Current:Home > FinanceFederal judge orders 100-year-old Illinois prison depopulated because of decrepit condition -Aspire Money Growth
Federal judge orders 100-year-old Illinois prison depopulated because of decrepit condition
View
Date:2025-04-18 15:42:45
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois must move most of the inmates at its 100-year-old prison within less than two months because of decrepit conditions, a federal judge ruled.
The Illinois Department of Corrections said that U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood’s order, issued Friday, to depopulate Stateville Correctional Center is in line with its plan to replace the facility. The department plans to rebuild it on the same campus in Crest Hill, which is 41 miles (66 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.
That plan includes replacing the deteriorating Logan prison for women in the central Illinois city of Lincoln. The state might rebuild Logan on the Stateville campus too.
Wood’s decree states that the prison, which houses over 400 people, would need to close by Sept. 30 due in part to falling concrete from deteriorating walls and ceilings. The judge said costly repairs would be necessary to make the prison habitable. Inmates must be moved to other prisons around the state.
“The court instead is requiring the department to accomplish what it has publicly reported and recommended it would do — namely, moving forward with closing Stateville by transferring (inmates) to other facilities,” Wood wrote in an order.
The decision came as a result of civil rights lawyers arguing that Stateville, which opened in 1925, is too hazardous to house anyone. The plaintiffs said surfaces are covered with bird feathers and excrement, and faucets dispense foul-smelling water.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration announced its plan in March, but even during two public hearings last spring, very few details were available. The Corrections Department plans to use $900 million in capital construction money for the overhaul, which is says will take up to five years.
Employees at the lockups would be dispersed to other facilities until the new prisons open. That has rankled the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the union that represents most workers at the prisons.
AFSCME wants the prisons to stay open while replacements are built. Closing them would not only disrupt families of employees who might have to move or face exhausting commutes, but it would destroy cohesion built among staff at the prisons, the union said.
In a statement Monday, AFSCME spokesperson Anders Lindall said the issues would extend to inmates and their families as well.
“We are examining all options to prevent that disruption in response to this precipitous ruling,” Lindall said.
veryGood! (9952)
Related
- Realtor group picks top 10 housing hot spots for 2025: Did your city make the list?
- Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis play father and daughter in ‘Goodrich’
- Average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the US rises to the highest level in 8 weeks
- What to know about red tide after Florida’s back-to-back hurricanes
- Chuck Scarborough signs off: Hoda Kotb, Al Roker tribute legendary New York anchor
- Zayn Malik Shares What He Regrets Not Telling Liam Payne Before Death
- Diablo and Santa Ana winds are to descend on California and raise wildfire risk
- Liam Payne's preliminary cause of death revealed: Officials cite 'polytrauma'
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- Attorneys give opening statements in murder trial of Minnesota man accused of killing his girlfriend
Ranking
- Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
- Indian government employee charged in foiled murder-for-hire plot in New York City
- Abortion rights group sues after Florida orders TV stations to stop airing ad
- Attorneys give opening statements in murder trial of Minnesota man accused of killing his girlfriend
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- Florida digs out of mountains of sand swept in by back-to-back hurricanes
- New Hampshire’s port director and his wife, a judge, are both facing criminal charges
- Canadian former Olympic snowboarder wanted in US drug trafficking case
Recommendation
Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
Travis Barker's son Landon denies Diddy-themed birthday party: 'A bad situation'
Diablo and Santa Ana winds are to descend on California and raise wildfire risk
3 states renew their effort to reduce access to the abortion drug mifepristone
Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
DeSantis approves changes to election procedures for hurricane affected counties
Liam Payne Death Case: Full 911 Call Released
What to know about the Los Angeles Catholic Church $880M settlement with sexual abuse victims