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| Voice of the Southern: Ask the bigger question about prison funding |
| By thesouthern.com |
| Published: 10/31/2013 |
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Gov. Pat Quinn is asking the General Assembly for an extra $221 million, saying the cash is needed to finish out the remainder of the fiscal year. That request includes an additional $40.5 million for the Illinois Department of Corrections. The money would cover, among other items, a $12 million judgment with a former inmate who suffered brain damage after not getting medication for epilepsy. OK, there’s no getting around a court-approved legal judgment; the state is going to have to find the coin somewhere. And, in a region that has several prisons, it’s hard not to be sympathetic toward prison money. Point blank, the correctional system means jobs in Southern Illinois. But here’s the rub: What happened to the savings projected from closing the Tamms supermax state prison, and other facilities, including the adult transition centers? The Quinn administration says the problem would be worse if it had not closed Tamms and the prison at Dwight — about $65 million worse. Meanwhile, we’ve reported overtime pay for Illinois’ prison guards jumped 34 percent last year as the state grappled with its overcrowded penal system and Quinn’s decision to close some facilities. According to an Associated Press analysis, Department of Corrections employees made $62 million in overtime pay in the fiscal year that ended in June, more than in any of the past seven years and more than double the $24 million paid out in 2007. So do we subtract that $24 million from the closure savings? Probably not. Finding a one-to-one correlation between state decisions and actual spending quickly turns into a muddy task. But anyone who has run a business knows an overtime bill of record proportions is a sure sign of some combination of understaffing and use of outdated, overburdened technology, facilities and methods. But as they say on late-night TV, “Wait, there’s more!” Read More. |
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