While public outcry mounts against a proposal to rebuild and move the women's prison in Lincoln to suburban Chicago, specifics on when and if the plan moves forward remain largely unclear.
Logan Correctional Center and Stateville Correctional Center both would be on the chopping block under the plan first proposed by Gov. JB Pritzker in March. Where controversy lies, especially among residents of Lincoln, is the more recent proposal from the state corrections department to build a new Logan in Will County — more than 140 miles away from its current location.
Lacking enough members to take a vote on the Pritzker administration's plans to demolish and rebuild the two state prisons, a state government commission was unable to issue a non-binding recommendation on Friday. When that vote could occur, lawmakers not scheduled to return to the Capitol until November for veto session, is also unknown at this point.
Three members of the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, a 12-member bipartisan and bicameral body, were present in Springfield Friday morning. Those that were in attendance expressed concern about a lack of details and urged further conversations to be had among state officials and communities. For voting action to be allowed, seven members have to attend.
State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, a co-chair of the commission saw the need for the demolition, but floated an alternative proposal that could see both Logan and Will counties still having facilities. Keeping Stateville as open as long as possible would also mitigate impacts on the incarcerated and the prison staff at Logan if its rebuild does in-fact occur in Will County, he added.
The budget Pritzker signed into law and going into effect on July 1 includes $900 million to demolish and rebuild the prisons, expected to play out over the next three to five years. State Rep. CD Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, argued however that the scant details included in the proposal would likely push that timeline back and put employees in a precarious position as they weigh moving to the new prison.
"This is far from shovel ready," Davidsmeyer, the commission's House co-chair, said during the 30-minute meeting at the Stratton Building. "If the department thinks they're going to start building in year... I bet they don't even have plans in a year."
Illinois Department of Corrections acting director LaToya Hughes confirmed that the location and facility design have yet to be finalized during a public meeting in Lincoln the prior evening. She and the department are adamant that Logan employees will be able to keep their jobs, stating there will be 850 open positions within a 90-mile radius including the neighboring men's facility, Lincoln Correctional Center, and the Decatur Correctional Center.
Moving the prison closer to Chicago would also better serve the approximate 40% of Logan's population from Cook and surrounding counties, she argued. Hughes said these women also generally serve longer sentences than fellow inmates from downstate.
"A newly built Logan facility closer to the area from which these women with lengthier sentences were residing will closer rehabilitation services and allow families, including children, to visit and prepare for the reentry of those women in custody into the community," she told COGFA on Thursday.
That doesn't account for the other 60% of the prison's 1,081 inmates from outside the Chicago region countered Mary Sexton, a mental health counselor with Wexford Health Services that works at the prison. Inmates receiving care have told her their family would be unable to travel to visit them in Will County, which she said could be devastating to their mental well-being.
"People come to me and say 'Miss Sexton, what am I am going to do when I can't see my family? They can't travel seven hours to come see me,'" she said. "It's hard as a mental health professional to work with that person and give them hope when you know it's not there."
Economic stability, not economic development
Joining Hughes and Sexton during the hours-long meeting at Lincoln Jr. High School were hundreds of residents, prison workers and union members at the school gym. The message, seen both on their green shirts and signs throughout the city 30 miles northeast of Springfield, boiled down to: "Keep Logan CC in Logan County."
Both those in favor and opposed to the move saw the need for demolition of the prison first opening in the 1870s with former inmates describing an unsanitary facility in disrepair. Overall, the prison has an estimated $130 million in deferred maintenance according to Jared Brunk, a corrections official, and that number is growing due to its aging infrastructure.
“This is a place no one should have to experience,” said Trina Whiteside during the meeting, incarcerated at Logan for nine months in 2014. "Facility conditions constantly triggered my trauma to have feelings for hopelessness and despair."
While some argued that moving the new facility to Crest Hill next to Stateville would grant inmates better access to higher education opportunities and mental health services, the overarching narrative is the economic hit Lincoln would receive as a result. Already, the city has seen two private colleges shutter and the loss of the prison employing more than 445 workers many said on Thursday would only worsen conditions.
Pritzker has said previously that tying the community's economic development to the prison would be ill-advised. And while seeing that vision, state Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said the state should invest in the area as it has in Rivian Automotive in Normal.
The prison rather represents economic stability for the community than economic development, he said.
"It's the ability of people to keep their homes, raise their families, put their kids through college," DeWitte said.
Prison workers also indicated they wish to stay in Lincoln rather than uprooting their families and move to Will County. Such a move is out of the question for Marissa Hayes and her husband, who both work as correction officers at the prison.
The couple has a daughter with a rare form of cancer being treated in Peoria in addition to the husband serving as the primary caregiver of his grandfather who has brain cancer. Moving or deciding to have up-to a 180-mile daily roundtrip for work are unreasonable, Hughes felt.
"For me, Logan is home," she said. "My spouse and I will be forced to choose between leaving family and friends and our financial well-being. That’s a devastating choice to have to make."
Contact Patrick M. Keck: pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.
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