While she doesn't dig into the politicking, Pam Adams' column yesterday in the Peoria Journal-Star nicely situates Gov. Blagojevich's decision to close Pontiac Correctional Center in the broader debate of justice reform and fiscal responsibility:
When prison towns rely on prisoners for jobs, there is little incentive to reduce prison populations. When there is no incentive to reduce prison populations, there is little reason to effectively address sky-high recidivism rates, little motivation to reform sentencing policies that keep prisons crowded even when crime rates drop.
[Anders] Lindell, the spokesman for the state workers' union, is correct also. There is a reason not to reduce the latest outrage over prison closings merely to job-saving rallies or political shenanigans.
Housing, feeding and providing minimal health care for prison inmates drains the state budget at a time when there's little to drain. Speaking of geriatric prisons, it can cost as much as $70,000 a year to keep an aging, infirm inmate incarcerated.
Crime pays, all right. That's why it's so tough to close a prison. But the state needs to take a deep, hard look at the best way to get its money's worth.
This is especially true when research shows that prisons add few economic benefits to the communities in which they are located. As Rep. Karen Yarbrough argued in her Progress Illinois column earlier this week, it's long past time for the state to reassess the costs and benefits of our bloated prison system and redirect those funds to policies that keep Illinois residents safer and more productive.
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