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AFSCME wins closure delay

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Illinois

* Round One goes to AFSCME…

State and union officials agreed Wednesday to postpone further transfer of inmates from prisons and other facilities slated for closure.

The decision is at least a temporary victory for the union representing the state’s correctional officers, who are opposed to Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close the facilities, including the Tamms “supermax” and Dwight prisons, and to consolidate inmates elsewhere.

* It helped, of course, that the union filed its lawsuit in Alexander County, one of the poorest counties in Illinois and home to the Tamms super max prison. You don’t have to possess a great imagination to figure out what went on behind closed doors yesterday…

Wednesday’s agreement came after about an hour of closed-door meetings between the state, AFSCME and First Judicial Circuit Judge Charles C. Cavaness on the day the union’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt closure-related transfers was to be heard. Inmate transfers not related to the closures can continue. […]

Quinn budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft said the state remained committed to closures, and it agreed to interrupt the process because of an Aug. 17 court date in Alexander County at which time the sides will update Cavaness and the court on arbitration progress.

“We offered to properly hear AFSCME’s grievances on an expedited basis, and we now look forward to resolving this matter as quickly as possible through the arbitration process set out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” Kraft said in an email.

AFSCME has until Aug. 17 to respond to the state’s motion to dismiss the union’s lawsuit. The state has an Aug. 20 deadline to respond to the union’s arguments against dismissal.

* Judge Cavaness also dismissed a motion to intervene filed by the Uptown People’s Law Center, which represents 7 Tamms inmates. The group and the inmates wanted the AFSCME suit tossed. From the group’s Facebook page…

“The conditions to which these men at Tamms are subjected are deplorable. Long-term isolated solitary confinement ruins prisoners psychologically and makes it more difficult for these men to re-integrate into society once they are released. There is empirical evidence that supermax prisons, such as Tamms, do not affect the level of violence within a prison system. On the contrary, once Mississippi reduced their supermax population there was a dramatic reduction in prison misconduct and violence.”

That dismissal wasn’t a good sign for the state’s case, either.

* Background…

AFSCME has sued the state before over prison closings. The union launched three separate lawsuits against the state back in 2008 as a response to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s planned closure of the Pontiac maximum-security prison.

Then, as now, the union accused the state of compromising employee and public safety. “Pontiac is an essential part of a safe prison system, and without it, all Illinois prisons, staff, inmates are at greater risk of violence and personal harms,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer said in 2008, according to the Peoria Journal-Star.

As the Blagojevich administration fell apart, the governor was impeached in January 2009, the Pontiac closing plan also unraveled. In March 2009, Quinn, who had been governor for all of two months, said Pontiac would stay open. Ironically, the governor gave greater fiscal responsibility as the reason, noting that the prison provides 600 jobs and $54.4 million in revenue for the Pontiac area.

* Meanwhile…

The inmate advocacy group Tamms Year Ten will host a protest beginning noon today at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee Council 31 headquarters in Chicago.

Entitled “Reject Torture, Stop the Lies and Remember the Real Story at Tamms,” the protest is a reaction to what Tamms Year Ten described as weeks of AFSCME “scare tactics” used against Gov. Pat Quinn’s planned Aug. 31 closure of the Tamms Correctional Center in Alexander County. Family members of inmates and human rights advocates will attend the protest.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 10:50 am

Comments

Well, at least between the litigation and the cost of the facilities AND the budget issues, this new “turn” is not costing the state any money … right?

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 11:15 am
It is truly bizarre that Uptown People’s Law Center thinks Illinois should be more like Mississippi.

Mississippi prisons have more than 24,000 inmates. That state has a population of less than 3 million. That’s an incarceration rate of 0.8%.

Illinois prisons have about 48,000 inmates versus a state population of nearly 13 million, for an incarceration rate under 0.4% — less than half Mississippi.

In addition, Mississippi has 300 inmates today in its supermax prison — 1.25% of all its inmates statewide. It used to have 1,000 — more than 4%!

Illinois has fewer than 200 inmates at Tamms — just 0.4% of all inmates.

So if they are saying, Be more like Mississippi, they’re saying incarcerate more people and put more of them in Tamms.

Facts are stubborn things.

Comment by Reality Check Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 11:25 am
They elect judges down there, don’t they? I imagine the judge might have been persuaded as to the idea of slowing things down.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 11:27 am
It’s good to know that prisoners and the guys that spend their days watching them eat jello and make license plates are now in charge of deciding state spending priorities.

Comment by Shore Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 11:51 am
Shore,

Like they could do a worse job then Quinn, Madigan, and Cullerton. What are we 8-10 billion in debt. Everyday digging deeper and deeper.

Comment by Fed up Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 12:00 pm
I think there should be an independent investigation of the Quinn “investigations” and an Auditor General analysis of the whole process.

Comment by Cassiopeia Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 12:04 pm
perhaps the Tamms 10 should attend the Corrections memorial service we have every year to honor those State workers killed behind the walls by inmates BEFORE Tamms was built.

Comment by state worker Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 12:52 pm
Just a few months ago Mississippi had a violent riot. These liberals from John Howard and other related groups are determined to ruin the prison system in Illinois. At least with this protest their being honest with reasons for wanting it closed. Using the budget as a reason was just propaganda.

Comment by What? Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 12:57 pm
The reason that Mississippi was quoted is because they were part of the Vera Institute Project before Illinois, and this was used as part of the basis to bring Illinois into it.

“Stop The Lies and Remember The Real Story at Tamms”
Good idea. They should try that first.

Comment by SO IL M Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 1:05 pm
Some judges in IL are electd, some are appointed by other judges in the district. I beieve the one in this case is appointed.

Get off the budget rampage. The savings from closing Tamm’s is nominal. You re not laying off anyone so there is no overall DOC payroll savings. When you transfer inmates the overhead at those other facilities will go up. There is no financial savings.

You also have to understand some of these inmates have said multiple time when you let me out of her I will kill the first person I get my hands on. The Governor is betting that multiple homocidal sociopaths are bluffing, or people will die. Ask yourself, how much money is one guard or inmate worht?

Comment by the Patriot Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 1:06 pm
Patriot—If I remember correctly, the inmate at Stateville who was killed by an inmate who had been moved out of Tamms was worth around 3 million in the wrongful death lawsuit to that inmates family. But again, I believe that is what the settlement was, but not positive.

Comment by SO IL M Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 1:46 pm
Reality Check–Here’s a reality check. The Mississippi supermax was closed in 2010.

And SO IL M–What is your grudge against the Vera Institute? Anyway, Mississippi DOC decided to close the supermax on their own. They had such results that the corrections chief and wardens now go around the country talking about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/rethinking-solitary-confinement.html?pagewanted=all

If downstate legislators and AFSCME had more than about 5 really dangerous prisoners to be parading around in the press, they’d be doing it. There are a handful of terrible guys there. But we don’t need a supermax for that. The IDOC says 25.

Comment by Dan Bureaucrat Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 2:35 pm
There’s something in this story you don’t see every day: an organization demonstrating against AFSCME. It’s usually AFSCME doing the demonstrating.

Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 2:50 pm
Here’s an article on the recent violence statistics in IDOC that says that violence is down. Lockdowns are down. So, if that’s true, then maybe AFSCME can’t reasonably say that closing Tamms is increasing violence? Sounds like the proposal to close Tamms is actually decreasing violence and lockdowns!

http://www.bnd.com/2012/08/08/2277229/judge-stops-transfer-of-tamms.html

Comment by state worker Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 2:51 pm
State Worker,

The last guard to be killed by a prisoner in Illinois was nine years BEFORE Tamms opened. The only thing saved by keeping Tamms open would be Sen. Gary Forby’s job.

Comment by bartelby Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 2:56 pm
Well.. I see you guys are back from the protest!

Comment by AFSCME retired Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 3:09 pm
Reality Check…. facts? A statement that Mississippi closed a supermax and saw a reduced amount of violence in their other prisons means IL should be more like MS? And you say FACTS are stubborn things? You did not use the facts!

Comment by HumanAdvocate Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 3:09 pm
Dan—My grudge against the Vera Institute is actually more of a grudge against the Quinn Administration and AFSCME. I do not agree with Vera, but at least they are honest about their stance, and what their goals are. I do not agree with the idea of Social Justice over Criminal Justice. Where you can look up Vera and see what they are doing and that this started in early 2010, Quinn and AFSCME are not so honest. In 2010 AFSCME knew that exactly what is happening today would happen if Quinn were elected and that the Vera/Illinois Segregation Reduction Project was the groundwork to begin the closure of Tamms, as well as other changes. AFSCME chose to jump fully behind Quinn anyway, since they had to show that they are still down with the whole “Progressive Movement” thing. Now AFSCME is caught in the middle trying to stand up for their members, while at the same time trying not to hurt Quinn in the process. Quinn on the other hand can not be honest about why he wants to close Tamms and continues to hide behind the budget issue, even tho he started this quest over 2 years ago. If closing Tamms is such a good idea, why cant those opposed to the Super-Max tell the truth, and say why they want it closed.

So that was a little long winded way of answering, but there it is.

Comment by SO IL M Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 3:23 pm
Dear Human and dear AFSCME guard - Miss. closed its supermax. So did Maine. So did Colorado this year. Before that, Minnesota, Ohio, Washington State and Indiana closed or reduced the size of their’s. NY and CA may soon be following suit. No state has reported any increase in violence because of the changes. The research indicates they have no reason to worry — neither does Illinois. So, AFSCME, if you are really concerned about safety, let the supermax close and fight to bring mental health treatment and programming to bored, uneducated, and idle prisoners in other facilities.

Comment by bartelby Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 3:28 pm
Nothing ever actually gets done in this state. Nothing. The delays are postponed, and postponements are delayed.

Comment by wishbone Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 3:53 pm
I think Tamms should be closed, but I also think it’s smart for the Quinn admin to agree to a delay in order to discuss worker safety concerns. In future litigation over the issue, they should be able to show that they made every effort to address those concerns. And they should. But Tamms should still be closed.

Comment by cassandra Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 4:15 pm
SO IL M, A grudge against Quinn and AFSCME seems reasonable enough. I don’t know much about Vera in Illinois but I don’t find it too hard to believe that the fiscal crisis has forced these closures.

AFSCME members definitely seem to be on both sides of the aisle. Is AFSCME fighting as hard for DCFS and other laid-off workers or are their battles just not posted on this blog as much?

Comment by Dan Bureaucrat Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 4:23 pm
=== The savings from closing Tamm’s is nominal. ===

Unless someone is offering some alternative numbers, the combined prison closings will save $100 million.

That’s pretty significant, and thinking that its not is partly what got Illinois in this mess.

$100 million here, $100 million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.

For some perspective, total corporate income taxes in Illinois are only $1.7 billion.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 6:18 pm
The true number of assaults have went down after Tamms was built and used as a Super-max. That is a fact. The recent numbers are being skewed to reflect and favor the agenda of the Quinn administration and the special interest. Yet the real numbers are being hidden behind the walls of state facilities and of Cook county which is being paid well to house IDOC inmates, many who were destined for Tamms. The IDOC inmates being held behind the walls of Cook county are being left out of the equation and statistics. How much are we paying Cook county to hold these inmates as well?

Comment by 4_Nubbs Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 11:00 pm
=== The true number of assaults have went down after Tamms was built and used as a Super-max. That is a fact. The recent numbers are being skewed to reflect and favor the agenda of the Quinn administration and the special interest. ===

Do you have any actual data to back that up, Nubbs? Or anything to support your claim that Cook County is somehow being used to warehouse state inmates?

Because according to this report, admissions to Cook County jail have dropped by nearly 13,000 and the average length of stay is only 54 days.

Cook County, btw, is much cheaper per inmate than Tamms, so if we actually COULD work out a deal to transfer inmates from Tamms to 26th and Cal, I’d be all for it.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Aug 9, 12 @ 11:22 pm
YDD,

You and your stupid facts.

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Friday, Aug 10, 12 @ 12:00 am
Admissions to Cook county jail are down? What does that have to do with IDOC inmates that are being housed at Cook County? I can skew the numbers of Cook County intakes by having less officers on the streets. You are telling me that Crime in Chicago is down? And yes after Tamms was built the number of serious staff and inmate assaults was considerably reduced.

Comment by 4_Nubbs Friday, Aug 10, 12 @ 11:36 am