Joliet, Ill., prison closing part of proposed cuts

JOLIET, Ill. -- For 143 years, this northern Illinois city has been largely defined by the fortress-like maximum-security prison that housed some of the state's toughest criminals.

So when Gov. George Ryan announced this week that the Joliet Correctional Center would close as part of the state's budget-balancing efforts, some city officials welcomed the opportunity to create a new image.

"We have a long-standing history with the prison. We're not at all afraid of that history," City Council member Tim Brophy said. "It's just that we don't want to add any new history in our efforts to repair our economy around here."

Others, however, doubted closing the state's oldest maximum-security prison would help the city's image -- and dreaded the prospect of a gigantic white elephant in their midst.

"If there's any positive from an image standpoint, I'd be surprised," said John Grueling, president of the Joliet/Will County Center for Economic Development, noting that the Stateville Correctional Center is just across the Des Plaines River in Crest Hill. "I think most people think Stateville is Joliet anyway," he added.

City Councilman Joe Shetina said he worries about what will happen to the prison, which state Corrections Department officials said would close within 90 days.

"You've got a big hulk of a building just sitting there vacant," he said. "What do you do with that? The state isn't going to do anything with it, and it's just going to sit there, and that's worse than the prison."

The 72-acre site was chosen for the prison partly because the deep limestone bedrock would make it impossible for prisoners to tunnel beneath the prison walls. Construction began in 1857, and the first prisoners arrived the next year.

By 1872, it was the largest prison on the country, a distinction it held for several decades.

State Corrections officials said they expect most of the 555 staff members would be transferred to Stateville, and most of the Joliet prison's 190 permanent resident inmates would likely go there, too.

The prison's daily population of 1,200 inmates is being processed and assigned to other maximum-security prisons in Illinois. In the future, new inmates will be processed at a reception and classification center being built at Stateville.

Ryan said closing the facility will save $4 million this fiscal year.