Protection for prison staff called for when aging Illinois prison closes

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The union representing the state's prison workers is seeking a federal court order requiring the Illinois Department of Corrections to ensure the rights and safety of employees as it closes a century-old maximum security prison outside Chicago.

U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood, who last month ordered the transfer of most inmates from the dilapidated Stateville Correctional Center to another location, is scheduled to hear the complaint filed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 on Wednesday.

The Department of Corrections accepted the Aug. 9 ruling, saying it was consistent with its plan to close Stateville later this month and replace it with a new facility at the same location.

The closure is part of a $900 million, five-year plan that includes replacing a women's prison in the central Illinois city of Lincoln. The prison, the Logan Correctional Center, about 127 miles northeast of St. Louis, could be rebuilt on the site in Stateville.

Wood decided on August 9 that most of the 430 inmates at Stateville Prison in the suburb of Crest Hill, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, would have to be relocated because falling concrete, bird droppings, foul-smelling tap water and other factors had raised safety concerns.

As of Tuesday, there were still 187 inmates in Stateville, said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall.

When the plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order to close Stateville in July, AFSCME expected Corrections to object, the lawsuit says. It says that days before Wood's ruling, AFSCME and the Department of Central Management Services, the state's human resources agency, agreed that negotiations about the impact of Stateville's closure on workers were premature because Corrections' plans had not yet been finalized.

AFSCME is concerned about the ability of Stateville employees to find new jobs. In a June hearing before a legislative review committee, corrections officials said there are plenty of prison jobs within 60 miles of Stateville. But many employees already travel long distances from Chicago and elsewhere to get to Stateville.

“If there are no more inmates at Stateville and the prison closes, the employees there will be at risk of layoffs, and the contract states that the department cannot initiate layoffs without negotiating how they should be handled,” Lindall said.

Lindall later confirmed that the department and AFSCME had met twice in the past two weeks to ensure that workers in Stateville “have alternatives without sacrificing wages or having to travel very long distances.”

A second issue is the safety of staff at the state's prisons that make transfers. Stateville is a maximum security prison, and according to AFSCME, inmates are being transferred to facilities that are not equipped for maximum security prisons.

In June, acting corrections director Latoya Hughes assured lawmakers that the agency would not adjust inmate security levels at Stateville to meet the needs of holding facilities.

“Rather, we will assess their medical, mental health, programmatic and educational needs, as well as their security level, to find appropriate placement for them in a facility with that security classification,” she said.

A request for comment was sent by email to the Prison Service.

AFSCME's complaint describes recent attacks on staff. The attacks included one in which an inmate was transferred from a maximum security prison to a lower security prison and another in which a correctional officer was left alone in a precarious situation due to understaffing. Staffing levels statewide average about 75% of allowable levels.

The shortage is also contributing to a rise in assaults among inmates, the union claims. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, there were 2,200 inmate-on-inmate assaults, a 53% increase from 2022.