The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

When former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was removed from office, he was in the process of moving prisoners from the state prison at Pontiac to Thomson. But those plans went away with Blagojevich. And now Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a budget that contains no money for the opening of Thomson.

"We feel if we sit back on our hands the governor's going to think we accept our fate, and we don't," Newstrand said. "They built this place for a reason. Now open it."

With the mostly vacant prison as a distant backdrop, state and local lawmakers took turns at the microphone, one of them promising to get Quinn's attention and another pointing out the state is spending enough on overtime at the Department of Corrections to get Thomson fully open and operational.

"The state spent $61 million in overtime last year for the Department of Corrections," said State Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica. "And we can't get $40 million to open Thomson Prison? Folks, this is a no-brainer."

He said there still is time to try to talk to Quinn, adding the legislature has 57 days until voting on the governor's proposed budget, "and that means we have 57 days to change the governor's mind."

State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-Ill., brought apologies to the rally for what he thought was a done deal on Thomson funding and urged rally-goers to keep up hope.

"I'd hoped to be coming up here to cut a ribbon today," he said. "I feel like I have failed in some way."

Jacobs also promised to get a group of lawmakers together to urge Quinn to reconsider ways of finding the money to open Thomson, which currently houses only about 130 prisoners in the minimum-security wing and never has held a prisoner in the large maximum-security wing.

"We're going to ask for a private meeting with the governor," he said. "We deserve a clear timeline. We're gonna get this thing done."

State Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, said that one way of getting Thomson open is to take into consideration that all the state's prisons are overcrowded. Because of the overcrowding, he said, it would not be necessary to close Pontiac.

He also agreed that overtime money could be diverted to Thomson.

Among those with the most riding on the prison are the 200-plus guards that were trained to work there but have since been scattered throughout the state to work at other centers.

Tom Barkley, of Milledgeville, said he quit his job of 15 years to work as a guard at Thomson. After he was trained, however, he was sent on the road.

The father of four, including a 1-and-4-year-old, has spent the last four months traveling each week to work at the state prison in Lincoln. The arrangement has created a hardship for his family, he said, and the state must pay for this lodging and travel.

"We don't know what's going to happen or when," he said, as one of his children sat atop his shoulders at the rally. "We hear different stories all the time. It's not easy."

Despite the frustrations that are felt by hundreds in the communities surrounding Thomson, rally organizers were trying to keep a positive focus on progress, and they also were keeping a sense of humor.

Organizer Kathy Newstrand even came up with a motto for their efforts: "We already have the melons, now bring us the felons."

EARLIER STORY: The message at a rally today that centered on the mostly unused prison at Thomson, Ill., was “Move Thomson Forward.”

But a secondary message was, “Enough is enough.”

More than 100 people gathered in the parking lot of a Thomson diner that was built to accommodate workers and visitors of the $140 million prison, listening to politicians from many levels of government. Their message was that the people of Carroll and Whiteside counties should not give up.

Illinois Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, promised the rally goers that he would set up a private meeting with Gov. Pat Quinn, aimed at getting the governor “to change his mind” about funding for the correctional center.

The governor’s proposed budget does not contain the necessary funding to open the prison and use it to its full capacity of 1,600 inmates.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was working on a plan to close the state prison at Pontiac and move those prisoners to Thomson. Even though about 200 people were trained to work as guards at Thomson, there is no funding to put them to work.

The trainees now are being transported to other state prisons during the week, which costs the state money in fuel and lodging.

Many of those workers said they have tired of living “in limbo.”