Lite Rock 98.9 > WJEZ > Today's Lite Hits and Yesterday's Favorites

AFSCME: Closing Pontiac prison is risky

How safe are the state’s prisons? They won’t be very safe if the Pontiac Correctional Center closes, according to a report issued by AFSCME. The AFSCME union represents frontline employees at the Pontiac Correctional Center. Council 31 Policy Director Anne Irving and other AFSCME representatives address the media in Pontiac Wednesday. Irvingsays if Pontiac closes, the inmates would end up at different facilities around the state. The governor wants the inmates moved to the Thomson Correctional Center in the northern part of the state, but Irving says that facility was designed to reduce overcrowding. Irving says the Pontiac prison is considered the most secure out of all the state’s maximum-security facilities and it serves as a safety valve for the state’s prison system. Meanwhile, the state has delayed the hearing on the closure of the Pontiac Correctional Center to Wednesday, August 20 at 5 p.m. in the Pontiac High School Auditorium, because of the special legislative session taking place in Springfield next week.

Posted on Thursday, August 07, 2008 (Archive on Thursday, August 14, 2008)
Posted by WJEZ News Contributed by

Return