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Illinois spent millions enhancing security at Pontiac prison
By David Mercer
Associated Press
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CHAMPAIGN -- Illinois spent more than $17 million in the late 1990s and early part of this decade turning the Pontiac prison the governor plans to close into a specialized lockup to keep hundreds of the state’s most violent and destructive prisoners away from other inmates, according to state records. | Video: Prison closure hearing | ISU teacher: Prison decision 'raw, ugly politics'

The money, from the state Department of Corrections and the Capital Development Board, bought steel plates to keep prisoners from digging through the walls of the 137-year-old prison, specially designed doors that can’t be kicked loose and what amount to steel-barred cages where prisoners exercise, records obtained by The Associated Press and interviews show.

Six years after the work was finished, Gov. Rod Blagojevich says shutting down the Pontiac Correctional Center will save the state $8.5 million over the next two years as it struggles with a budget deficit of roughly $700 million.

And the governor and Department of Corrections officials say closing Pontiac will allow them to fully open a prison in Thomson in northwestern Illinois that has sat all but idle since it was opened in 2001.

“We have to work with the resources we have,” corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said. “We have to be realistic. We don’t have unlimited resources.”

The prison at Thomson, he said, is “the most modern, state of the art facility that we have, and we’re not using it.”

But lawmakers from the Pontiac area, which would lose about 570 jobs if the prison closes as planned early next year, and the union that represents most of the prison’s employees say the state shouldn’t choose between the two.

With about 45,000 prisoners locked up — over 30 percent more than the state’s prisons are meant to hold — and the money already spent at Pontiac, Illinois needs both, they say.

“They’re good investments, both of them,” said state Sen. Dan Rutherford, a Republican from Chenoa, just south of Pontiac. The towns are about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.

He says the state can afford to do both, and blames the governor for trying to create new spending — such as his expansion of health care funding — before paying for existing needs.

Blagojevich spokesman Brian Williamsen referred a request for comment by The AP to the Department of Corrections.

Much of the back and forth about the Pontiac prison is grounded in politics.

Blagojevich decided to close the Pontiac prison rather than Stateville prison in Joliet only after a Democratic state senator from Joliet voted “present” on a move to put a recall measure aimed at the governor on the November ballot. GOP lawmakers that represent Pontiac supported it.

Since then, Blagojevich has hinted he might not close the prison if lawmakers back his long-stalled capital spending plan.

If Pontiac is closed, about half its 1,600 inmates would be shipped to various facilities around the state, and the others sent to the Thomson prison.

Roughly half of those bound for Thomson are kept in single-inmate cells in Pontiac because they’re either too great a danger to other inmates or, in some cases, they need protection from other inmates, according to prison guards, and their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“Pontiac plays a unique role in the state’s prison system,” union spokesman Anders Lindall said.

Once known as the Thunderdome by prison guards because of years of violent incidents, the Department of Corrections began converting Pontiac in the late 1990s to handle inmates frequently referred to by guards as “the worst of the worst.”

“We’ve got guys that’ll rip doors off walls,” said corrections Lt. Ben Dallas, who has been at the prison almost 21 years.

According to the Department of Corrections and records from the state Capital Development Board, at least $17.33 million went into the work, completed in 2002.

While that work was going on, the state was also planning and building the $140 million Thomson prison. The state has never had the money to fully open Thomson, but it’s had to spend roughly $5.2 million maintaining the facility since it was built.

The Thomson prison, which is just across the Mississippi River from Clinton, Iowa, has most of the same sort of safety measures that Pontiac has been outfitted with, Schnapp said.

“To say it’s not as safe and secure than Pontiac is inaccurate,” he said.

But the union and lawmakers argue that, with a $59 billion state budget, closing Pontiac to save just over $8 million makes no sense.

“To have the principal policy initiative out of the governor with respect to corrections be the closure of such a facility, or any facility at all, entirely fails to respond to the crisis in our prison system,” Lindall said.

Take a look
A prison guard stands watch over the main courtyard of the Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac during a prison lockdown in June 1994. Illinois has spent more than $17 million in the past 10 years turning the Pontiac prison into a specialized, into a permanently locked-down prison that segregates the state's most violent and destructive prisoners from other inmates and each other. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
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Reader comments on this story - 6 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.

Nana of many wrote on Aug 31, 2008 7:14 AM:

" Has anyone thought about the fact that if Obama is elected president that our “great Governor” can appoint himself to fill Obama’s seat as Senator? Sure we will be rid of him running our state but will have him representing us in Washington. Yeah, that's so much better... "

Nana of many wrote on Aug 31, 2008 6:43 AM:

" 570 families affected by an egotistical self-centered jerk? And that's just on this choice, this isn't counting the over 300 for DCFS. I don't understand how our "great gov." can sleep at night. I don't know why he goes home to Chicago; there can't be any room for his wife to sleep with a head that big. - I had a cousin that worked at Pontiac for 21 years and he had a major heart attack a couple of weeks ago. Left behind a wonderful family including 2 beautiful daughters and I for one am quite sure that the thought of not having his job of 21 years was a big stress factor. (Rest in Peace Steve) Of course the NEW prison is north of I80 and we all know that anything south of I80 isn't worthy. When do we get rid of this guy? Mr. I'm going to turn this state around. PLEASE STOP TRYING, YOU HAVE FIXED NOTHING. "

Thrash13 wrote on Aug 30, 2008 3:37 PM:

" To: Not So Political.......Our "ol' prison" was built to stand the test of time and wasn't built by the lowest bidder. You should take a tour sometime so you can see all of Inmate Ryan's so called "falling walls". The infrastructure is so bad, all of our cell houses are running at 100%, and we are so unsafe that all the other prisons in the state send us their worst inmates because they can't handle them. You should really get your facts straight and know what you are talking about before you start in on your negative rants. I still think you need a hug. "

Herr Hundhausen wrote on Aug 30, 2008 2:59 PM:

" Ebenezer Scrooge..... Why? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? "

hearditall wrote on Aug 30, 2008 2:58 PM:

" I'm glad someone has brought this to light. We did spend a lot of money to refit this prison to house these inmates. So now the question is why this one and not the prisons that literally had crumbling floors and walls. By the way that means greater chance of escape! Gov is choosing to close a facility that operated fully instead of one that will need MAJOR repair soon. In addition the other facility would save approx. 28 million dollars more if closed than PCC. GREAT idea for saving from our GREAT GOV. That's like cutting out Mc Donald's dinning and still eating at a 4 star restaurant. What a wonderful way to cut expenses in IL. and balance the budget. DOC needs to get a backbone and do what is right not what they are told. Stateville is in worse shape(DOC words) than PCC. Close the one that saves tax payers more money! "

Not so Political wrote on Aug 30, 2008 1:03 PM:

" Remember when the Govenor Ryan built the new prison in Thomson he also had plans on closing some ol' prisons to fill this new one. Saying that the ol' prisons walls were falling down and the infustuster was unsafe. The only way you are going to make an ol' building totally safe is start over. "
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