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| Death-row inmates awaiting transfers out of Pontiac prison |
| By The Pantagraph |
| Published: 01/15/2003 |
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The 87 inmates who once waited on Pontiac Correctional Center's death row for their execution now wait to transfer to other prisons. Until those inmates can be moved, which may take more than a week, they will remain in the death-row unit, said Illinois Department of Corrections officials. They will have more privileges, though, while DOC decides what to do with them and the now-unneeded death-row cell blocks. Then-Gov. George Ryan on Saturday commuted the death sentences for Illinois' 167 condemned prisoners. 'The biggest difference is they are being treated as general-population inmates rather than death-row inmates,' said DOC spokesman Sergio Molina. ''Death row' is just a figure of speech, and right now that unit is just like any other unit in that cell house.' General-population inmates have a few more freedoms than death-row inmates. Typically, death-row inmates must be in hand and leg cuffs whenever they are moved within the prison or when they visit with family, Molina said. The average annual cost of housing a death-row inmate is $27,500, according to The Associated Press, while the average annual cost of housing a general-population inmate is $21,500. The nearly 60 inmates at Menard Correctional Center likely will remain at Menard and will just be integrated into the general population of that maximum-security prison. The four women on death row at Dwight Correctional Center also likely will be integrated into Dwight's general population, although whether they will remain in the same cells is undecided. The former death-row inmates at Pontiac have to move to other prisons, however, because that maximum-security prison has been a disciplinary segregation facility for DOC since the late 1990s, Molina said. That means it houses prisoners who have violated rules at other prisons. Inmates at Pontiac spend 23 1/2 hours in their cells a day. DOC is not in a hurry to start the transfers, Molina said. 'We want to fully consider where and how we are going to move them,' he said. |
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