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State Workers Picket Proposed Closings

Informational pickets are being held throughout Illinois to oppose Governor Pat Quinn's planned facility closures and other budget cuts.State workers from southern Illinois prisons, mental health institutions and other agencies gathered Thursday at protests in Carbondale, Harrisburg, Jonesboro, Pinckneyville and Chester. State Senator Gary Forby of Benton is joining workers at some of the pickets. He says the governor can't close the Supermax Prison in Tamms because it's helped clean up the entire state prison system. Forby says the governor's assertion that the facility closures will save the state money isn't true. He says - in many cases - the closures will end up costing the state more in terms of putting more stress on agencies dealing with prisoners and mental health patients.

Luberta Lytle is a nurse at the Murray Developmental Center in Centralia. She says she's worried about losing her job, but she's more worried about what will happen to the people who live there. She says some of them are medically challenged, some of them have aggression issues. In some cases they're not going to receive the supervision that they receive at Murray Center. Lytle says some of the residents have never called anywhere else home.

But community care has its own advocates, like Don Moss. He says the developmental institutions are not as bad as they once were...where it was a common occurrence for groups of residents to be hosed down in a shower at once...and rooms for sleeping would have 300 beds. But he says community care is still the best option for people with mental disabilities. He says he hopes Illinois can begin moving from being the last in the nation in terms of its services for people with developmental disabilities, to close to the top.  Moss says closing Murray Center is the first step in doing so. Quinn wants Murray Developmental Center closed by November 2013.

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