NEWS

Medium Security Unit at Pontiac Correctional Center has been closed

Erich Murphy
Pontiac Daily Leader
As of Monday, the medium security unit at Pontiac Correctional Center has been closed. Though inmates had earlier been moved out, the Illinois Department of Corrections order the correctional officers left behind as security to be moved inside the walls of the maximum security portion of the prison.

It didn't take long for the Illinois Department of corrections to respond to the public bashing it took at last week's town hall meeting at Pontiac Township High School on Tuesday of last week. On Wednesday, AFSCME Local 494 leaders learned that DOC was closing down the farm as of Monday.

Local 494 President William Lee told the Daily Leader last Thursday that he received word that everyone was being taken out of the medium security unit — also known as “the farm” — as of Monday, May 16. He explained that all the inmates were already out of the MSU facility but that correctional officers were still there in securing the facility.

As of Monday, that was to change per orders from DOC administration that became Local 494 knowledge on Wednesday, May 11. Lee acknowledged that did, in fact, happen — “Empty like Dwight,” Lee texted The Leader Tuesday.

“If it actually happens and things take place and there is no one working the farm, everything gets more real for everybody,” Lee said last week in an interview. “Everybody's tired of it, everybody's beyond stressed out. There's always something, it's constant pressure put on everybody by the state. It's just a constant battle.”

Sen. Jason Barickman, left, speaks to the audience at the Town Hall meeting for PCC held at Pontiac Township High School on May 10. Listening are panelists Pontiac Mayor Bill of Alvey, Livingston County Chairperson Kathy Arbogast and AFSCME Local 494 President William Lee.

As for the town hall meeting, Lee said it was what was expected. The information really wasn't new to him or those he represents. They have been dealing with the measures as they come, like what has happened this week.

Lee also said last week that there is something of a solidarity feeling among other AFSCME locals in the state, and maybe more so now that DOC has closed the farm.

“There's more awareness being put on it, the whole issue,” Lee said last week. “With them trying to implement the whole MSU ceasing operations the 16th, that's only going to make everybody join together more.”

Pontiac Mayor Bill Alvey came out of the town hall also looking for defined answers.

“What I hope happens is that the Department of Corrections will put out a release, or plan, that gives more detail and more timetable,” Alvey said.

Alvey noted that he was aware of some letters from the community already having been sent to Gov. JB Pritzker and DOC Director Rob Jeffreys, among others.

A letter-writing campaign is something that Sen. Jason Barickman was pushing at the town hall meeting, and it's something that Livingston County Board Chairperson Kathy Arbogast believes in doing.

“We (Arbogast and GLCEDC Director Adam Dontz) think a good idea is to write a letter to the governor as a county, as the city,” Arbogast said.

Something that didn't come out of the meeting seems to be what the future truly is for Pontiac Correctional Center. This is a concern for Arbogast and others in the area. She pointed out at the meeting, and again in an interview with The Leader, that the county has been through this in the recent past with what took place at Dwight.

“The thing that we don't know is what are they going to do,” she said. “We really haven't heard a whole lot about it.

“If it (closing) happens, it will be just as devastating as Dwight, when that closed. That put a big hurt on the county and especially Dwight. I think it would do the same thing here, and not just our county. If they do close, these people have to go somewhere, transfer or look for another job. That would not be good.”

Vandalia, once the capital of Illinois, is also going through this closure situation. The proposed DOC plan was to consolidate Vandalia by shuttering older buildings and consolidating the set up there. It has also been said that full closing of Vandalia, once the primary prison that produced food for the Illinois prisons, is a strong possibility.

“We stay in touch,” Lee said of his union local and the one at Vandalia. “They send me whatever they have had happened or whatever they do, and we send them whatever we have, like with the town hall and especially now. There's a lot of prisons affected, so everyone has concerns.

“I'm sure people are wondering.”

People are wondering all over Livingston and Fayette counties about their prisons because they fear what drastic affects there will be should DOC close them down.

Pontiac Correctional Center's medium security unit and Vandalia Correctional Center went through a cover-of-darkness transfer of inmates on Feb. 9 because DOC said that those facilities were in drastic need of repair. A proposed plan emerged immediately after that showed the department's intent to close the farm at PCC and consolidate inmates to inside the maximum security portion in Pontiac.

The Pontiac Correctional Center warden's house on Grove Street has fallen into disrepair as the Illinois Department of Corrections has failed to make needed repairs. This is similar to what has happened at PCC and is an excuse DOC has used for shutting down the farm and the East-West Cellhouse at the prison.

Also, there was the call to consolidate the inmates at Vandalia. These were needed, according to the plan, because of building having fallen into disrepair. Alvey pointed out at the town hall that that seems to be what state does — it allows property to fall into disrepair and then it gets shuttered. He used the warden's resident on Grove Street as an example.

This is appears to be happening at PCC and at Vandalia and was why a town hall meeting was held on May 10.