JIM SUHR Associated Press
April 6, 2014
STL
ST. LOUIS • Illinois’ biggest maximum-security prison remained on lockdown for a second day Saturday after corrections officers uncovered an inmate cache of more than a dozen crude weapons, gallons of homemade alcohol and hoards of juice and sugar used to make the liquor.
While prisoner resourcefulness in secretly crafting stabbing instruments and booze is an age-old tradition, Friday’s discovery at the Menard Correctional Center southeast of St. Louis reignited debate about crowding at Illinois state lockups.
Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer blamed the contraband on failures by employees of the prison dating to the 1800s to properly search inmates. But Kevin Hirsch, a 30-year Menard corrections sergeant and union representative, fired back, calling inmate contraband inevitable in a 3,700-inmate prison where he insists staffers are stretched too thin.
“We manage by crisis — wait for the ‘Oh my God moment’ and then see the resources become available. It takes that calamity before anything changes,” Hirsch told The Associated Press by telephone. “The inmates are going to make weapons — it’s the nature of the beast. They’re not about brotherly love.”
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