CARBONDALE, IL - Union leaders and Illinois lawmakers have painted different pictures in response to the new state budget's call to boost prison staff.

Amid a rising tide of criticism over prison staffing levels, the budget tags $11.75 million for hiring about 250 new frontline officers. Some state legislators, including Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Norris City, heralded the move as essential to improving safety and security for prison workers and inmates.

Phelps said he wanted a bigger staff hike, but was glad to get at least 250 more officers.

"I feel very happy that the prisons are going to receive much-needed staff," Phelps said. "This is long overdue."

However, officials with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation's largest public service employees union, said adding 250 new prison officers would hardly be a baby step toward fixing the state's dangerously understaffed prison system.

Buddy Maupin, AFSCME regional director, noted that about 2,000 Illinois prison jobs have been cut since 2000, and dividing 250 employees among Illinois' 27 correctional centers would be a scant improvement.

"By the math, you're looking at seven or eight (additional officers) per facility," Maupin said. "What sane person would say that's an adequate increase?"

The union had urged legislators to reject the budget, claiming it failed to reverse years of "severe budget cuts" among several state departments.

Meanwhile, much of the recent outcry for more security at Illinois prisons has followed a series of violent incidents. A female food service worker was sexually assaulted in February by an inmate at the Jacksonville Correctional Center, and an inmate was murdered by a fellow prisoner in March at the Big Muddy Correctional Center in Ina.