26 Comments - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 9:25 am: ===”While we are disappointed in the advisory recommendation from the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, we recognized the potential for a vote against closure and the need to outline next steps if the Commission made such a vote. …=== Hmm… “Vote Accordingly” - Henry County. - Beaner - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 9:27 am: So now we know Shakin’ up “Springfield”, includes Carbondale, Macomb, CSU, Charleston, DeKalb, and now…Kewanee. Still waiting for a Clean Balanced Budget Plan, which details the cuts and the big Revenue ASK to cover Governor Edgar’s Pension Ramp. - Tobor - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 9:46 am: Another disaster. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 9:51 am: Would this be the same Rauner who blasted Pat Quinn for moving to close the Murray Developmental Center even after COGFA voted to keep it open? - Earnest - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 9:54 am: I’m open to debate on the merits of closing the center, but completely fine with Rauner going against the vote of the commission. Quinn did this as well in closing down the institution in Jacksonville. The larger debate for me is jobs. Do we have to keep every prison, institution, even every nuclear power plant open forever as a jobs program? I would say we shouldn’t, but would also say we need to do something to support that local economy in the transition to a different source of jobs. We’ve talked about that here–I was a fan of labor-intensive non-industrial agriculture, but there were much better ideas out there. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 10:01 am: Always fun to watch those smaller government and doing more with less GOP members, flip out and have moral outrage when smaller government means their districts. - DuPage - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 10:03 am: Why did they ask for advice from the COGFA if Rauner had already decided to ignore their vote if it disagreed with his decision? Theatrics. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 10:07 am: DuPage: The Commission has to act on closures of state facilities. During the Blago days, the General Assembly decided they wanted some input on what was closing thus COGFA now holds hearings and votes on whether they agree with a closing. Their vote is non-binding however. - Almost the Weekend - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 10:14 am: As much as a disaster Rauner has been as governor he has made major progress on criminal justice reform and I believe this another step in the right direction. This facility was built in 2001 by Jim Edgar for political reasons. Majority of these kids aren’t from Henry County. It cost tax payer dollars to bring them to Kewaunee and an unfair burden on their families to travel. It’s nice to see Rauner take action on bloated Illinois government instead of bashing unions and Madigan everyday. One will see this as a way to decimate public sector unions, but I think closing this facility is best overall for at risk youth in the state. Remember the state of Illinois duty isn’t to supply jobs it’s to help the majority of constituents. Rauner needs to follow through and have a more detailed plan of funding and acceptable facilities, but this is a step in the right direction. - Storm Cloud - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 10:14 am: The Commission almost always votes against closure. Any closure. - Former State Employee - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 10:41 am: Did the Commission also vote to keep the museum open? - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 11:08 am: That’s good for taxpayers, wait…error here. That’s good for people who don’t want to pay their fairshare and want to criminalize poverty, need, and the vulnerable who need social services. Fixed it. - crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 11:24 am: Almost the Weekend +1 - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 1:05 pm: –The larger debate for me is jobs. Do we have to keep every prison, institution, even every nuclear power plant open forever as a jobs program? I would say we shouldn’t, but would also say we need to do something to support that local economy in the transition to a different source of jobs. We’ve talked about that here–I was a fan of labor-intensive non-industrial agriculture, but there were much better ideas out there.— Thank you! That was well put and balanced. Even though I disagree I really wanted to engage with you in spirited discussion. Here is my point I’d like to throw out about jobs and facilities. Jobs are more precious now than ever before. Especially in rural communities I think it’s absolutely critical that we not close facilities unless it’s totally necessary. Especially when we have nothing to help the community with as far as employment. To close facilities is to throw a lot of folks into chaos and ultimately cost us more in social service costs like Medicaid, which we pay 50/50. Foodstamps are 100% fed. But still the rural communities don’t have much at all and may be even weaker than the city folk. Many of our caseworkers here drive for over an hour to work at our office. The jobs aren’t out there. The help is not out there. I just think with the rural folks we have to think twice. - Almost the Weekend - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 1:27 pm: Honeybear I respect your comments, but this argument makes zero sense. I agree 100% globalization and free trade agreements have decimated rural areas worse than urban areas in some cases because there are no other forms of employment. I remember Kewanee had a manufacturing plant close several years ago and moved it to Oklahoma, not because of the business climate in Illinois, but because it was a better location for distribution. The problem is rural areas are composed primarily of prisons and dependent on that state/federal government for jobs. Thanks to Edgar and Thompson who built these primarily to get all their political hacks job/ consistent form of employment. Majority of these prisoners come from urban areas. And the only way to keep these prisons is full is passing legislation pushing for mandatory minimums and in a more general sense “The War on Drugs” which has failed terribly in this country. So to keep rural areas economic engine humming you are advocating to decimate urban areas primarily in minority areas where unemployment is already high and majority of the population live in poverty. For too long rural areas have been complacent and not diversified their economy or attracted other businesses. I also believe constituents in rural areas of Illinois who are not farmers get the short end of the stick because they are subsidizing Ag. My main point is the Illinois prison system is as obsolete as a 1995 Gateway computer. There have been no attempts to treat prisoners, but a continuous cycle of recycling prisoners to keep their prisons full, hence fully staffed. And still advocating for harsh prison sentences that make it nearly impossible to treat prisoners and get them help for their drug abuse or to get them trained for employment. Much like the economy and the way government does business has changed the past twenty years and prisons have not. Some will argue for the better and for worse, but I think we can all agree the status quo for keeping prisons open because it employs a small community is unacceptable.  - Earnest - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 1:43 pm: >Even though I disagree I really wanted to engage with you in spirited discussion. Honeybear, you’ll get no argument from me on our rural communities hurting. You’re also right that though we should come through with helping a small local economy create new jobs to replace the ones lost from a state facility closing, we as a state won’t come through, sadly. PS, I really appreciate your posts. You’re out there on the front lines of the human services devastation and collective bargaining struggle and you always break big issue down to a very human level. - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 1:54 pm: Almost the Weekend, excellent point about the minority urban populations. I get it about the prison industrial complex. Here’s something interesting though in your words. “There have been no attempts to treat prisoners.” I smell jobs right there. What about making sure that community colleges teach/train rural folks in rehab/vocational training then applying those rural rehab/vocational employees to our rural prisons, which actually I think are well populated even if we reduced sentences ( I may be totally wrong on that). See what I’m saying. Let’s create jobs and get two birds with one stone. I think that is an excellent use of tax money. The spouse was involved for a while with the Rural Affairs Counsel. Those rural folks are in serious trouble. What do you think? - Almost the Weekend - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 2:31 pm: I think that’s a good point. From what I have seen community colleges do a much better job compared to state universities partnering with local economic engines in their community. I’m no expert in rural economics but there needs to be more incentives for young people to want to move back home after school. I know this is a slippery slope and off topic but I think franking/drilling would have been a boom for rural Illinois especially in the south. Because in 20-30 years from now the population is going to be even more titled to urban areas than it already is because of more economic opportunity. - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 2:45 pm: Incidentally, I think online commerce is a better opportunity. Improve internet access and you’re in the game. - Brooks Hatlen - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 2:51 pm: We actually used to quite a bit of rehabilitation in our prisons. But it was cut back or out eliminated to save money. Its a complete waste of tax dollars to incarcerate non-violent offenders at a cost of $18,000 or more a year. - Wyldthing - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 3:56 pm: @ weekend. The Kewanee facilty is a TREATMENT facility. There are several psychologists on staff and it is the only facility in the state with a treatment program for juvenile sex offenders. Closing Kewanee would be a disaster. - crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 4:28 pm: ==The Kewanee facilty is a TREATMENT facility.== False. - Wayne Bibliotech - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 4:47 pm: Didn’t they get rid of the treatment at Kewanee a few years ago? Those kids had nothing. - Tobor - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 5:39 pm: To be blunt. If you have not worked at IYC-Kewanee you have no idea what is locked up in those cells. - crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, May 10, 16 @ 6:06 pm: Thanks for being blunt, tobor. It saves a lot of time when guards simply acknowledge that they don’t consider prisoners to be people. - Tobor - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 8:25 am: - crazybleedingheart -=just a simple fact about IYC-Kewanee . Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.