I have been incarcerated for 35 years at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, and so I write this as a representative of the inmate population that is opposed to its closure and relocation. While there is no doubt as to the need for infrastructure repair or rebuilding, the complete closure of this facility is not warranted. Gov. JB Pritzker's original announcement of the closures of Stateville Correctional Center and Logan Correctional Center takes me back to 2009-10 when then-Governor Pat Quinn announced the closure of Dwight Correctional Center. What do both of these closure announcements have in common? I suggest it is a politically motivated tool to garner more votes for each of the respective governors. Given that even the Bible declares, "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9), I find we are once again at a crossroads of what is best for Illinoisans and what seems politically beneficial for those who govern this state.
Logan Correctional Center is comprised of 66.1% inmates from central and southern counties, while only 33.9% of the inmate population is from the northern regions of Cook County and surrounding collar counties. The mathematics on this is pretty clear-cut. Logan, which is located in central Illinois, serves more than half of all the female inmate population for the entire state. Yet Pritzker wants to close Logan and relocate it three to three-and-a-half hours north, in Crest Hill, because Logan is a red county and Crest Hill is in a blue county. This proposed move is sheer politics, and it is the honest, hard-working, community-oriented people who will suffer from this proposed action by our governor.
When Dwight Correctional Center was slated for closure, the entire community and surrounding towns banded together to try to save their livelihoods. Their pleas fell on deaf ears. To this day, the town of Dwight is forgotten and barren, where it was once thriving in every area. The upstanding citizens of Dwight, who faithfully elected their government representatives, were discarded by those same officials chosen to represent them. And here we are in Lincoln, in the same situation Dwight was nearly 15 years ago.
Adjacent to Logan Correctional Center sits 100 acres of land for the possible location of a rebuild. Everything that Pritzker said is available in Crest Hill for the incarcerated female population is likewise available right here in Lincoln and central Illinois, including Springfield's great hospitals and medical services. Logan Correctional Center has an amazing array of both security and lay staff, as well as awesome and dedicated volunteers who devote time, energy and finances to advancing the potential of Lincoln's population.
There is no reason to move Logan and relocate it so far north other than to accommodate a blue platform for this election year. We all know how politicians make promises during an election year, then all too quickly forget those promises once in office.
As inmates convicted of our crimes, we now serve out our sentences here at Logan, and we realize that our personal interests have no voice. But the proposed closure and relocation would heap a mountain of hardships upon my family and loved ones, as it would for so many others. Our families and loved ones have committed no crimes and all they want is to stay connected to us.
If Pritzker wants a new prison built in Crest Hill, fine – build it and house the northern region's female inmate population there. But leave Logan Correctional Center where it is, thus serving the central and southern regions of Illinois. Our families and loved ones are also hard-working, tax-paying citizens of this state.
Tammy Eveans is an inmate at Logan Correctional Center, where she has been incarcerated since 1990.
