By PETER HANCOCK
& ANDREW ADAMS
Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com 

Union workers planned to picket outside Stateville Correctional Center Thursday to amplify their concerns about how the planned closure and reconstruction of the maximum-security prison could affect their jobs and the state’s prison system as a whole.

Calling for “No Chaos, No Layoffs,” members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 said they are concerned the state is moving too fast with its plan to close and rebuild the prison. They want the state to negotiate terms that will govern how the multi-year process will affect Stateville workers as well as employees at other state prisons that will receive transfers from Stateville.

The Illinois Department of Corrections said Thursday 103 inmates had been transferred from Stateville to other facilities ahead of the planned closure and reconstruction. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the state to move residents out of the maximum-security facility by the end of September, citing health and safety concerns. 

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

The prison, which opened in 1925, housed more than 560 residents as of the end of June, according to the Department. 

The department has said it plans to build a new facility on the same property near Joliet. But AFSCME Local 31 spokesman Anders Lindall said that could result in nearly 500 workers at the prison being laid off during the multi-year process. 

Read more: Lawmakers pass on oversight vote for Pritzker’s prison closure, rebuild plan | ‘We don’t really know what we’re voting on,’ top Dem says of Pritzker’s prison plan

In the interim, he said, transfers from Stateville will need to be housed at other facilities that are already understaffed and are designed for lower levels of security.

In addition to closing and rebuilding the Stateville prison, the department has also announced plans to close and rebuild the Logan Correctional Center, a women’s prison in Lincoln. The state budget for the current fiscal year includes $900 million for those two projects.

State flag contest 

Illinoisans may soon submit designs for what could be the new state flag.  

The Illinois Flag Commission, a bipartisan body of appointed officials, will accept designs for a new state flag online or by mail from Sep. 3 to Oct. 18. More information can be found on the Illinois Flag Commission website. 

“I’m excited to see the creativity of Illinois residents and how they display their passion for our great state,” Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose office oversees the commission, said in a statement. 

The commission will select 10 submissions and host an online public survey for Illinoisans to vote for their favorite. That voting will begin from Jan. 1, 2025, and last six weeks.

Then the commission will submit their recommendations to state lawmakers, who may take formal action to replace the flag. 

Individuals may submit up to three designs, with no limits on what can be included, the number of colors, or flag shape. 

Illinois is the latest state to consider changing its flag as more states move away from the derisively nicknamed “seal on a bedsheet” design. Utah and Minnesota both adopted new flags earlier this year. Mississippi adopted a new flag to remove confederate imagery in 2021, something its neighbor Georgia did in early 2001.

Other states, like Maine and Michigan, have had proposals to change their flags that petered out without widespread support. 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.