“Downstate Lawmakers, Union Work To Undo Prison Closures” @ Progress Illinois

Posted on July 10, 2012

Matthew Blake — July 10, 2012: “AFSCME Council 31, the state’s main public employees union, and a group of state lawmakers vowed today to undo Gov. Pat Quinn’s closing of corrections facilities, including Dwight women’s prison and Tamms supermax prison, during the fall veto session.

Overriding Quinn’s decision requires 3/5 approval from the House and Senate. Any vote would take place in November – after the scheduled closings of Tamms and Dwight.

With that timetable in mind, Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31, said in a press conference call today that the union might take legal action. In 2008, AFSCME-represented employees at the maximum-security prison in Pontiac sued to block then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s plan to close that facility. Quinn later reversed the Pontiac closing when he became governor in 2009………………………”

Read more at Progress Illinois.