By Tony Sapochetti
The Pantagraph
PONTIAC — The fight to keep Pontiac Correctional Center open headed to court Wednesday.
Prison supporters filed a lawsuit arguing the state does not have a right to close the facility because it has budgeted money to run the prison through June 2009.
“We don’t want to be here, but we feel like our hand has been forced,” said Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa.
The lawsuit, filed in Livingston County Circuit Court, claims Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Illinois Department of Corrections cannot close the prison because funding was provided in the 2008-09 budget, which was passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Blagojevich.
Lead plantiff is union
Chicago attorney Stephen Yokich, representing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the appropriation is a legal duty that requires the state to fund the prison until the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
“Closing Pontiac is illegal and illogical,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer said at a news conference at the Livingston County Courthouse.
In addition to AFSCME and Rutherford, others listed on the lawsuit filing include Republican state Reps. Keith Sommer of Morton and Shane Cultra of Onarga; Pontiac Mayor Scott McCoy; and eight people who are either correctional workers or their families.
But a state spokesman said Wednesday the proposed closure should proceed.
“We haven’t seen the lawsuit yet, but we want to reiterate that the proposal (to close Pontiac Correctional Center) was very objective and in the best interest of the agency and state taxpayers,” IDOC Spokesman Derek Schnapp said.
In May, Blagojevich announced plans to close Pontiac Correctional Center by February and move roughly half of the 1,600 inmates to a largely unused prison in Thomson.
A local outcry ensued, and in the latest development, the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability voted Tuesday in support of keeping the prison open. The recommendation from the panel of lawmakers is not binding.
AFSCME, the prison guards’ union, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, and spokesman Anders Lindall said that it will pay for the cost of the legal action.
Yorkich said that a similar situation occurred in 2002 when a lawsuit was successful in getting a restraining order against the closing of Vienna Correctional Center.
State estimates put the savings from closing–Pontiac at–around $4 million per year, but opponents say it would have a devastating economic impact throughout Central Illinois.
The 560 correctional workers also would have to be transferred to other prisons or find new jobs, and the economic loss was estimated at $54 million.
Copyright 2008 The Pantagraph