An Alexander County judge has dissolved the injunction stopping the closure of the Tamms Supermax prison and other state facilities.
The circuit court judge's action came Wednesday. Last week, the Illinois supreme ordered that the injunction be lifted. A lawsuit by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees delayed the closures. An AFSCME spokesman said Wednesday night that the closures make the remaining prisons "more dangerous for employees, inmates and the public."
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn says the facilities will be closed within the next few weeks. Quinn says shuttering the high-security Tamms prison, the women's lockup in Dwight, Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro and the Glass House transition center in Carbondale makes taxpayers, in his words, "the real winners today." Quinn says the state can't afford the facilities in a budget crisis and that many are underutilized.
