Conversations underway between IDOC and state lawmakers on status and future of Pontiac and Vandalia Prisons

Posted on February 23, 2022
Pontiac Correctional Center
State Rep. Dan Brady spoke with WJBC’s Scott Miller. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Conversations are underway between the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and state lawmakers about the status and future of the Pontiac and Vandalia Correctional Centers.

State Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) and several other Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Gov. Pritzker and the Director of the DOC after both facilities transferred a significant number of inmates to other facilities.

“We’ve asked through that letter for a meeting, we’ve asked for a number of those questions to be answered, and that process has begun a little bit with the Department of Corrections and the Director, but it has much farther to go. Certainly (it’s) a situation that’s concerning, but this is the, I believe third attempt over the course of the last number of years with different administrations to make changes to Pontiac in the way of downsizing and other correctional facilities due to a number of reasons.”

Under a proposed plan, the prison in Pontiac would close the medium-security unit and lower their inmate count by almost 1,000. The proposed plan also lowers the count of prisoners at the Vandalia Center from 1,001 inmates to 401.

LISTEN: State Rep. Dan Brady spoke with WJBC’s Scott Miller.

“Many questions are still unanswered,” Brady told WJBC’s, Scott Miller. “But the process sounds like (discussions) were certainly internally was going on when the oversight of the Department of Corrections is with the general assembly.”

According to Brady, the prisons are the largest employers in their respective regions.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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