn. “We all know that Illinois is facing a huge financial crisis that will require government to cut back and reduce spending. But if the governor wants to show he is serious about getting the state to live within its means, he should focus on all of the waste and mismanagement that occurs in Springfield and Chicago on a daily basis before handing out pink slips to all the employees at Tamms,” Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Democrat from Harrisburg, said in a written statement.

Union officials are also trying to push Quinn to change his mind. “The decision to close state facilities should not be based on political expediency. The budget sent to you by the General Assembly represents a positive intersection of fiscal and ethical issues: All of the proposed closures have dire consequences for the safety and well-being of real human beings — and all of them can be prevented. We urge you to take immediate action to stop the closures by publicly stating your intention to keep facilities open and maintain the funding levels designated by the General Assembly,” Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, wrote in a letter recently sent to Quinn. Lawmakers opposed to the closures and corrections workers also held a news conference outside of Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s Carbondale office today.

But Quinn’s administration says it has already participated in the listening portion of the process. “The governor’s decision to close several facilities was made after careful consideration and extensive deliberation with the Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice. While we have heard many voices and participated fully in the COGFA process, the fact remains that the state can no longer afford these facilities if we truly want to address the state's budget challenges that have been created over decades of fiscal mismanagement,” Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Quinn’s budget office, said in a prepared statement. Kraft said increased Medicaid and pension costs have squeezed out other spending and made the closures a budgeting necessity.

According to Quinn’s office, the closure will affect about 720 employees, but those workers will have a chance to move to positions at other state institutions. "We have also directed our two jobs agencies  —  the Departments of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Employment Security  — to be on the ground in the affected communities to guide these employees through their transitions. They have a comprehensive and coordinated set of resources to provide direct, customized assistance to those facing unemployment to ensure they are matched with available job opportunities in the region or the training needed to secure a job,” said a written statement from Quinn’s office. “Both agencies will work with all employees by conducting workshops that will guide them through the unemployment application process, as well as assist with job search. DCEO and IDES websites will continually be updated with upcoming job fair information, available workshops and other changes that may impact employees.”