Current:Home > StocksFederal judge orders 100-year-old Illinois prison depopulated because of decrepit condition -Keystone Capital Education
Federal judge orders 100-year-old Illinois prison depopulated because of decrepit condition
View
Date:2025-04-17 19:35:52
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois must move most of the inmates at its 100-year-old prison within less than two months because of decrepit conditions, a federal judge ruled.
The Illinois Department of Corrections said that U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood’s order, issued Friday, to depopulate Stateville Correctional Center is in line with its plan to replace the facility. The department plans to rebuild it on the same campus in Crest Hill, which is 41 miles (66 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.
That plan includes replacing the deteriorating Logan prison for women in the central Illinois city of Lincoln. The state might rebuild Logan on the Stateville campus too.
Wood’s decree states that the prison, which houses over 400 people, would need to close by Sept. 30 due in part to falling concrete from deteriorating walls and ceilings. The judge said costly repairs would be necessary to make the prison habitable. Inmates must be moved to other prisons around the state.
“The court instead is requiring the department to accomplish what it has publicly reported and recommended it would do — namely, moving forward with closing Stateville by transferring (inmates) to other facilities,” Wood wrote in an order.
The decision came as a result of civil rights lawyers arguing that Stateville, which opened in 1925, is too hazardous to house anyone. The plaintiffs said surfaces are covered with bird feathers and excrement, and faucets dispense foul-smelling water.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration announced its plan in March, but even during two public hearings last spring, very few details were available. The Corrections Department plans to use $900 million in capital construction money for the overhaul, which is says will take up to five years.
Employees at the lockups would be dispersed to other facilities until the new prisons open. That has rankled the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the union that represents most workers at the prisons.
AFSCME wants the prisons to stay open while replacements are built. Closing them would not only disrupt families of employees who might have to move or face exhausting commutes, but it would destroy cohesion built among staff at the prisons, the union said.
In a statement Monday, AFSCME spokesperson Anders Lindall said the issues would extend to inmates and their families as well.
“We are examining all options to prevent that disruption in response to this precipitous ruling,” Lindall said.
veryGood! (96552)
Related
- Don't let hackers fool you with a 'scam
- Hurricane Beryl takes aim at the Mexican resort of Tulum as a Category 3 storm
- Copa America 2024: Results, highlights as Canada defeats Venezuela on penalties
- Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett shows an independence from majority view in recent opinions
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- Tour de France Stage 6 results, standings: Sprinters shine as Groenewegen wins
- Philadelphia mass shooting leaves 8 people injured, 1 dead; no arrests made, police say
- 4 swimmers bitten by shark off Texas' South Padre Island, officials say
- Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
- Boxer Ryan Garcia says he's going to rehab after racist rant, expulsion from WBC
Ranking
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Football fireworks: Five NFL teams that could be more explosive in 2024
- Copa America 2024: Results, highlights as Canada defeats Venezuela on penalties
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, The Sims
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Hatch recalls nearly 1 million AC adapters used in baby product because of shock hazard
- 2 dead and 9 injured after truck strikes group celebrating July 4 in Manhattan park
- One dies after explosion at Arkansas defense weapons plant
Recommendation
US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
Judge says Nashville school shooter’s writings can’t be released as victims’ families have copyright
2 inmates escape from a Mississippi jail while waiting for murder trials
How a support network is building a strong community for men married to service members
DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
Shark attack on South Padre Island, Texas leaves 2 injured, 2 others report encounters
Arkansas election officials checking signatures of 3 measures vying for November ballot
A Low-Balled Author, a Star With No Salary & More Secrets About Forrest Gump