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| Opponents fight plan to close southern Illinois prison camp |
| By thetelegraph.com- Alan Scher Zagier |
| Published: 07/22/2015 |
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ELIZABETHTOWN, Ill. — Hundreds of residents from southern Illinois’ farthest reaches on Monday appealed to Gov. Bruce Rauner to reconsider a cost-cutting proposal to shut down a minimum-security prison work camp that, along with Shawnee National Forest tourism, serves as one of the region’s few economic bright spots. Prison workers, local politicians, union leaders and area residents told the state Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability that the proposed Hardin County Work Camp closing would further damage an isolated corner of Illinois where the poverty and unemployment rates already exceed the state average. “Southern Illinois cannot afford this,” said Mike Stout, a business manager with ISEA-Laborers’ Local 2002, a state employees’ union. “This is an economically depressed place that needs every job it has.” Leaders of the state Department of Corrections told the bipartisan panel of state lawmakers that the prison camp’s roughly 60 workers would be offered jobs at two other southern Illinois prisons — both about an hour drive from Cave-in-Rock, where the Hardin County camp is located. Read More. |
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