Is anyone really shocked the jail inmates cheered for the cop killer?

I really have a hard time believing that Cook County sheriff’s police officials could be shocked that jail inmates awaiting their day in court on Thursday would cheer for the guy who’s facing criminal charges for the shooting death earlier this week of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer.

Defendant? Or anti-hero?

If anything, I’d be shocked to learn they had been respectful of their jailers, or the legal system that I’m sure many of them believe is railroading them into a few years’ residence within the state prison system.

NEWS ACCOUNTS FROM both of the major metro newspapers (Sun-Times, Tribune) indicate the sheriff, who runs the county jail and criminal courts complex, wants to identify the disrespectful inmates.

With their names to be turned over to the assistant state’s attorneys who are prosecuting their pending criminal cases. Their hope is that someday, those disrespectful inmates will have extra time added to their punishments because of their behavior this week.

While several of the inmates awaiting trial in Cook County may wind up finding themselves transferred to county jails elsewhere. They may wind up awaiting trial in some rural county jail where their legal proceedings will be far more complicated to carry out.

But a little bit of inconvenience is being deemed as warranted for acting as though Shomari Legghette were some sort of hero because of the half-dozen gunshots he fired when Bauer tried to catch him Wednesday at the Thompson Center state government building.

THE NEWSPAPERS ARE going along with this tone – the county sheriff provided video taken of a holding cell so we can see, and hear, crude images of the cheering inmates as Legghette is brought past their cell en route to the courtroom – where a judge decided that Legghette should await trial inside the jail without the option of bond.

Now I’m not saying I think these inmates were anything but buffoons in the way they behaved, or that Bauer (who will get the full-ritual police funeral on Saturday) is deserving of disrespect.

It’s just that I wouldn’t expect anything but tacky behavior from jail inmates.

No matter what legal basis there is for saying these men (including Legghette) are innocent until proven guilty, the fact is that many of them are misfits from the standard beliefs of our society.

WHICH IS WHAT led most of them to actions that would bring them under suspicion by police and prosecutors and cause them to have criminal charges pending against them.

Besides, there’s something about incarceration that would break the spirit of just about anybody – surround yourself with enough misfits, and you’ll find yourself starting to take on their ideals.

I remember one time I was inside the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet (as a reporter-type person). As the group I was with was passing the roundhouses, we could hear the inmates taunting us – letting us know they regarded us as being as much a part of the problem as anybody else.

It was execution duty (back in the days when Illinois still committed homicide in the name of justice), and the inmates let me and others know we would “burn in Hell” as much as anyone else for being a part of the ritual.

I ALSO RECALL crude and vulgar threats shouted specifically at the prison staffers – letting them know how they would be “f---ed up” by the inmates if they ever wound up inside the prison proper.

With that kind of mentality, it wouldn’t shock me in the least to learn that some of the county jail inmates (some of whom are bound to wind up in the Illinois Corrections Department eventually) would think cheers and applause would be worthy of a man charged with the shooting death of a cop.

Could he be Cook County sheriff?

So to learn that aides to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart are saying the inmate behavior is “disgraceful and despicable, just beyond the pale” has a familiar ring to it.

Something similar to that of Capt. Renault from “Casablanca,” when he uttered his now-memorable line about being “shocked, shocked to learn that gambling is taking place on the premises” of Rick’s Café. Both of them are worthy of an equally insincere sigh.

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EXTRA: Silence in the Stateville ‘roundhouse?’ Not likely in reality

Gov. Bruce Rauner included amongst his Friday announcements a decision to have the Illinois Department of Corrections close the one remaining roundhouse that was in existence at the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet.

You can find the most off-beat images on old postcards -- including the roundhouse

It is a unique structure, “F House” (as it is officially known in prison jargon). A panopticon, the idea was that it was a round structure with the prison cells built surrounding the guard tower.

THE THEORY WAS that it made it possible for one team of guards to literally watch into the cells of the thousands of prison inmates held in the facility. It was supposed to make inmates think twice before misbehaving because, in theory, an inmate would never know if the guard was watching them – and catching them in the act.

But it also created a situation where all those thousands of inmates had their attention focused on the guard tower, which meant that the guards were under constant observation by the inmates. Definitely not a structure with a fung shui-inspired design.

There’s also the fact that the structure was built over 90 years ago and has become decrepit throughout the years (inmates aren’t exactly the kind of people who care about properly maintaining the property).

Safety and operational hazards had developed both the inmates who were housed there and the corrections officers who had to work there.

'Killers' gave us a cinematic Stateville prison riot

IN SHORT, IT was a place quite unique from any other on planet Earth’s existence. I remember the times I was inside Stateville (as a reporter-type person), walking past the roundhouse would invariably create a raucous round of outcries from the inmates – usually obscene and menacing.

A lot of tension that has built up through the decades, falling just short of a century of existence. It will be a place that likely will be haunted for decades to come.

Which is why I always find it to be rather amusing in the film “Call Northside 777” in the scene where actor James Stewart’s reporter character visits the prison and is inside the roundhouse.

They actually shot the scene in there, and the place was totally empty. An eerie silence dominated the scene, which might have been necessary to properly shoot the scene.

'Call Northside 777' gave us an inside glimpse of the roundhouse

BUT I DOUBT that place was ever so quiet in real life. The sounds of incarcerated men venting their anger would have drowned out the scene if they had tried to shoot the footage.

Of course, we also got to see scenes from Stateville in the Oliver Stone-directed “Natural Born Killers,” which staged a riot in the prison that actually got the inmates stoked up that a few days later, a real outburst was reported inside the prison.

The scenes, as I recall, were truly bloody and gory. Probably to the point of cinematic overkill.

Which makes me wonder if the reality of life inside F House lies somewhere between the two films – and likely dominated by a sense of boredom punctuated by a fear of an outburst potentially occurring at any given time.

IF ANYTHING, MY sense of being inside the prison on the occasions when I had reason to be there were of the grime and filth that had accumulated throughout the decades.

Stateville used to have multiple roundhouses, but now has the last remaining one

Personally, I haven’t been inside Stateville in nearly two decades myself. I can only imagine how disgusting the place has become by now.

Which is all the more reason why it’s a good thing that Rauner made the decision to close the place – which the John Howard Association has said is “not fit for human habitation” – down for good.

I don’t care if prison isn’t supposed to be a country club-like existence; there are limits to how decrepit of conditions we can let people live in before it reflects negatively on us all as a society.

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What do we learn from prison tours?

I have, from time to time during my decades as a reporter-type person, had a chance to see prison facilities from the inside.



A picture postcard view of a non-touristy location in Illinois.



So it was with some self-interest that I read the recent Associated Press report about how the Illinois Department of Corrections, under Gov. Pat Quinn, has been inclined to reject all requests for prison tours.

QUINN DEFENDS SUCH rejections on the grounds that they are highly-secure facilities and that having to make the arrangements to ensure that visitors don’t get harmed while on the inside.

“Prisons aren’t country clubs. They’re not there to be visited and looked at,” the governor said.

From my own observations, they definitely aren’t country clubs – except that they’re out in the country in locations fairly isolated from urban areas.

Yet I’m not sure I can get all offended by the restrictions on people being taken on tours of the facilities. In part because that wire service report had something of an undertone of a reporter writing a story to take out their frustration on someone who’s denying them some information.

BUT ALSO BECAUSE of my own experiences in seeing prison facilities (which include Stateville near Joliet, Pontiac and Tamms).

I always got the sense that what I was seeing was such a highly restricted view of prison conditions. I doubt that I was seeing “reality” as it exists within the Illinois Department of Corrections system.

I doubt any reporter-type has seen reality in prison – unless, by some chance, they managed to do something that got them locked up as an inmate!

I remember being shown a stage at Stateville and being told of the quality theatrical productions that inmates there put on from time to time. I also recall the sight of athletic fields and basketball courts.

I’M SURE THERE are some inmates who wile away their time dribbling or wielding a bat in a socially-acceptable manner.

Yet I’m not going to be naïve enough to think that what I saw was close to being the entirety of prison life. Even if that is what I saw on an official tour, as provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections of the kind that it seems are no longer given.

So while some people are going to make sincere arguments about how access to information is better for society, and how state facilities are taxpayer-funded so that we ought to be aware of what is going on, I’m not sure the official prison tour is the best way to find things out.

If anything, I’d want to know about the things I’m not being permitted to see on a tour. That’s probably where the real news lies.

AND AS FOR what I have been allowed to see of prison facilities in Illinois, I must admit to having an impression. The system, by and large, is old!

We have facilities that date back more than a century – 19^th Century incarceration for the needs of the 21^st Century.

When Stateville is one of the state’s newest facilities (opening in 1925), we have to admit that our Department of Corrections probably is long overdue for a construction boom.

All kinds of new facilities to replace those that have been around for decades and are physically capable of having incarcerated generations of certain families. Not a pleasant thought.

NOT ONLY BECAUSE it means so many repeat offenders, but because it means a need that the state can’t possibly pay for. The state can’t even afford to maintain the facilities it has now – take Tamms (one of the few newly-built prisons in Illinois) into consideration.

That, in and of itself, is a story that I’m sure state officials wouldn’t want a lot of emphasis placed upon. Just think what other ugly stories exist within the state prison system?

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Rural judge gets chance to revive soon-to-be-shuttered prison in Pontiac

The on-going political brawl over who has control of Illinois’ system of prisons has now worked its way to the courtroom, which means a judge is going to have to decide politically partisan questions in a way that will impact all of the state’s taxpayers.

At stake is the desire of Gov. Rod Blagojevich to close one of the state’s maximum-security prisons. He says such a measure is a necessity to save the state money (about $58 million per year) it does not have.

YET PEOPLE IN the communities that have the prisons have always argued their towns rely on the maximum-security correctional centers as a significant part of their economy. And the labor union that represents prison guards (along with other state government employees) says a governor does not have the right to arbitrarily whack so many jobs.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees went so far Wednesday as to file a lawsuit against Illinois state government, arguing that since the General Assembly specifically set aside money for the maintenance of a prison, it would be an illegal use of funds for Blagojevich to try to take that money and spend it on anything else within state government.

The lawsuit was filed in Pontiac, where a Livingston County judge will issue a first ruling in the case. The locale was chosen because Blagojevich (for now, at least) has targeted the Pontiac Correctional Center as the prison to be closed.

There’s no way a local judge who wants to get re-elected will issue any ruling that will be perceived as costing local voters (yes, prison guards vote) their jobs.

THIS IS A case that is going to be decided in the appeals courts and the Illinois Supreme Court in Springfield, Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it wind up in Washington with the Supreme Court of the United States having final say as to whether a governor can close a prison as a cost-cutting measure.

The problem with viewing this issue as purely a prison closing is that it isn’t.

The Illinois Department of Corrections earlier this decade oversaw construction of a new maximum-security prison in Thomson, Ill., a tiny rural town in northwestern Illinois to whom Galena and Dubuque, Iowa, are the closest “big” cities.

But shortages in state funding have prevented that facility from ever opening.

UNDER THE ONGOING Blagojevich proposal, that modern prison facility with all the security amenities expected of a 21st Century facility would be opened, with inmates being shifted from the to-be shuttered prison.

Technically, the number of prison guards and other prison employees on the state payroll would remain roughly the same, because the new facility in Thomson would have to go on a hiring binge.

But the people of Pontiac don’t feel like they should suffer an economic hit, even if Thomson would gain a boon unlike anything they ever envisioned as possible.

If this were just a matter of a downstate town being upset that they were losing something, I wouldn’t care much.

BUT THE SIMPLE fact is that this issue has always been political.

When Blagojevich originally proposed closing a state prison (combined with the long-overdue opening of Thomson) over a year ago, the prison he chose was the historic Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet.

If anything, that community could have afforded the economic loss from fewer prison guard jobs. Being at the edge of the Chicago area and having something of an economy of its own, it was not as dependent on a prison’s existence in its boundaries as any of the other rural towns that host Illinois prison facilities.

But Joliet-area political officials used their pull in the General Assembly, and eventually pressured Blagojevich to back off of his talk of closing down the century-old prison (which would be prohibitively expensive to renovate into a facility approximating what will someday exist in Thomson).

THAT IS WHEN the Pontiac Correctional Center got put on the political hit list.

With Republican legislators representing the area (and much of central Illinois), it is not like Blagojevich was offending anyone who was ever his political ally (unlike the Democratic organization that has pull in Will County).

And it’s not like Livingston County (which consists of Pontiac and little else along Interstate 55) can put on the kind of pressure Will County could to get the governor to change his mind once again.

So this is a case where Chicago-area political people were able to use their political muscle to force a governor to back off. Blagojevich had better hope that appeals courts do not give Livingston County the same influence – or else he’s going to look foolish.

ONE ARGUMENT MADE in the past by prison monitoring groups is that closing any facility is shortsighted. They cite crowded prison conditions in Illinois, and note the facility in Thomson was designed and built to supplement the existing maximum-security prisons – not replace them.

They say that Blagojevich’s attempt to save a few bucks would make worse a prison-crowding problem that exists in Illinois.

The political observer in me does get one chuckle out of the ongoing mess.

Part of the maneuvering that caused Blagojevich earlier this year to give up on closing Stateville was a promise from Will County legislators to oppose any talk of pushing for changes in state law to allow for recall elections for Illinois governors.

KNOWING THAT BACKING away from closing Stateville would reduce the issue of recall from a serious issue to one talked about only by political cranks was good motivation, and legislators from the Pontiac area actually voted in support of their Will County’s allies.

But in voting for the measure to protect Stateville, they wound up shifting the fight down to their home ground, since there aren’t an endless supply of maximum-security prisons that could be closed. “If not Stateville, then Pontiac,”is the logic running through Blagojevich’s mind.

Will any token Democrats running for office in Livingston County have the nerve to accuse the Republican incumbents for voting in support of a measure that will ultimately cost their hometown one of its major employers?

It is an absurd accusation, but it is no more ridiculous than a lot of the rhetoric that comes out of political campaigns prior to Election Day.

AND WHAT HAPPENS if the people of Livingston County are somehow able to protect their prison, getting some sort of court ruling that forces Blagojevich to back off of closing Pontiac?

Then the people of Chester, Ill., and surrounding towns in Southern Illinois would be well advised to start preparing for the political fight now, for their Menard Correctional Center would be the only maximum-security prison left that Blagojevich could even think of closing.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois Department of Corrections, along with the state comptroller and treasurer’s office, all were named in the lawsuit (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-pontiacprison-law,0,3847338.story) filed Wednesday by the labor union that represents prison guards.

Illinois prisons designed to hold roughly 34,000 inmates are being asked to confine about (http://www.pontiacdailyleader.com/news/x1366183620) 45,000 people convicted of various crimes.

Some think the Illinois General Assembly should intervene to save the Pontiac Correctional Center (http://www.pjstar.com/opinions/x2070802162/Our-View-Pontiac-deserves-fair-vote) from being closed. Yet that could wind up interjecting all kinds of regional politics into the issue.

Stateville "fight" helps Will, hurts state

If it turns out to be true, politics got put ahead of public policy in the likely deal that would keep a maximum-security state prison – and roughly 400 jobs – in the Joliet area.

The Herald News of Joliet reported that state officials will announce a deal Monday that will keep the Stateville Correctional Center open in full, even though state officials earlier this year expressed interest in closing the oldest parts of the prison and shifting inmates to the newly-built maximum-security prison in Thomson, Ill.

THAT PRISON HAS its own unique political story. It is new – built in the first few years of the 21st Century and intended to supplement the existing maximum-security prisons located across the state, including Stateville near Joliet.

But it has never opened, because state budgetary constraints prevent the Department of Corrections from having enough money in its budget to hire sufficient guards and other staff for the facility.

As a result, the state has a modern maximum-security prison sitting empty. Meanwhile, Stateville dates back eight decades – and has portions that are old and decrepit. The cost of bringing the facility up to modern corrections industry standards would be excessive. This model of the Stateville "penitentiary" is from the days when the facility near Joliet was a modern prison using the ultimate in technology. Now, it is old and nearing the end of its life as a corrections facility, even if some state officials don't seem to realize that fact. Note Joe Ragen, the long-time warden of Stateville who was known nationally for implementing prison reforms intended toward rehabilitation - rather than punishment - of inmates.

So the idea that the old maximum-security prison should be shuttered and replaced by the new prison is one that makes all too much sense. While the name “Stateville” has a historic connotation (among prisons, it is as legendary a name as “Alcatraz” or “Leavenworth”), this would be a case of a building reaching the end of its useful life.

OF COURSE, THAT logic is way too logical for many political people, who were determined to put their local concerns ahead of those of the state. While the Illinois Department of Corrections viewed the move as a transfer of jobs (the payroll would have remained the same), political people would only view the move as a loss of about 400 jobs for the Joliet-area, many of whom come from Crest Hill – the town that borders up against Joliet and is the actual mailing address of the prison.

“To suggest we could lose 400 jobs out of our area was not something I would want to see,” state Rep. Brent Hassert, R-Romeoville, told the Herald News newspaper.

Of course, the fact that the town of Thomson (population 559) and the nearby “big city” of Mount Carroll (population 1,832) would have gained a windfall of economic benefits from having the state facility located in their region of the state was considered irrelevant to the local politicos.

This is the reality of politics at the state or federal level, as opposed to the world of Chicago City Hall or any other municipal government.

COMPETING REGIONS OFTEN fight it out for the perks that will benefit the state or Midwestern U.S. as a whole. In the big picture, it doesn’t matter where a facility is located, since a region will receive benefits. Getting involved in the actual location of a facility is considered a parochial matter.

It almost compares to the fight that has taken place for nearly three decades now over where to put a new Chicago-area airport. The Federal Aviation Administration has always taken the perspective that Chicago needs a third airport, but doesn’t care where it is put.

The need for a new airport hasn’t lessened throughout the years, but political people who want to be able to control “the jobs” can’t reach agreement amongst themselves. So the aviation needs of the nation are put on hold.

It is the same situation for corrections, where the needs of the state prison system are now made to suffer a bit longer because the political people are more concerned about the site and the jobs.

I FULLY REALIZE that prison guard jobs are not the types that people would move to a new community for (particularly not one as isolated as Thomson). Will County would have taken something of a loss.

But in the big picture, keeping inmates in the aging roundhouses for which Stateville is known (the structures which at one time were considered an innovation in corrections practices are considered “historic” in nature) is ridiculous.

The structures have become old (on a couple of occasions when I was a reporter for United Press International, I got a chance to get a “very structured” tour of the prison by state officials), and portions are downright disgusting.

The time has come for a new maximum-security prison to go along with the Menard Correctional Center near the Southern Illinois town of Chester.

WHILE SOME PEOPLE will argue that one of the prisons should be near the Chicago area, the simple fact is that land acquisition costs are significantly less in the rural communities that have become the home of most of the state’s prisons.

So Thomson makes as much sense as any other northern Illinois location for a new high-security level prison for the state’s most dangerous inmates.

To me, it also is a bad idea to further delay the opening of the Thomson prison because no one was ever talking about completely shuttering Stateville. Only the oldest portions would have been closed, and the prison itself would have continued to house inmates.

THERE STILL WOULD have been some corrections department jobs for Crest Hill and the Greater Joliet area, which also has a lot of other things going for it. Joliet’s image should not be totally reliant on a prison being located nearby.

So come Monday, state legislators from Will County are expected to be joined by Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, to announce the political deal that will keep Stateville fully open for the upcoming state fiscal year.

Will County may have won a “short-term” economic victory (because the prison’s age means its demise is not long in the future). But the “better interests” of the Corrections Department, and the state as a whole, will have taken a hit.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Joliet could keep its status as Illinois’ preeminent prison town (http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/929008,JO02_STATEVILLE_WEB.article) once a deal to keep the Stateville Correctional Center is announced.

The 83-year-old state prison designed for 1,506 inmates currently houses 2,773 people who (http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/facilities/information.asp?instchoice=sta) are considered among the most dangerous in the Illinois prison system.

Will County officials took seriously the notion that inmates (and jobs for prison guards) would be moved (http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2008/02/joliet-ill.html) to a prison located near the northwestern Illinois town.

For those of you who were curious, there are restrictions on the ability to get married (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_get_married_in_Stateville_Correctional_Center_in_Joliet_Illinois_if_the_person_is_in_reception) to an inmate at the Stateville Correctional Center.