PCC correctional officers caught off guard with transfer

It's been a week since approximately 170 inmates were whisked away in the dead of night from correctional centers in Pontiac and Vandalia. The action was the beginning of a consolidation and a reorganization plan that is expected to be completed by this summer.

That first step was the moving of inmates from the medium security unit at Pontiac Correctional Center to the Centralia Correctional Center, which is a medium security prison. Part of the plan was also to move inmates from Vandalia.

The plan does not indicate full closure of these facilities, but there seems to be a belief that that is what will eventually happen.

William Lee is the president of the AFSCME Local 494 union that represents PCC correctional officers. He told the Daily Leader in an interview of what took place on the night of Feb. 9 and how he sees repercussions to the system because of this plan.

“The actual buses pulling up to take inmates was absolutely a surprise,” Lee said. “Nobody knew that was happening. The only word I got before that ever happened was from the warden (John Burle) … as a head's up, just-so-you-know thing … six days before that.”

Lee said that the “head's up” warning was something that was provided more as a something might happen sometime down the road. It wasn't expected to happen so soon, and without true warning. It was, in effect, simply scuttlebutt.

Lee said that he found out about the actual transfer around 12:30 in the afternoon of Feb. 9 when six transfer buses pulled up to the facility. After awhile, the transfer process began, but apparently not as per official DOC protocol.

“The whole transfer process that we have to do, statewide, it's DOC's own rules, they didn't care to follow it.,” Lee said. “They simply pulled up to take inmates from MSU — the medium security, we call it 'the farm' — to take them to Centralia. As far as I know, I was told … that even the bus drivers didn't know it was happening, they were just called on the radio to go to Pontiac. There was one that was driving on the road going back to where they were from and told to divert and go to Pontiac.

“Nobody in the ground at the prison working knew about it.”

Complaints from concerned family members have been received at the Daily Leader regarding the process, as well. One person whose brother was transferred pointed out that the inmate has a medical condition and needs to have his medicine. But the process that took place did not allow for anything to be taken except what the inmates were wearing.

“They didn't follow their own rules and the whole process,” Lee said of DOC's procedure in making these transfers. “If I wouldn't have followed those rules and messed up, I might be looking at discipline.”

Lee has been with DOC for 13 years and he noted he had not anything like this before. He was at Dwight Correctional Center when it closed and he pointed out that that transfer process was much more properly completed.

He added that the way DOC made the transfer at PCC was garbage.

Lee also said that the only inmates taken out were from MSU. He also said that the administrative inmates — these are inmates have their own housing unit and who cannot be around other inmates; they're gang leaders, have killed cellmates, other committed other crimes — are being moved to Menard and Lawrence correctional centers.

Lee sees a major problem with sending them to Lawrence, which is at Lawrenceville near Vincennes, Ind.

“We're a max prison, built for that, that's the whole point,” Lee said. “Lawrence is not built for that.”

Lawrence was built as a medium security facility but DOC has changed its classification. Lee and State Sen. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro have said they do not know what has taken place to warrant the change.

“That's been argued against by myself, because I've been there, AFSCME Council 31 (the state union council), other people from other prisons,” Lee said. “Last summer, when they first announced what they were going to do with Lawrence, a lot of people who had been there and pointed out problems said it wasn't a good idea. But DOC keeps steaming right ahead and putting more inmates in there.

“None of those guys should be at Lawrence, Lawrence is not designed for it, physically. If you walk Pontiac and you walk Lawrence, you would understand it. … There's so many things that would have to occur at Lawrence, which costs money to do, so if ever the day they decide to make it safer for anyone who works there, they're going to spend money. At Pontiac, it's already there, but they don't want to hear that. We've been fighting off the East and West closure of for almost a year now; they announced that last May.”

Lee noted that many people have voiced their opposition to making such a change with Lawrence.

The transfer process continued into the night as the approximately 170 MSU inmates were loaded up and taken south. Again, Lee said, it was done in a manner that didn't follow proper procedure.

“To transfer inmates on a bus in the middle of the night, you never see that,” Lee said. “You might have a writ go somewhere or an emergency writ to a hospital, that can happen at any point. But running seven buses from A to B at night, that's not normal.”

Many people that in the grander scheme of things, DOC wants to close down Pontiac and Vandalia — two of the older corrections facilities in the state.

“They haven't maintained many prisons very well, they all have degraded over time, unless they were built more recently (Lawrence was built in 2000),” Lee said. “There's definitely a need for Pontiac and as much housing as the state can use. It's tried and true at Pontiac. You need Pontiac. There's no reason do what they're trying to do.”

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Correctional officers caught off guard with transfer