State Representative Brandon Phelps is urging Governor-elect Bruce Rauner to re-open the Tamms Correctional Center and the Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro.
The Harrisburg Democrat says southern Illinois lawmakers need to work together to bring back the hundreds of jobs lost when Governor Pat Quinn closed these two facilities.
"Hopefully, I can get Terri Bryant - who won the Bost seat - and some other legislators who want to come together, work in a bipartisan manner, like I always like to do, and try to get that both of those facilities back open for the betterment of southern Illinois."
Phelps says he'd like to see Tamms re-open as a supermax prison so it could be a deterrent for extremely violent inmates.
He says the IYC in Murphysboro could re-open as a youth or adult facility to help alleviate the overcrowding across the Department of Corrections.
"That's going to be very valuable to this prison system as well, because we're running out of room to put these prisoners. We've got to open something, and got to do something, otherwise we've just got an overcrowded situation."
Phelps says he plans to work with lawmakers and the new governor to get this done when the new session starts in January.
