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Employees react to Blagojevich's proposal to close Pontiac prison
By Greg Cima
gcima@pantagraph.com
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PONTIAC -- Lt. Lance Evans thinks the state is threatening to close Pontiac’s prison to scare workers into forgoing pay increases to keep their jobs.

“I think they’re using it to keep away raises,” Evans said. “Our contract’s up in July.”

Evans, who has worked at the Pontiac Correctional Center for 12 years, was headed to work Monday afternoon when he learned Gov. Rod Blagojevich has proposed closing the maximum- and medium-security prison by February. The plan would send about 1,300 of Pontiac’s 1,650 inmates to Thomson in northern Illinois and the rest to other state facilities.

Other guards declined comment as they left the prison Monday afternoon, and one said the guards had been instructed not to talk to news media. On their way out of the front gate, the guards passed a white temporary banner announcing “Correctional Employee Week.”

Evans said he thinks Pontiac’s specific uses for segregation and death row can’t be handled by Thomson, which has remained almost empty since it was built.

But Sergio Molina, a top aide to Illinois Department of Corrections Director Roger Walker, said one key reason Pontiac was chosen is its use as an all-segregation facility. He said that, in transferring prisoners to Thomson, the state would be moving inmates from single-prisoner cells to similar single-prisoner cells.

Molina said Thomson has been well-maintained and he does not think a lot of preparation is needed for prisoners. And he said it is a priority to open the new and empty “state-of-the-art” facility that cost $140 million to build.

Molina said he thinks the prison was the second-most expensive public works project in Illinois history, falling only behind the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.

Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Illinois Council 31, which represents the guards, said the state’s prison system is filled 35 percent beyond the rated capacity and the state won’t have sufficient maximum-security beds if Pontiac is closed. He said the union will fight the proposal to close Pontiac as vigorously as it did in stopping the closures of prisons in Vandalia and St. Charles.

“The number of inmates is not abating,” Bayer said.

Bayer believes the state does want to close a prison and doesn’t think the proposal is a scare tactic. But he said the union will fight for its members at Pontiac.

The 551 Pontiac employees would be offered jobs at other area prisons, such as Stateville, Sheridan, Dwight and Lincoln, state officials have said. Evans, for instance, said he would have to move if his job were transferred to Thomson.

Eureka Mayor Scott Punke has worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections for 20 years. He said he could not comment as an IDOC employee, but that Eureka would see an effect in its economy because a handful of residents work at the facility. He also said several workers who do not live in Pontiac frequently use the town’s services and stores.

Buddy Maupin, regional director of AFSCME, was reluctant to comment on a possible Pontiac closing.

“We have received no communications from the Department of Corrections,” Maupin said. However, he added “from a policy perspective, we can’t afford to close a single bed.”

Reporters Kurt Erickson and Tony Sapochetti contributed information for this story.

Take a look
Illinois Department of Corrections Lieutenant Lance Evans spoke to the media prior to his second shift at the Pontiac Correctional Center on Monday afternoon. The Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY
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Reader comments on this story - 7 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

keep-sarcasm-alive wrote on May 7, 2008 8:38 AM:

" Just because the union says vote this way or that way doesn't mean the members do....and since voting is by secret ballot we'll never really know who voted this nut into office. "

pccslug wrote on May 6, 2008 10:45 PM:

" What's the differents between the two parties, Ryan closed Dem. prisons... he wanted the union to open it's contract so he could chop away at it. Ryan also wanted to lay off 1000 sargents and privatize the commissary and the Food service so he could get kicks backs from venders. The Republicans ran this state for 25 years before Hot Rod, they spent money the state didn't have like building a prison the state couldn't afford to run like Thompson. Bring on the RECALL we don't have all the criminals locked up yet. "

tolduso! wrote on May 6, 2008 6:43 PM:

" all u guards can thank your union, ur the dummies that voted the city of chicago into the gov's office, good job guys. Now ur going have to get a backbreaking job like the rest of the middle-class. CONGRATS "

austin wrote on May 6, 2008 4:48 PM:

" What really gets me is that the UNION thinks this is about them and their future raise. Oh, my goodness, boys and girls, WAKE UP. This isn't about YOU! It's about Rod doing favors to those who voted Against the recall vote and getting even with those who voted to Keep the recall vote.

What's even more amazing is not one of these AFSCME people will come out and condemn our DEMOCRATIC governor, but they blasted Ryan when he closed Sheridan. Wake up UNION people. Rod Blowhard doesn't give a darn about you. "

airwren wrote on May 6, 2008 12:47 PM:

" I do feel badly for the employees as there are alot of jobs that will be lost if this goes down. I am not at all sad however that they are closing the place down. They should just let all the prisoners go free and allow them public housing on the west side of Bloomington. "

The Peanut Gallery wrote on May 6, 2008 12:27 AM:

" gwreck -

It makes one wonder why the prison exists - as an institution to reflect the punitive aspects of the law; or a make-work project for the State. It''s alway interesting when a Dem governor takes on a union as politicaly-influential as AFSME. "

gwreck wrote on May 5, 2008 7:39 PM:

" Oh who cares about the employees? Obviously Gov. Blowdryer doesn't. This is exactly what really confuses me, when the union members still vote in lockstep with the damn democratic party. It makes no sense, you have a democrat governor willing to sell the union members into unemployment or relocation; and yet the staunch union democrats will turn around in the fall and vote democrat. What is wrong with you people? Just keep doing what you are doing and vote yoursleves into early retirement or complete unemployment. "
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