Judge orders prison officials to relocate Stateville population by Sept. 30

A federal judge is ordering Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration to move the vast majority of those incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet out of the aging prison by the end of September, citing health and safety concerns posed by the facility.

The Illinois Department of Corrections had previously said its intention to close Stateville as early as September as part of a larger plan to rebuild it along with another prison. U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood’s edict puts a Sept. 30 deadline on those efforts.

[ Read more: Stateville may close as early as September under Pritzker’s prison plan ]

The judge’s order, filed Friday, is the latest in an 11-year-old legal battle over dirty and dangerous conditions at Stateville. While settlement talks have been ongoing since 2015, Pritzker in March announced a plan to rebuild Stateville, along with closing and rebuilding Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln. The decision was sparked by a state-commissioned report published last year identified them – along with Pontiac Correctional Center – as nearly “inoperable.”

“We also know that every condition at Stateville – the water, the excessive temperatures, heat and cold, the vermin, the birds – are all exacerbated and compounded when the structure is not secure and when it is vulnerable.”

—  Attorney Heather Lewis Donnell of Chicago-based firm Loevy & Loevy

But in June, 51-year-old Michael Broadway died inside Stateville on a day inmates “reported excessive heat and poor ventilation,” according to attorneys representing those incarcerated in the nearly 100-year-old prison. And late last month, those attorneys filed a motion asking Wood to intervene in the efforts to move the inmates.

“Right now, there’s over 420 residents at Stateville who are at risk of dire injury due to the structural vulnerabilities, degradation and deterioration of those buildings that put them at risk of serious physical injury or even death,” attorney Heather Lewis Donnell of Chicago-based firm Loevy & Loevy said at a news conference announcing the motion last month.

“We also know that every condition at Stateville – the water, the excessive temperatures, heat and cold, the vermin, the birds – are all exacerbated and compounded when the structure is not secure and when it is vulnerable.”

In her order Friday, Wood agreed to the motion and noted that IDOC officials “do not dispute that those who are incarcerated at Stateville face a risk of harm from falling concrete as a result of the deteriorated masonry walls, ceilings, steel beams, and window lintels” in the prison’s general housing units.

Those conditions, she wrote in her order, “will remain unrepaired for the foreseeable future because the State has determined that its resources would be better spent on building a new facility rather than attempting to repair Stateville’s outdated facilities.” The order does not apply to the roughly two dozen residents of the facility’s medical ward.

The state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 included $900 million for the plan to close and rebuild Stateville and Logan.

In an emailed statement, IDOC spokesperson Naomi Puzzello reiterated that prison officials would not begin to wind down operations at Stateville until at least mid-September. Although IDOC has not yet provided details on the plan to transfer the roughly 550 men incarcerated at Stateville, Puzzello noted the department’s “anticipated timeline for transfers is in line with the order issued by the court.”

Pritzker’s plans to demolish and rebuild Stateville and Logan are hotly contested by AFSCME Council 31, the state’s largest public employee union, which represents most prison workers in Illinois. In a series of public hearings on the proposed closures this spring, AFSCME members and community leaders objected to IDOC’s blueprint – particularly balking at the lack of details in the administration’s plans.

[ Read more: More answers sought on Stateville prison demolition plan after hearing ]

After a state oversight panel skipped an advisory vote on the prison closure plans in June, Pritzker indicated more specific plans would be made public in the future, although that still hasn’t happened.

[ Read more: Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan ]

It’s still unknown whether Logan Correctional Center will be rebuilt on its current grounds in Lincoln, between Springfield and Bloomington-Normal – or if, as the governor has floated, it will ultimately move 141 miles northeast to Stateville’s campus in Crest Hill near Joliet.

Either way, IDOC officials say Logan will remain open as long as possible during the roughly three years it will take to rebuild the facility, no matter where that may be.

But any efforts on AFSCME’s part to slow to Stateville’s closure are now weakened by the judge’s order with just seven weeks until Sept. 30. Still, the union indicated it wasn’t done fighting the plan.

“The closure of Stateville would cause immense disruption to the state prison system, its employees, individuals in custody and their families,” AFSCME Council 31 said in a statement. “We are examining all options to prevent that disruption in response to this precipitous ruling.”