Proposed Prison Closing
In May 2008 the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, made a public announcement stating he wanted to close Pontiac Correctional Center by February 2009 and move about half the inmates to a prison in Thomson, Illinois. Many citizens of Pontiac were against this plan fearing “570 jobs in this central Illinois town would be lost.” The prison is the second largest employer in the Livingston County. Citizens would gather together and hold rallies to get the support of the governor. On September 15 there was a joint meeting in Chicago and Springfield where the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability voted. At this meeting 9 out of 12 people voted to keep open the prison. Although Governor Blagojevich would have made the final decision, he would have taken into consideration this vote, but would not be obligated to agree with them. Employees of Pontiac Correctional Center filed a law suit on September 16 stating “the state does not have a right to close the facility because it has budgeted money to run the prison through June 2009” and “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.” On September 17, an independent commission of state lawmakers rejected to close the prison, which the Department of Corrections says will save money in next year’s budget. On March 12, 2009, Governor Pat Quinn cancelled plans to close Pontiac Correctional Center.
Read more about this topic: Pontiac Correctional Center
Famous quotes containing the words proposed, prison and/or closing:
“To coöperate in the highest as well as the lowest sense, means to get our living together. I heard it proposed lately that two young men should travel together over the world, the one without money, earning his means as he went, before the mast and behind the plow, the other carrying a bill of exchange in his pocket. It was easy to see that they could not long be companions or coöperate, since one would not operate at all. They would part at the first interesting crisis in their adventures.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“But neither milk-white rose nor red
May bloom in prison air;
The shard, the pebble, and the flint,
Are what they give us there:
For flowers have been known to heal
A common man’s despair.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“At closing time would go
In waders and peaked cap
Into the showery dark,
A dole-kept breadwinner
But a natural for work.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)