There are two types of Illinoisans: those with firsthand family experience in the Illinois Department of Corrections and everybody else.

Inmates, lawyers, guards, medical staff, administrators, chaplains (and families of all of the above) and more – anyone who has had to personally of professionally engage with the reality of incarceration – and everybody else.

Outside of touring a few facilities, working on criminal court stories and the occasional letter from an incarcerated reader, I count myself in with the outsiders. Chances are good you do, too, and we should all consider ourselves lucky.

The distinction between those who know and those who don’t is significant enough to always give pause when considering a column invoking IDOC. But part of the reason to keep trying to bridge the gap is the ease with which the “everybody else” contingent just moves on with their lives, sparing few thoughts for what to others is daily, inescapable reality.

Enter Friday’s news release from IDOC and the Capital Development Board regarding plans to “construct two new multi-level security facilities in Crest Hill … including design features that focus on creating rehabilitative and gender-responsive spaces with housing, education, programming, medical and mental health, dietary and recreational areas to support the successful re-entry of individuals into their communities.”

That means the end of the line for nearby Stateville, but also Logan Correctional Center, a women’s prison in Lincoln that opened in the 1870s as “the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children.” This is problematic for the local economy, and despite any misgivings about people earning a living off caging other humans, it’s impossible to shake the reality that closing a major employer has immediate and long-term implications for even the “everybody else.”

And absolutely none of this is surprising. Judges have been ordering Illinois to fix various aspects of its prison infrastructure for years. A 2023 report showed $2.5 billion in deferred maintenance needs at IDOC sites. Lawmakers allocated $900 million in the Fiscal 2025 budget to close and rebuild Stateville and Logan.

We can’t even address all the life safety issues at public school buildings throughout the state so it’s not a big shocker prisons also can’t get capital funding. Some of these issues have been around stretching back multiple gubernatorial administrations to the point where it’s fair to wonder if elected officials think no one important is paying attention.

And, for “everybody else,” maybe that’s ultimately true, or at least electorally insignificant. But the people who know all too well what consequences this lack of attention has effectuated don’t have the luxury of turning to different challenges.

Illinois has created these problems over political generations and its current leaders must provide solutions. “Everybody else” should get on board.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.