SPRINGFIELD, Illinois. – A federal judge ruled that the state of Illinois must relocate most of the inmates at its 100-year-old prison in less than two months due to dilapidated conditions.
The Illinois Department of Corrections said U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood’s order Friday to vacate the Stateville Correctional Center is consistent with its plan to replace the facility. The agency plans to rebuild the center on the same site in Crest Hill, 41 miles (66 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.
That plan calls for replacing the dilapidated Logan prison for women in the central Illinois city of Lincoln. The state could also rebuild Logan on its Stateville campus.
Wood’s order states that the prison, which houses more than 400 people, must be closed by Sept. 30 because of problems such as falling concrete from walls and ceilings. The judge said costly repairs are necessary to make the prison livable and inmates will have to be transferred to other prisons across the state.
“The court instead requires the department to do what it has publicly announced and recommended – namely, to move forward with the closure of Stateville by transferring inmates to other facilities,” Wood wrote in an order.
The decision was made after civil rights lawyers argued that Stateville, which opened in 1925, was too dangerous to house anyone. Plaintiffs said surfaces were covered in bird feathers and excrement and that foul-smelling water came out of the faucets.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration announced its plan in March, but even at two public hearings last spring, very few details were available. The Department of Corrections plans to spend $900 million from the construction fund on the renovation, which it says will take up to five years.
Until the new prisons open, prison employees will be relocated to other facilities. This has angered the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the union that represents most prison employees.
AFSCME wants the prisons to remain open while replacements are built. Closing them would not only endanger employees’ families, who might have to relocate or endure strenuous commutes, but would also destroy the cohesion among prison employees, the union said.
In a statement Monday, AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the problems also extend to inmates and their families.
“We are exploring all options to prevent these disruptions in response to this hasty ruling,” Lindall said.
