By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News
State Senator Jason Barickman and Representative Tom Bennett hosted a special tour of Pontiac Correctional Center Monday morning for area lawmakers.
Several representatives and senators from around the state were touring the facility for the first time and Barickman said he wanted to give lawmakers first-hand experience of seeing the prison for themselves.
“Oftentimes, a lot of errant information is given about what conditions our prisons are in and I want our lawmakers to experience first-hand what it was like,” Barickman said. “I think they’ll likely say it was clean and orderly, but I’d like them to experience that first-hand.”
State Senator Margo McDermed, representing the 37th District, said she was going to take her experiences and apply them for future lawmaking in Springfield. She said she didn’t exactly know what to expect from the tour, but she was coming with an open mind.
“I’m expecting for it to be orderly, but I’m also expecting it to be unpleasant. It’s a prison, not a country club,” McDermed said.
This Bennett’s first chance to tour the facility and he was looking for a chance to take his experience and apply it to lawmaking in Springfield.
“I know the whole prison system has challenges with space and all sorts of things, so I’m looking forward to learning more,” Bennett said.
Representative Randy Frese, who represents the 94th District, came to Pontiac for the tour and said he was looking forward to seeing everything first-hand inside the prison.
“I’m there to look at conditions for inmates, conditions for the people who work there and take care of those inmates and the facility in genera – the security,” Frese said. “I’m like a sponge. I’m there to take it all in.”
