Governor JB Pritzker’s administration is shedding more light on plans to close a state prison in Chicago’s south suburbs as early as September, and possibly move another.
Capitol News Illinois reports top officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections today (on FRIDAY) laid out the agency’s plans to close and rebuild two state prisons that are in dire states of disrepair.
Pritzker announced the plan in March, but I-D-O-C officials have been slow to release details. Now, the agency is acknowledging it’s aiming to close the Stateville Correctional Center at the end of summer.
Organized labor is pushing back on the plan. AFSCME Council 31 represents most state prison workers. The union’s Deputy Director Mike Newman cast doubt on the state’s assurances that prison employees would be guaranteed jobs at other facilities.
In addition to the plans for Stateville, the Pritzker administration is also considering closing Logan Correctional Center, one of two women’s prisons in Illinois, and moving its population from its central Illinois location up to the new Stateville campus.
