34 Comments - LisleMike - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:05 pm: I had family members who worked in DOC. It is rife with corruption from cronyism to incompetetence, starting at the top. Journalists would have a field day as one question afer another would open doors that the Governor would just as soon keep shut. Labor issues to questionable practices by department. - SO IL M - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:08 pm: He is hiding a LOT. But not only Quinn. Members of the House and Senate both have been shown what Quinn is hiding, and have chosen to keep silent also. That is what brought on the mad dash to intimidate staff (searches leaving work, ISP interviews, threats of criminal prosecution, etc.)a few monthes ago. This isnt new, just ongoing. - ArchPundit - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:23 pm: In stupid ArchPundit tricks, I visited the Quad Cities minimum security prison in college as a part of a Sociology class. It was very interesting and quite worthwhile. However, some idiot tried to bring a keychain with a knife in. Mostly it amused the guards. - Anonymice - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:26 pm: ==The governor is most definitely hiding something. That’s the only conclusion which any reasonable person could possibly arrive at.== Can you fully discount the possibility that his positions and policies (and those of his administration) are simply random? - Colossus - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:29 pm: This is what happens when people emotionally pass laws to increase punishments without asking themselves what it will cost. There are tradeoffs in life. If you want to be “tough on crime”, your taxes have to go up to pay for it. If you don’t want your taxes to go up, you can’t keep locking people up for non-homicide DUI and marijuana. - Downstater - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:30 pm: Selective memory lapse seems to be the only logical explaination. - reformer - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:36 pm: Cutbacks have made prison conditions more spartan and miserable. Quinn would just a soon not have a media spotlight on what’s transpiring on his watch. - veritas - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:42 pm: Move along - nothing to see here. - Sheridan Guy - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:45 pm: Governor Quinn is hiding plenty. All the media has to do is start interviewing the guards during there shift changes. And conduct the interviews off Department of Corrections property. - Lobo Y Olla - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:51 pm: “Most definitely hiding something”? What does one hide at a prison? I’ve seen 2 different episodes of “Lock Up” where Illinois prisons are the setting. Apple spends millions trying to keep secrets, secret….and usually fails miserably. The Gov cannot hope to keep anything at the prison secret for long. I find it hard to belive there is a cover up here. - langhorne - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:54 pm: the GA (senate) used to have a committee on corrections that visit the facilities, in order to provide oversight (what a concept). i think jack graham from barrington was one of the principals. i think thats why graham correctional center is named after him. - Pabdon Allasch - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 2:57 pm: What are we hiding? Let your imagination run wild … - G'Kar - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:03 pm: The students is the CJ program at the Community College where I teach tour prisons all the time. - steve schnorf - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:07 pm: That dangling participle is the sort of usage up with which I will not put-hat tip to WC - langhorne - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:29 pm: the math is bad. 49k inmates in a system w a capacity of 33k, and Q is closing prisons. when you put 5 lb in a 3 lb bag, somethings gotta give. - downstate hack - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:35 pm: The governor is most definitely hiding something. That’s the only conclusion which any reasonable person could possibly arrive at. Enough, already. Rich, Maybe you should try to interview the 25 Hearttland students to see what they observed. - OneMan - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:37 pm: Quinn needs to be careful, I hear there is a group of college aged kids going around the country in a van that ask questions and start to meddle in things. So make sure to keep them away too… They also have a big dog - frustrated GOP - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:44 pm: Andy Shaw just enrolled Heartland’s justice program. - TCB - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 3:55 pm: =Quinn needs to be careful, I hear there is a group of college aged kids going around the country in a van that ask questions and start to meddle in things. So make sure to keep them away too… They also have a big dog = Ruh row, PQ, ruh row. - Pabdon Allasch - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 4:04 pm: If that professor talks, who knows, we could close a couple of community colleges … - Dinger - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 4:24 pm: Up till just last may ,Menard had tours for guest of the staff every year . Menard would have 200-300 guest walk right down the gallery in the cell house ( nothing ever went wrong and a good time was had by all . - MrJM - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 4:27 pm: A truly enterprising journalist would commit a felony. – MrJM - sal-says - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 4:28 pm: I’ve developed a concept of ‘undersized’. The fake NFL officials were ‘undersized’ for the job they got foisted upon them. The NFL commissioner was ‘undersized’ for letting it get to the point of fake officials in the 1st place for the total $ they were talking about. I can go on to national politics, national pols re rape, etc. The IL governor is just ‘undersized’. Buddies only; decisions with NO logic. Just ‘undersized’. - OneMan - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 4:31 pm: Actually what is going on is… The Quinn administration is using prisoners to prepare the ‘grassroots’ pension campaign. All day long inmates sit in front of computers, commenting on blogs, creating facebook and twitter accounts, awaiting the day when they will strike… They will step up and start blogging, tweeting and liking Pat Quinn’s plan to ’save’ the pension system… wait… No I am typing just what you guys told me to type… No not the hole again… ahhhhhh - OneMan - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 4:52 pm: Illinois prisons “aren’t country clubs,” Gov. Pat Quinn said Friday in rejecting the notion that news reporters should be let inside to see conditions in the crowded system for themselves. Like any reporter could afford to visit a country club. - Dan Bureaucrat - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 5:00 pm: I’m feeling really left out because I don’t understand this story — unless Rich is being sarcastic. Why does letting students tour the prison prove he is hiding something? - Really? - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 5:02 pm: Even John Howard misses the obvious when they visit prisons. Numbers for classes don’t hit the mark. Attendees versus capacity and what about completion of courses? Do the math. - OneMan - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 5:23 pm: Dan, I do not to claim to speak for Rich, but if it is unsafe to allow reports to visit a prison it would seem it should be unsafe for a group of students to visit a prison. So, unless it is demonstrable that it is safe to allow students but not reporters to visit a jail then it would appear that safety is not the reason reporters are not allowed to visit. So logically it would seem that the reason they don’t want reporters there is something besides safety. The most logical reason you would not want a reporter at anything is that there is something they would find interesting that you would rather they not report. ergo, hiding something - James - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 6:12 pm: This is what elected officials can expect when they try to eliminate government positions, lawsuits, lobbying and public embarrassment. The workers’ mission, once shared with their bosses, changes from “doing the job” to “preserving the sinecure”, no holds barred. Government is relatively easy to grow, as new missions are identified, but very hard to shrink when certain missions are deemed expendable. To the employee in the public sector, government becomes “all about me”. - Just The Way It Is One - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 6:24 pm: Oh my goodness–just bring in an agreed-to small group of respectable reporters already, they will report their respective stories responsibly, interested Illinois or other U.S. citizenry will observe and process (because as Taxpayers we DO have a right to know what’s going on in there(!)…)and we’ll have moved on from this picayune quandary already! And then let’s move on with bigger problems. This is America for lands sake. And who IS to stop a persevering journalist from seeking out the Hearland students for a follow-up story, anyway? They’d probably be flattered to boot! - state worker - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 7:01 pm: Quinn/IDOC lets watchdog prison monitors in whenever they want. They have full access. So do legislators. Why does he allow that? Have they revealed what Quinn Is trying to hide? - wishbone - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 8:18 pm: An indictment of Quinn, but also if the sorry state of journalism in our state. There must be other ways to get this story than a “tour”. - Michelle Flaherty - Wednesday, Oct 24, 12 @ 10:09 pm: The governor keeps the prison passes next to his Super 8 discount card and grassroots pension reform playbook in his vacation home on the island of makebelieve. - wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 25, 12 @ 12:00 am: –That dangling participle is the sort of usage up with which I will not put-hat tip to WC– Churchill — well done, Schnorf. One of my favorites: Churchill was seated next to Lady Astor at a dinner. He was quite loaded. She was appalled. “Winston,” she said. “You’re drunk.” He replied: “You’re quite right, lady, but you are ugly, while tomorrow, I will certainly be sober.” Aghast, she saidm “If you were my husband, I’d put poison in your tea.” And he replied: “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.” Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.