Ill. Warden to Retire Before Prison Opens

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By Clinton Herald

Published: 10/14/2002

Looking back on a 27-year career with the Illinois Department of Corrections, Jack Hartwig still isn't too sure what got him started there in the first place.
The 50-year-old Decatur, Ill., native, will retire from his post as warden of the Thomson Correctional Center on Oct. 17 and can still trace his career back to one defining moment.
Hartwig was 23, a recent college graduate preparing for graduate school in Maine to further his studies in the research and experimentation field of physiological psychology when he happened upon a Chicago morning talk show.
'I watched a talk show about finding jobs for ex-convicts, and I thought 'My God, that sounds interesting,'' said Hartwig. 'To this day, I don't know why I found it interesting.'
Hartwig contacted the show and the woman who had appeared on TV offered the young man a job in Chicago's Cabrini Green housing development finding jobs for recently released prisoners. Cabrini Green is an area now known for being tough and violent, but Hartwig was up to the challenge.
From there, Hartwig worked at the Department of Corrections central office in Springfield, Ill., doing a lot of research and policy work. He then went to the East Moline Correctional Center to serve as a clinical services supervisor before becoming assistant warden at the Pontiac Correctional Center.
Hartwig says his time spent at Pontiac was one of the high points in a career filled with positive experiences. 'It was a real violent place. I saw some very ugly things,' sad Hartwig. 'And we made it a better place.'
In 1995 Hartwig became warden at Big Muddy Correctional Center in Ina, Ill. Four years later, he accepted a position as warden of the brand-new Thomson Correctional Center. 'It's interesting,' said Hartwig of correctional work. 'It's different every day. I'm not a widget maker... I'm not big on predictability.'
He says that his 27 years working with convicts has been a lot of fun, attributed mostly to his colleagues, but also his ability to interact with inmates.
'Some of them have some real interesting stories,' he said. 'And some of them are even true.'
After his last day, Hartwig's plans are somewhat loose-ended. He intends to head to Florida for two weeks of deep-sea fishing with his brothers, and perhaps to do some substitute teaching.
Although the state's early retirement incentives were too good to pass up, Hartwig says it isn't his nature to just sit around. He plans to head to the east coast toward the end of the year to do some international security work.
He said the perfect conclusion to his career would have been if the Thomson facility had been operational. The prison has been sitting empty since its completion last year, a victim of a state cash crunch that left no room for operating costs. A start-up date has not yet been set.
Still, he has no regrets and knows that if the money is made available to get the prison up and running at an estimated $50 million annual budget, his work in establishing an infrastructure will be worth the effort. As for living and working in the rolling hills of northwestern Illinois?
'This is a wonderful area around here,' said Hartwig, who loves between Elizabeth, Ill., and Galena, Ill., in rural Jo Daviess County. 'It's got a lot of natural beauty, it's a great place to live. People have been very welcoming to me since the beginning.'

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