SPRINGFIELD - Legal action in Johnson County considering the legality of transferring inmates out of Pontiac Correctional Center has been put on hold.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and the state earlier agreed that a hearing in the southern Illinois county set for Monday was unneeded because a similar lawsuit regarding the state's plan to close Pontiac is winding its way through the Livingston County court system.

AFSCME, which represents prison guards and other Illinois Department of Corrections employees, is leading the fight to stop Gov. Rod Blagojevich from carrying out plans to close Pontiac and open the mostly unused maximum-security prison in Thomson.

AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the Livingston County case is broader than the Johnson County case. Earlier, a judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state from taking any steps to implement the closure of Pontiac, including moving forward with employee layoffs or the large-scale transfer of inmates.

For now, the Livingston County case is on hold as AFSCME and the state work to find an independent arbitrator to hear the union's grievances regarding the closure.

There is no timetable for finding an outside arbitrator, meaning the state's plan to close Pontiac on Jan. 1 remains in limbo.

The Johnson County case centered on the Vienna Correctional Center and the department's plan to transfer some of the inmates displaced by the closure of the 1,600-bed, 137-year-old prison in Pontiac.