46th District Candidates on Closing Illinois Prisons
By: Blake Long
Updated: October 16, 2012
In the race for the 46th District State Senate
seat... Republican Pat Sullivan is facing Democratic Incumbent Dave Koehler. Since one of our governor's controversial solutions to our budget crisis has been to shutter prisons.We're asking the candidates if they feel it's a good strategy?
Dave Koehler:
"I've already heard from the prison guards, the prison in my area, the Illinois River Prison in Canton, they're frightened to death because now what happens if you mix certain populations and then you have levels of prisoners in terms of their classification, some very violent, some prisoners that really have to be isolated, others who have committed lesser crimes, and when you start mixing those prison populations, it's a powder keg. They're very concerned about the safety for their own workers at those prisons and ya know, we've got to think about those things. The other question I have is what kind of money are we talking about saving? Ya know, does it really save money or is it just a shifting around of some of our problems and issues?"
Pat Sullivan:
"A lot of these are felons, what are we going to do? Are we going to let them out loose? What are we going to do? No one has really thought this out. We've had a lot of laws pass in the last couple of years on knee-jerk decisions. We need to sit down and find out where we need to invest the money that that we don't have, and that's what they're doing, they're trying to invest money that we don't have, so let's shut things down and call cuts and bring this scare tactic to the citizens. Citizens are smarter than that, us voters are smarter than that. Let's sit down and talk this out and find out what really need to do with our prisons. "
Dave Koehler:
"I've already heard from the prison guards, the prison in my area, the Illinois River Prison in Canton, they're frightened to death because now what happens if you mix certain populations and then you have levels of prisoners in terms of their classification, some very violent, some prisoners that really have to be isolated, others who have committed lesser crimes, and when you start mixing those prison populations, it's a powder keg. They're very concerned about the safety for their own workers at those prisons and ya know, we've got to think about those things. The other question I have is what kind of money are we talking about saving? Ya know, does it really save money or is it just a shifting around of some of our problems and issues?"
Pat Sullivan:
"A lot of these are felons, what are we going to do? Are we going to let them out loose? What are we going to do? No one has really thought this out. We've had a lot of laws pass in the last couple of years on knee-jerk decisions. We need to sit down and find out where we need to invest the money that that we don't have, and that's what they're doing, they're trying to invest money that we don't have, so let's shut things down and call cuts and bring this scare tactic to the citizens. Citizens are smarter than that, us voters are smarter than that. Let's sit down and talk this out and find out what really need to do with our prisons. "
