http://www.sj-r.com/Opinion/stories/30154.asp

Our Opinion: All politics all the time with this governor

5/13/2008

Springfield Journal Register

Editorial

NO ONE in Illinois should have any faith whatsoever that Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his Department of Corrections reached their decision to close Pontiac’s prison with anything near objectivity. Our trust in this administration to do anything that is not politically motivated is zero.

Since February plans had been percolating to shutter a portion of Stateville Correctional Center, with Blagojevich seeking to shuffle Illinois’ prison population by moving 1,600 maximum security inmates from the Joliet-area facility elsewhere, including the long-dormant maximum security wing of Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois.

Then, without warning, the governor said oops, never mind. On May 5, news emerged that he intends to close Pontiac’s Correctional Center instead.

THE ABRUPT change recalls Blagojevich’s attempt to close Pontiac in 2004, after the governor had targeted Vandalia’s prison for months. Last week’s revelation again had state Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, and Livingston County officials vowing to fight back. They should.

The state hasn’t justified its sudden switch, nor has it adequately explained why either prison needs to close. “There is absolutely no logic to what they’re doing,” Rutherford said, “and we are getting massively conflicting information.”

What prompted this? Certainly not a desire to alleviate overcrowding. On Thursday, a representative for DOC Director Roger Walker was reluctant to even concede Illinois’ prison system is overcrowded. “We have been managing the system appropriately,” said spokesman Sergio Molina. Yet numbers from DOC and Illinois’ auditor general show a taxed network operating at more than 130 percent of capacity.

THE $140 MILLION Thomson prison was supposed to help, with 1,600 new maximum security cells. Illinois has about the same number of prisoners now, 45,200, as it did when Thomson was completed in 2001. But by closing Stateville or Pontiac, Illinois ends up with the same number of cells. It’s a wash, a game of jailhouse musical chairs.

Furthermore, the state isn’t fully tapping Thomson. If Pontiac closes, 800 inmates would go to the Mississippi River facility, with the rest being shipped all over the state. Had Stateville’s wing closed, 400 prisoners would have moved to Thomson. Meanwhile, Molina said 800 would have gone to — you guessed it — Pontiac.

If it strikes you as odd that a prison now in the governor’s cross-hairs was, until last week, part of the solution for another prison’s partial closure, welcome to wacky Illinois. Indeed, shuttering Stateville would produce an advertised first-year savings of $31 million. Boarding up Pontiac would supposedly save $4 million annually. We’ve yet to see an apples-to-apples comparison.

IS THE GOVERNOR'S reversal politically inspired, then? Did it happen because the legislator representing Stateville, state Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi, is a Democrat like the governor, while Rutherford is a Republican? Or because Rutherford supported putting a recall measure on the ballot, while Wilhelmi took a pass? GOP lawmakers have rightly called for an independent review before any prisons close. Instead of throwing darts at different prisons and seeing which ones stick, Illinois needs “a long range plan for public safety,” as it has for transportation projects, Rutherford said. State Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, agrees: “It is clear that the Department (of Corrections) is incapable of making good long-term decisions.”

A show of hands: Who thinks that description applies to Illinois’ current governor, as well? It could be awhile before we’re done counting.