Illinois data shows inmates with violent records from shuttered prison sent to medium-security sites

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Among the approximately 400 inmates transferred when Illinois' decrepit Stateville prison closed over the summer, 278 were convicted of murder and 100 more are serving time for other violent offenses.

Yet, nearly four in five of the offenders formerly housed at the suburban Chicago lockup were not shipped to top-level maximum-security prisons, where the toughest criminals, troublemakers and escape risks are housed. Instead, they went to mid-level medium-security facilities, according to an Associated Press analysis of Illinois Department of Corrections data.

Prison employees believe housing for the transferred inmates was based on which facilities had bed space and sufficient personnel who are adequately trained in a critically understaffed system.

All transfers properly placed, prison agency says

Corrections spokesperson Naomi Puzzello said all of the transfers from Stateville are appropriately housed and that none was reclassified to a lower security level to match that of the receiving prison. She acknowledged scores of maximum-security beds are vacant but said corrections' understaffing played no role in the transfers.

However, the AP obtained minutes from a meeting at a separate facility nearly a year before Stateville's shutdown in which administrators discouraged staff from bumping troublemakers up to a higher risk level because ''maximum security beds are in short supply.''

And the AP found that in more than half of the relocations, ex-Stateville inmates were transferred without regard to a corrections guideline that those serving sentences of 30 years or more be housed in max prisons.

Opened in 1925, Stateville was targeted for closure in the spring when Gov. JB Pritzker set aside $900 million to replace it and Logan Correctional Center, the deteriorating women's facility in central Illinois. A federal judge, accelerating the plan by declaring Stateville uninhabitable and inaccessible, ordered it shuttered by Sept. 30.

Security staff shortages a national problem

Prison staff shortages are a problem nationally. Wisconsin has seen a spate of inmate deaths while it struggles with vacant posts. ''Grossly inadequate'' staffing was among problems listed last fall in a searing Justice Department critique of violence, drugs and sexual abuse in Georgia prisons.

Data compiled by the nonprofit Safer Prisons, Safer Communities shows that the number of state-employed corrections officers dropped from 237,000 in 2012 to 182,000 in 2023.

Simply put, it's a tough job, said Wanda Bertram of the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy group that espouses decarceration.

''You're going to witness violence, you might witness serious mental illness," Bertram said. ''You're going to be around a lot of drug use and these things have a measurable impact on corrections workers.''

400 job openings, 1,750 open max beds

The Illinois Department of Corrections is 396 frontline security officers short of what was budgeted, according to October department staffing numbers. Total current officers are more than 2,800 shy of the authorized headcount, or the number needed to operate without substantial overtime.

Under the Illinois public records law, AP obtained a list of 406 inmates housed at Stateville as of August 2024 and matched each with the prison to which they'd been transferred, noting its security level. Corrections denied a request for the accompanying pre-transfer security levels of each inmate.

Statewide, there are 1,750 currently unoccupied beds in max prisons, Puzzello said. However, the majority are in cells designed for two inmates and most prisoners are in single-occupancy cells, so short staffing isn't to blame, she maintained. The agency continues to vigorously recruit security cadets.

Improperly placed inmates pose a risk

Employees are unconvinced and believe some inmates who qualify for max security have been diverted to less secure places, posing a risk to inmates as well as staff.

Although not part of the latest transfers, an offender moved to Sheridan Correctional Center in north-central Illinois from Stateville in November 2023 viciously attacked a prison educator, who required facial reconstruction surgery, according to the employees' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

There have been at least two suspected homicides of inmates since mid-2024, but corrections denied the AP's public records request for information on them. The news agency is appealing that decision.

‘Maximum security beds are in short supply'

High-security bed space appears to have been an issue months before Stateville's shutdown. In minutes obtained by the AP from a December 2023 management meeting at Dixon Correctional Center in northern Illinois, administrators advised staff to ''use good judgment'' before upgrading a troublemaker's risk level to maximum, necessitating a transfer.

''Maximum security beds throughout the state are in short supply," the minutes say. "If we try to transfer all the max security individuals, they will more than likely just end up at another medium security facility.''

Puzzello reiterated that none of the Stateville transfers had security downgrades. She said transfers are based not only on criminal background but on programming needs, medical and mental health treatment and staffing ratios at the receiving facility.

''This ensures each individual's classification is appropriate and tailored to their specific risk factors, behaviors and needs, supporting a safe and secure correctional environment," Puzzello said.

However, a general corrections guideline is that any offender serving a sentence of 30 or more years be housed in a maximum-security cell. Those with 10 to 30 years go to medium, according to the guideline.

Of ex-Stateville inmates, 261 — or 64% — locked up for 30 or more years are now sitting in medium-security prisons, according to the AP review.

AFSCME spokesperson Anders Lindall said prison counselors who evaluated each inmate for an appropriate transfer location believed management had already decided where each would go. Puzzello denied that happened.

Lindall said the union received reports of ''ongoing instances of recommendations made at the facility level -- by employees whose job it is to evaluate, classify and place the offenders who they know best — being overruled by departmental management.''