http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/05/07/news/doc481f36458583f087651557.txt

Local officials present united front against prison closing

5/6/2008

Bloomington Pantagraph

Tony Sapochetti

PONTIAC -- Local officials on Tuesday tried to present a united front against the proposed closing of Pontiac Correctional Center, calling for a moratorium on the shuttering of state facilities and more research into the plan.

Elected officials and union and business leaders used a sometimes-heated press conference Tuesday to make the case that a moratorium would give Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration time to study the long-term effects of a closure on the correctional system, public safety and local residents.

It is not clear whether a moratorium could be pushed through the legislature so late in the session.

Blagojevich recently scrapped his original plan to close the maximum-security wing of Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, putting Pontiac on the chopping block instead. Inmates from Pontiac would be transferred to a new but largely empty prison in Thomson.

News of the plan shocked many in Pontiac, which also saw its prison targeted for closure in 2004. A study at that time determined the closure would cost Livingston County around $40 million.

Though employees would be offered jobs at other prisons, community leaders have warned the economic hit to the area would be significant.

Stephanie DeLong, owner of DeLong’s Casual Dining and Spirits in Pontiac, attended Tuesday’s press conference. Her husband, Kevin, is a correctional lieutenant, and she is a former corrections officer herself.

“We moved to Pontiac and made it our home,” she said. “We wanted to be in a great town where our kids can go all through school and graduate,” she said. “If the prison closes, then we would have to move.”

State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, said Tuesday he doesn’t understand why Blagojevich would want to close Pontiac’s facility because state prisons are considered vastly overcrowded.

“The reason that the state of Illinois built the Thomson prison was that we are at 135 percent capacity right now, which is a third more population than we should have,” Rutherford said. “I absolutely have not seen any logic to that decision whatsoever.”

During a moratorium, the administration could work with local officials and a Web site could be set up where people could get updates and see meeting schedules about proposed closures, Rutherford said. He said he plans to work on requesting the moratorium during the Senate session today.

No official at the press conference spoke to how long such a moratorium should be in place.

The next step for IDOC

The Illinois Department of Corrections has formally notified the legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability of its intentions, said IDOC spokesman Sergio Molina.

State law requires the administration to submit its intentions to the commission so the impact a closure would have on the economies of the affected communities and the work force can be studied.

A public hearing should be scheduled in Pontiac within 45 to 60 days of Tuesday’s notice, according to the law.

The lawmakers on the commission will issue a nonbinding recommendation, but the final decision will be the governor’s.

“The recommendation from the commission is just that: a recommendation,” Rutherford said. “I get the question of what if the General Assembly goes ahead and appropriates the money and doesn’t take Pontiac out of the budget. The answer is that the governor does not have to spend it.”

But Rutherford was far from alone Tuesday in arguing that any study of the situation will show the need to keep Pontiac’s prison open.

Also in attendance were Livingston County Board Chairman Bill Flott; Pontiac Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Cheri Lambert; and Greater Livingston County Economic Development Council Interim Chairman Mike Stoecklin, among others.

“We have the space available, we need to open up the prison in Thomson, but there is no sense in closing an existing facility,” state Rep. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, said. “We are understaffed and overpopulated, and we definitely need to open up Thomson.”

Dan Jarrett, president of the prison’s American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 494, said it was a fully functional institution with numerous improvements that make it a safe environment.

State Rep. Keith Sommer, R-Morton, was passionate about keeping the prison open, directing his comments to Blagojevich in hopes he’d listen.

“When you took office you promised that you would be a friend to the working men and women of Illinois,” he said. “You have not kept your promise to the working men and women of Pontiac Correctional Center, and they expect you to keep that promise.”