Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration made a compelling case for closing the maximum security wing of Stateville Correctional Center. Temporarily relocating those inmates, then ultimately moving them into the never-been-used maximum security cells at Thomson Correctional Center, was a great idea. It made sense to shutter an 83-year-old, antiquated and unsafe prison roundhouse, use the state-of-the-art Thomson prison — and save money in the bargain.
Department of Corrections officials sold us on the wisdom of this plan in April. We endorsed it. But now it’s May and that plan has been discarded by Blagojevich like spring-cleaning trash.
His new plan is to keep Stateville’s maximum security wing open — and close Pontiac Correctional Center.
What happened between April and May to cause this about-face? Certainly opposition from inmates’ families, the guards’ union and local legislators played a role. That’s a given, though, whenever the state seeks to close a prison.
Was this prison switch part of an effort to free Blagojevich from the threat of a campaign to recall him?
The Illinois Senate last week killed a proposal to let voters decide in November whether to add a recall provision to the state constitution. Blagojevich no doubt would have been the first target.
Democratic Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi, who represents the community around Stateville, voted present — effectively a vote to kill the recall measure. The disclosure that Stateville would be spared came shortly after the Senate vote. Wilhelmi says there was no quid pro quo.
All we know for certain is that the Blagojevich folks made a compelling case to close Stateville.
Suddenly they want to close Pontiac. And who represents that area in the Senate? That would be Republican Sen. Dan Rutherford, who voted for the recall amendment.
Closing Pontiac isn’t a bad idea. It was built in 1871. The administration says Thomson will cost $4.9 million a year less to operate than Pontiac does. Stateville would save $3 million a year. But the Stateville plan also would have meant an upfront saving of $31 million. That gets lost in the Pontiac deal.
Our bet: Blagojevich doesn’t succeed on Pontiac either. He tried to close it four years ago and couldn’t get the legislature to go along.
We don’t know if anybody is guilty of political larceny here. We do know that taxpayers, as is usual in Illinois, get left holding the bag.
