GALESBURG, IL - Workers picketed outside prisons across the state Tuesday to bring attention to what they are calling dangerous staff shortages and increased violence against officers. The pickets were organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The union's argument, disputed by the Illinois Department of Corrections, is that budget cuts and eliminated positions have led to more attacks against officers.

“Somebody's going to go out in a body bag. It's just a matter of time,” said Dustin Detherage, a corrections officer at the Henry Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg.

"We've had staff assaults, hostages (at other Illinois prisons)," said Dick Heitz, a correctional lieutenant at the Illinois River Correctional Center near Canton.

"We're in danger every day," said Heitz, who also is president of AFSCME Local 3585.

AFSCME said an officer at the Galesburg prison had to fire a warning shot Monday when inmates began to fight in a lunch line. The prison remained on lockdown Tuesday.

The prison had just come off a near three-week lockdown after a correctional lieutenant was knocked unconscious by an inmate. Lt. Donald Hornbaker suffered a fractured backbone and a bulged disc in his neck and required staples in his head and five stitches to his face. Hornbaker, who is expected to return to work soon, stood with about 20 other pickets Tuesday outside Hill. He said he no longer feels safe working there.

But the Department of Corrections says staffing is adequate and more employees would not stop the violence.

"If we hired the 1,800 COs+ AFSCME is asking for, that would cost the state $140 million next year, and $2.8 billion over the careers of these workers," Department of Corrections Director Roger E. Walker Jr. said in a statement Tuesday.

"That's money that can be used for schools, for health care or so many other good causes. It should not go to hiring workers we don't need," he said.

Mark Endicott serves as an officer at Hill and as the second vice president of AFSCME Local 1274. He said the state has cut the number of correctional officers at Hill to 196 from 240 in 2000. Endicott said four fights have occurred at Hill in the past week.

At the Dixon Correctional Center in Lee County, an inmate is accused of grabbing a female prison worker May 11 and holding her hostage in a storage area for 25 hours with a makeshift knife. He faces kidnapping and sexual assault charges.

Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said it's unfair for the union to point to incidents like the one at Dixon and said more staffing would not solve the problem.

Schnapp also said inmate-on-staff assaults have dropped from 942 in 2001 to 489 in 2005. Hill has about 1,800 inmates, and Endicott said when portions of that population go to the yard for exercise, there are no officers to watch them. Heitz was one of about a dozen workers at the prison just outside Canton who took part in Tuesday's picketing.

Heitz said the prison inmate population statewide has held steady at about 44,000 since 1991, but prison staff have been cut by 1,800 since then. Built to hold 974 inmates, the Illinois River Correctional Center now has 1,950, Heitz said. He said about 100 workers need to be added to the 377 security officers, secretaries, teachers and dietary workers.

"We used to have 11 or 12 teachers here," he said. "Now we have four."

Inmates take adult basic education and GED classes, he said. Heitz said the state is adding 250 security officers to prisons, but more are needed.
"We know there's money out there," he said.

Heitz said prison workers will march on the state Capitol if necessary.

"We're in here putting our lives on the line every day, and proud to do it," he said. "But we need some help ... People get killed in prison if we don't have help."