SPRINGFIELD - A southern Illinois judge has temporarily thwarted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's push to close Pontiac Correctional Center by Dec. 31.

In a decision Friday, Johnson County Judge James Williamson extended an order barring the transfer of prisoners from Pontiac to a prison north of the Quad-Cities to Jan. 5, a move that could keep the prison open at least five days longer than Blagojevich wants.

The decision is the latest legal loss for the governor in his bid to close the 137-year-old prison and transfer its 1,600 inmates and 500-plus jobs to an unused maximum-security lock-up in Thomson.

Earlier this month, Livingston County Associate Judge Robert Travers issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Illinois Department of Corrections from laying off or transferring Pontiac prison workers until it negotiates with union officials over how to proceed.

Williamson's order barring inmate transfers had originally been set to expire Dec. 1. It was extended to Jan. 5 to accommodate his schedule and the schedules of the various attorneys involved in the case.

"We live to fight another day," said Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which brought the suit against the state.

The lawsuit claims the closure is creating safety concerns at prisons across the state, which have seen inmates transferring in and out of the facilities as the department prepares for Pontiac's closure.

In some cases, medium-security prisoners have been moved into minimum-security prisons. The medium-security Lawrence Correctional Center was re-classified as a maximum-security prison in order to accept some of the state's more dangerous inmates.

The extended deadline could give Blagojevich more time to review the situation, said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall.

"We hope that when he does, he'll see that you don't fix a dangerously overcrowded prison system by closing a prison," Lindall said. "The Department of Corrections clearly had no plan, and its rush to close Pontiac is destabilizing the system. We urge the governor to stop IDOC from closing Pontiac."

In addition to concerns about worker safety at prisons, the Blagojevich administration is grappling with structural problems at Thomson. On Monday, part of a ceiling in one wing of the facility collapsed.

State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, said Williamson's decision may be significant for those hoping to stop Pontiac from closing because of changes in the leadership structure in the General Assembly, which go into effect in mid-January.

"It puts us into a new calendar year," said Rutherford, who represents the Pontiac area.

For example, Senate President Emil Jones, a key legislative ally of Blagojevich, is retiring. In his place will be state Sen. John Cullerton, who may work to reverse the governor's decision to close the facility, rather than support it.

"There will be new faces at the table," Rutherford said.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp had no comment on Williamson's decision.

"The attorney general's office represents the agency in the court proceedings and will review the order and determine what our next step will be," Schnapp said in an e-mail Friday.