SPRINGFIELD, Illinois — When movie star James Stewart was on location at the infamous roundhouse at Stateville Prison in 1948, playing the role of a Chicago journalist who frees a wrongly convicted murderer in “Call Northside 777,” the prison had already stood for nearly a quarter century.
Now, 76 years and hundreds of millions of dollars in neglected repairs later, the Illinois prison that housed notorious murderers Leopold, Loeb and Richard Speck, and where John Wayne Gacy was executed, is closing.
The Illinois Department of Corrections has already begun transferring inmates from the facility in the Chicago suburb of Crest Hill, a controversial decision that was amplified by a federal court order last month.
Last spring, Governor JB Pritzker’s administration announced a $900 million budget plan to replace Statevillethat opened in 1925, with a state-of-the-art facility on adjacent, state-owned property. The campus could also include a new women’s prison. Replacing the neglected Logan Correctional Center in central Illinois is part of the proposal; it could move to the Stateville campus. Completion could take three to five years.
But that’s about all the administration has said. There has been no public release of a design plan; no timeline for demolition, groundbreaking or even a decision on what will happen to prison staff.
Still, the decision by prison officials to close the facility this month was made long before the court ruling made it inevitable. In a ruling in a decade-old lawsuit challenging the health and safety of the Stateville community, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood on Aug. 9 ordered most of the prison’s 430 inmates to be evacuated by Sept. 30.
“The primary reason for closing the facility during reconstruction is to address serious safety and security concerns that exist for those who work and live at Stateville,” Acting Corrections Director Latoya Hughes told a legislative review panel in June. “This is not simply a matter of preference, but a necessary step to ensure safety, efficiency and the fulfillment of our rehabilitative mission.”
Employees and service providers, such as institutions that offer various educational courses and social programs to inmates, want Stateville to remain open while construction continues on a replacement building to avoid disrupting services or losing the close-knit, highly experienced staff.
According to a prison report, there is a $286 million maintenance backlog. research into long-term capital needs released in May 2023. It identified $12 million in immediate upgrades, but Hughes said that “grossly understates the full spectrum of urgent needs.” Wood’s court order targeted falling chunks of concrete, bird feathers and feces, and foul-smelling tap water.
The dilapidated F-House, a circular unit with cells around the perimeter and a watchtower in the center, closed in 2016 —the last of the country’s roundhouse prisons—although it briefly reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic to create more space between inmates. F-House and other buildings that are no longer in use are part of the backlog of repairs, but they still need maintenance, Hughes said.
It doesn’t make sense to pay for rehabilitation while also preparing for a huge outlay for a new facility. Besides, much of the work would require moving prisoners anyway, Hughes said.
But it’s nonsense to say that Sen. Rachel Ventura is claiming the department hasn’t addressed concerns she and other lawmakers raised during public hearings in June — she said in one case, an inmate who was promised continuing education classes was denied access after being transferred. The Joliet Democrat said she has repeatedly asked for updates, but there has been no new information.
“If they’re going to close it (Sept. 30), well, what do you do with it? Do you pull out furniture? Do you get a demo plan? Do you get an environmental study done?” Ventura said. “Those would be the next logical steps, but to get nothing at all, no response from DOC on this — again, very concerning.”
An email was sent to the prison spokesperson, followed by a phone call, seeking comment on activities at Stateville: timelines for closure, demolition and groundbreaking, and what actions would be needed after inmate evacuation.
The June hearings before the bipartisan, bicameral legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability were understandably packed with members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who were nervous not only about losing their jobs but also about the disintegration of the collegial, cooperative workforce environment at Stateville and Logan.
Stateville has 939 employees, including 676 who provide security. Hughes noted that the Corrections Department’s understaffing works to its advantage. In June, she said the agency had 1,000 vacancies within 63 miles (101 kilometers) of Stateville, including at facilities that remain open on the Stateville campus. There are 500 vacancies to the south at the larger — and older — Pontiac Correctional Center and 168 at the Sheridan prison to the west. When Stateville reopens, former employees will have the first chance to return.
But many workers face long commutes to Stateville. Charles Mathis drives 45 minutes from his home on Chicago’s South Side. A transfer to Sheridan or Pontiac would mean a one-way trip of up to two hours, not to mention the double shifts workers there are working because of staffing shortages.
“That kind of back and forth travel would take a huge toll on my mind and body,” Mathis said. “It would take away from the precious time I have with my family and friends. I speak for all of my colleagues when I say that would be nearly impossible to justify.”
