The “prison glut” you discussed in your July 27 editorial on the final state budget isn’t the only wasteful institution expenditure continued into the next fiscal year.
Nine outdated state facilities serving people with developmental disabilities are also perpetuated by the new budget at a total cost of $351,376,600 to serve 3,015 individuals.
If you do the math, that’s $116,543 per person per year to be maintained in large congregate institutions.
Almost every other state is doing away with these institutions, in favor of small, community-integrated group homes.
These homes would cost Illinois taxpayers half as much.
As your editorial states, “the state government cannot afford to be an obsolete-jobs program” for state prison workers.
The same holds true for services for people with disabilities.
It’s way past time for Illinois to follow the lead of the rest of the country in downsizing and closing these relics of the past that serve little purpose other than to maintain jobs for thousands of state employees.
