18 Comments - Cassandra - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 9:54 am: If it is so important for Illinois taxpayers to shore up the town of Pontiac, perhaps we, and especially residents of towns which are dependent on state prisons for their economic well being, should take a hard look at the elected officials and other leaders of these towns instead of blaming the guv, whatever his motives. Why was the Thomson prison built if it wasn’t needed. Were political leaders depending on an ever-increasing stream of mostly young African American males into an increasing number of jails across the state, shoring up those downstate communities. Was that smart? And what about the city leaders of Pontiac. Clearly, they knew that the city was becoming awfully dependent on the local jail for its economic well being. They certianly can cite the numbers now. Why didn’t they make more of an effort to diversify the local economy. One of the reasons we should hire smart people to represent us at all levels of government is that they may be better equipped to look down the road into the future and make smart decisions about how best to protect the economic well-being of citizens. Clearly, in an increasingly diverse America, warehousing hundreds of thousands of minority yough in jails across America is going to be seen for what it is–institutional racism not to mention an appalling violation of human rights. And it’s awfully expensive. The good town fathers of Pontiac should have been able to see this coming. - Pot calling kettle - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 9:58 am: ==”Oberweis argued that drilling close to home safely will increase energy independence instead of paying $700 billion to other countries, such as in the Middle East which might not be friendly to the U.S. “It is possible we could even become an exporter of energy,” Oberweis said.== To be very clear, drilling off shore and in Alaska will slow the decline of domestic production. That’s it. Tapping new fields will help offset the decline in production we see in existing fields. As long as we rely on petroleum as a fuel, we will not become energy independent and we will not have spare to sell. Oberwies either does not know what he is talking about or he is misleading the voters. - Ghost - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 10:06 am: If I understand the authority of the forecasting commission, Pontiac is in much better shape to save its prison then IDOT. I beleive the Gov needs the commissions approval to close a prison. They may be advisory for the IDOT move, but for a prison they have actual control. - Ghost - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 10:08 am: I should add, they actual authority to block the closing of the prison makes Blago decision to ignore the advice about traffic safety more of a bad move since he needs to have their support to close the prison. And deciding to just ignore a decision is not going to win him friends on the prison decision. - wordslinger - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 10:24 am: Mr. Oberweis must know that the United States is an exporter of energy. Surely he knows that all the oil drilled here and gasoline refined here is not consumed in the United States. We’re a net importer, obviously, but the oil companies ship where they get the best price, here, Rotterdam, Shanghai, wherever. - Princeville - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 10:51 am: no, ghost, the commission even for PCC is advisary, Blago can shut it down. I would hope the next step when sessions start again is getting this fixed. Why have a hearing if God Rod can snub is nose at it? But then on the other hand, I think Rod is the only governor we’ve had that would take such a hearing and recommedation as lightly as he does. Cassandra, I find it disgusting that DOC refuses to honor the freedom of information act to back up their claims on data. And I thought the legislatures, locals and citizens did a pretty good job of supporting their side. This isn’t about who is filling the prisons on this issue, it’s about 35% over cap., we should not be closing a prison to open another–they should both be open. Kinda makes one wonder with the CP gov wants as to how many more such things as Thomson will be built but then not able to afford to open. - Ken in Aurora - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 10:51 am: Cassandra - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 9:54 am: “Clearly, in an increasingly diverse America, warehousing hundreds of thousands of minority yough in jails across America is going to be seen for what it is–institutional racism not to mention an appalling violation of human rights. And it’s awfully expensive. The good town fathers of Pontiac should have been able to see this coming.” Cassandra, last time I checked a person is incarcerated for being a criminal, not for being a minority… - Nearly Normal - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 11:16 am: Pontiac has other large businesses–a Caterpillar plant and another that fabricates steel shelving. The former is doing well but the latter has laid off some employees due to a lack of sales in shelving. There has been a prison in Pontiac since the 19th century. My own great-great-uncle was a guard there in the ’30’s when his sales job for Stetson hats went bye-bye due to the Depression. At that time, the prison was minimum security and predominately young white prisoners. That all changed of course as time went on as the demographics of the prison population evolved and there was more need for maximum security cells. Thompson should be opened not to close Pontiac CC but to aleviate the overcrowding in the entire prison system. But, that is not the game that is being played here. The local chamber has worked in the past to bring jobs into the community. It lobbied long and hard with Cat to get them to place the plant in Pontiac after Motorola ceased operations. It was working with other developers who have now backed off due to the economy and the possibility of closing the prison was the killer. - Ghost - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 11:18 am: ahh my mistake then, I thought prison closures actually mandated consent. - Pot calling kettle - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 12:19 pm: word, In the context of the piece it appears that Oberwies is suggesting we could become a net exporter. Indeed, the suggestion of many promoters of expanded production is that it will provide us some energy independence. It will not. http://www.eia.doe.gov latest data indicates that we are importing 13.9 million barrels/day, domestic production is 5 million barrels per day, and we are exporting 1.5 million barrels per day (mostly finished products) The import number has risen smoothly from 6-8 Mb/d in 1991. Domestic production peaked at 10Mb/d in 1970 rose to 9Mb/d in the mid 1980’s and has fallen smoothly since. The export number was a steady 1 Mb/d though 2005, then started to rise. Any politician who promotes domestic drilling as a road to energy independence is simply wrong. It will stretch out the downward slope and give us more time to move away from petroleum, and it should be expressed just that way. If it is used to extend our complacency, we are in trouble. (I realize that this is the Paris Hilton plan, but she was correct.) - Cassandra - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 12:23 pm: The issue is not whether they committed a crime or not but whether they are being jailed at disproportionate rates. Crime doesn’t = jail time and in fact most criminologists agree that overreliance on incarceration is an expensive and ineffective form of corrections. And increasingly, despite the benefits to contractors and political job appointees, it’s becoming too expensive for state governments across the country. In Illinois, African Americans are incarcerated at nearly 10 times the rate of whites per 100,000 population, Hispanics at double the rate. The numbers speak for themselves. - Techboy - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 12:55 pm: Nuclear power is absolutely going to be a keystone of our energy future, combined with other alternative sources. And its a good thing. The latest updated designs for what are called high-temp gas-cooled reactors are designed so that it is physically impossible to cause a meltdown, even if you remove all coolant, they just sit there, idling. The excess process heat from these pebble-bed type reactors can be used to economically crack useful quantities of hydrogen directly from water, which can be used for very clean internal combustion engines (the exhaust is water vapor) or in fuel cells for electric vehicles and even homes. The extra electrical generation capacity makes switching to electric cars, busses and trucks more practical and easy. We get cleaner air and more energy independence. You can also take that extra heat and use it for destroying toxic waste using a process developed here, in Illinois, called “thermal depolymerization”. That process will take anything you want to get rid of: Poultry parts, animal waste, old tires, toxic medical biowaste, plastics, dioxins, anything… and cooks it under heat and pressure to break it down to safe and re-useable basic chemical substances. Pilots plants have turned chicken parts from poultry farms and used tires into oil. Without sending any toxics into the air. Pig and cow manure and urine, stinky stuff that is currently kept in lagoons that threaten our groundwater… turned into powdered phosphorus and other industrial feedstocks. We needn’t landfill or incinerate toxics anymore. We can convert them to safe and useable products. And it all comes with the power and heat from atomic generation. The knee-jerk granola-munchers will counter that the powerplant waste presents dangers. They don’t understand that atomic power today is among the most “green” of all energy alternatives. The new designs mitigate radwaste and security concerns, by the way the fuel is made into ceramic “pebbles”, and with re-processing of spent fuel, we can shorten the time that the waste needs to be stored to a single lifetime. We can burn up old warhead material and make it safe. We can do ALL of this. The technology has caught up. What has always been needed is better, more responsible oversight. We can set that up too, with clear-thinking policy decisions. But we have to start now. These things take time to plan and build, and if we wait until we’re in worse shape, we’ll suffer much more. The Thermal Depolymerization technology was invented in our state, but they couldn’t find any venture capital in Illinois to fund the pilot plants, so they went to Maryland instead. Our government should be working as hard or harder on this as we did for the clean coal project that the feds quashed. We could lead the nation once again. Or we can huddle in the dark doing nothing. - Princeville - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 1:35 pm: So what are you suggesting, Cassandra? That the justice system just release x amount of minority inmates to fit a spefic quota? Are you recommending we just clear prisons of criminals when we hit a certain number? No matter what cost are, why should some one not get imprisoned, their color beside the point? For every one of the prisoners you deem too many of, do you have a suggestion as to what crimes we should pretend they didn’t commit? Crime does not chose it’s violator, the violator choses the crime and as to if he/she is going to commit it. Gov Rod just cut treatment programs that might keep prisoners with addictions with may help them to stay clean and lead a more productive life style. We can’t have it both ways. If you’re suggestions we only try a certain color or certain number of color, why bother to have a justice system. Heck, then we could just close all the prisons and everybody, all colors, just go free and keep committing crimes. Does that make you as a tax payer feel better? - Princeville - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 1:41 pm: I think, Cassandra, that if you’re really concerned about the minority crime rate and imprisonment that it would make more sense to work with the people from the start, when they are small and have a chance to learn different lifestyles than they may be living, chances for jobs, education, and better choices in life. That goes for citizens of all colors. - common sense prevails - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 1:54 pm: Cassandra, If the shoe fits…… - Cassandra - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 2:13 pm: Princeville, Because I don’t accept the notion that African Americans and Hispanics have “bad” lifestyles at higher rates than any other ethnic groups. - Ken in Aurora - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 2:23 pm: - Cassandra - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 2:13 pm: “Princeville, Because I don’t accept the notion that African Americans and Hispanics have “bad” lifestyles at higher rates than any other ethnic groups.” Cassandra, I think this is a fallacious belief. I do believe it has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with culture. - Pot calling kettle - Friday, Aug 22, 08 @ 2:40 pm: Ken said =I do believe it has nothing to do with race, everything to do with culture.= Whose culture? The urban “gangsta” culture (which seems to value some level of violence and criminal behavior) or the “mainstream” culture that disproportionately sentences a greater portion convicted minorities to prison (which seems to reflect a mix of inconsistencies in the laws as well as how and to whom they are applied)? Or is it some other culture? Just curious. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.