Corrections workers fired up about Gov. Ryan's layoffs

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- State prison workers are worried that Gov. George Ryan's layoffs will jeopardize prison security.

Correctional officers, dietary and leisure time workers told reporters at a state Capitol news conference Wednesday that Illinois prisons are already overloaded with inmates and understaffed.

"It makes me so damned mad that he thinks we can still manage our facilities with less staff," said officer Terry Woods of Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, which has twice as many inmates as it was designed for.

Ryan's administration has started sending layoff notices to 120 correctional leisure activities specialists, who organize and supervise inmates' free time, from basketball to painting.

They're among 1,000 layoffs Ryan ordered to help solve a billion-dollar budget deficit that he says has grown worse while the prison workers' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, has refused to cooperate.

"Safety and security are the top priority of the Corrections department," Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said. "They'll do whatever's necessary to keep the facilities safe and secure and provide essential services to those inmates."

Report on overtime

The Associated Press reported last year that Corrections spent about $25 million on overtime through June 30 -- a 65 percent increase from 1998 -- and in late 2000, had 430 fewer correctional officers and other security personnel than the Legislature had authorized.

AFSCME says it has cooperated, asking for an arbitrator to decide how to fairly carry out Ryan's proposal for a one-day unpaid furlough and only going to court to stop a plan to privatize prison cafeterias because it would be against the law.

AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer said he doesn't know whether leisure time activities will be shut down.

Lila Wagner, a Lincoln Correctional Center leisure time worker, says the activities are used as a reward for good prisoner behavior. Take them away and you take away a creative outlet and a way to let off steam, she said.

"Without these programs, you put security at risk and you put inmates at risk of doing something non-productive and negative," she said.