XPost: chi.politics, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics
XPost: alt.crime, alt.prisons

https://apnews.com/article/illinois-prisons-stateville-union- construction-f59194f8df41cfc068d2d739e5af7d31

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois officials Friday announced their
impending search for a firm to manage the planning and construction of
two prisons with a combined budget of $900 million.

The Illinois Capital Development Board announced that it will issue a
bulletin as early as Nov. 19 seeking proposals from a construction
management and owner’s representative team to oversee the project. The
team will start the ball rolling on replacing the century-old Stateville Correctional Center in suburban Chicago and the Logan Correctional
Center for women in Lincoln.

It is the first concrete move the Illinois Department of Corrections has
taken to begin the project since Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced last
spring that he was setting aside capital construction money for the
purpose. Lawmakers have been wary of the Corrections Department,
questioning its unwillingness to divulge detailed plans or timetables.

The Capital Development Board doesn’t usually make an announcement
before issuing a so-called professional services bulletin seeking
proposals. But board spokesperson Lauren Grenlund said the project’s
scope and size and the need for some firms to show their viability
through a lengthy prequalification process prompted officials to do so.

“This is a big one,” Grenlund said. “We don’t always put out pre- advertisements, but we wanted to be sure that this got in front of
industry professionals as soon as possible.”

Grenlund said it would likely be early next year when a firm is chosen.
She referred questions about project specifics to the Corrections
Department. Telephone and email messages seeking comment were left for a
prison system spokesperson.

The announcement describes two 1,500-bed single-cell prisons, one for
women and one for men, in facilities housing inmates posing minimum-,
medium- and maximum-security risks.

“They will focus on providing therapeutic spaces with programming,
medical (and) mental health, dietary, and recreational services that
better support the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals into
their communities,” the notice said.

Answering a court order that found Stateville uninhabitable and
inaccessible, Corrections officials have all but emptied the prison,
which opened in 1925, over objections from employees. They argued it
should stay open while a new facility is built and opened next door not
only to save them from having to travel greater distances to work in
other prisons but to avoid disruption to inmates who were participating
in educational and social service programs.

The employees’ union, the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees Council 31, reached an agreement with the
Corrections Department that allows a large number of Stateville
employees to continue working at prison facilities that remain open on
the Stateville campus, union spokesperson Anders Lindall said.

Corrections officials said during legislative hearings last summer that
they were considering moving the Logan prison from Lincoln in central
Illinois to the Stateville campus in Crest Hill, 40 miles (64
kilometers) southwest of Chicago, because up to 40% of women housed
there are from the Chicago area. That proposal met with howls of protest
from Lincoln-area officials and residents and prison employees,
represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees Council 31.

Skeptical lawmakers have also questioned the proposed 1,500-bed capacity
of each new prison. Prison populations statewide have declined
dramatically in recent years. Stateville has a listed operational
capacity of just over 3,000 inmates and in June had a population of 568. Logan’s capacity is listed at about 1,400 and in June had just over
1,000.


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