585 jobs at stake at threatened local prisons

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Updated: March 24, 2012 9:06AM

JOLIET — The city once famous for its prisons will find itself once again in a fight to keep the tradition going.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget-cutting plan includes closing the state’s juvenile prison in Joliet, which would eliminate 235 jobs.

“It’s jobs. It’s work,” Joliet Mayor Thomas Giarrante said about the proposed closing of the Illinois Youth Center on McDonough Street.

Quinn’s plan also includes closing the Dwight Correctional Center, a women’s prison that employs 350 people from a broad region around Dwight.

Will County Executive Larry Walsh said the regional nature of the employment at the prisons is likely to bind legislators together in a fight to keep them open.

“This is a major issue,” said Walsh, who was involved in a successful effort in 2008 to prevent Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill from closing.

“There will be a local fight to oppose this, too,” Walsh vowed.

One thing that will work against the effort this time, however, is the worsening state fiscal crisis.

“That’s the difficulty for this budget year — finding cuts and providing core services,” said state Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi, D-Joliet.

Wilhelmi noted that there is an official review process that will occur before Quinn can actually close a prison. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability will review the proposed closings of the Joliet and Dwight prisons, he said. The commission will hold local public hearings.

The governor does not have to follow the recommendations of the commission, which is a bipartisan group of state legislators, Wilhelmi said, but the panel “can put pressure on him to change his decision.”

Opposition to the closures won’t be automatic, however, especially among Republican legislators who have been clamoring for deeper budget cuts.

“Something needs to be done,” said Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont.

“Sen. Radogno has believed for quite some time that Illinois needs thoughtful consideration of facility closures,” Schuh said. “She’s willing to participate in that discussion.”

That’s not the same as siding with the governor on closing the Joliet and Dwight prisons.

But, said Schuh, “nothing is really off the table.”

There was no substantial opposition when the state closed the Joliet Correctional Center on Collins Street in 2002. That changed six years later when former Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed closing Stateville.

Wilhelmi led the successful coalition of local political, labor and business leaders who successfully fought to keep Stateville open.

The Joliet juvenile prison also is in Wilhelmi’s district. But Wilhelmi is giving up his state senate seat Saturday, and Democrats will meet then to consider a replacement.

Walsh’s son, Larry Walsh Jr., is among those seeking the job.

Whoever, gets it, Walsh said, the new state senator is likely to be making the youth prison in Joliet a top priority. And, Walsh said, “There’s going to be an ample amount of support and cooperation for whoever it is.”