Illinois officials have moved eight of the state’s more volatile criminals from the supermax Tamms prison.
The Associated Press has learned the move occurred yesterday — the same day the union for state corrections workers filed a lawsuit to stop such inmate transfers.
The moves are part of Governor Pat Quinn’s plan to close to two major prisons, including Tamms.
Anders Lindall is a spokesman for the labor union.
He says prisons are already overcrowded and understaffed … and Quinn’s actions are making them “more dangerous.”
LINDALL “He’s truly alone in his failure to this point to see the negative repercussions of his rush to close these facilities and to reclassify and transfer inmates to other prisons ill-equipped to handle them.”
The union wants the state to negotiate how moving dangerous criminals will affect workers.
Department of Corrections notifications reviewed by the A-P show one of the inmates transferred was John Spires. The serial rapist took a Dixon prison psychologist hostage in May 2006 and repeatedly raped her.
Seven inmates went to the maximum-security prison at Pontiac. Another went to the Menard prison.
