STATE—While prison guards at Lawrence and Pinckneyville corrections centers are breathing easier having their overall inmate population reduced, guards at Menard prison in Chester are not happy.
According to published reports, 70 inmates were transferred to Menard on Friday, June 14.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections said that 35 inmates had been moved from Pinckneyville to Menard with another 37 being moved from Lawrence to Menard.
With Illinois being dubbed being in one of the worse financial conditions nationwide, many are worried corrections officials are being pressured to cut corners/budgets and find cost savings.
Guards and union representatives are saying the already crowded prison system is being made worse and even dangerous by prison closings and a inmate relocation program that has pushed the already overcrowded prisons beyond their limits.
While a prison spokesperson says inmate population is well below Menard’s bed capacity a union official claims prison officials often lie bout the numbers.
A prison official did say that by shuffling the latest number of prisoners around they can now stop housing prisoners in a make-shift area set up on the basketball court at Graham Correctional Center.
“How they can say we don’t have an overcrowding problem and then say the move of these inmates gets others off the gym floor in Graham is ludicrous,” said a corrections official on condition of anonymity.
A union spokesperson said the situation may be being made even more dangerous with prison officials reclassifying dangerous prisoners as medium risk in order to move them.
Menard has already had three deaths behind its walls in the past several months.