Village leaders in Tamms are preparing to fight to keep their most stable employer open.Village President Carol Mitchell says Governor Pat Quinn's plan to close the Super Max Prison will devastate the local economy. She says the prison generates about 25-percent of the village's three-and-a-half million dollar budget. Mitchell says losing the 300 jobs at the prison will be another blow to an area that already has one of the highest poverty rates in the state.
Mitchell says postcards will be sent to Governor Quinn's office urging him not to close the prison. She says public meetings will also be scheduled. Mitchell says the strategy will be finalized at a special village board meeting on Monday. Mitchell says she's not surprised the governor wants to close the Tamms facility because he believes it will have the least negative political impact:
"What is the least populous area that he can close a prison in? This area right here. I feel like he feels he would get less opposition for its closing than any place else in the state."
Meanwhile, a group that has been fighting to close Tamms Super Max prison since it opened is happy to see the governor has targeted that facility for closure. Tamms Year Ten lead organizer Laurie Jo Reynolds says Illinois fell for a "foolish national trend" in the 1980's and built a "vengeful and wasteful prison" the state didn't need. She says it was doomed from the start. Reynolds believes the prisoners at Tamms would be transferred to Pontiac, where conditions are better but there are still problems. Reynolds says Tamms Year Ten is sympathetic to those who will lose their jobs, but real sustainable economic development is needed in southern Illinois, not a Super Max Prison.
The 14-year old Super Max Prison is one of 59 facilities the governor plans to close or consolidate in an effort to close the state budget gap.
