EDGAR SAYS SUPERMAX PRISON CONSTRUCTION BACK ON SCHEDULE

TAMMS, Ill. -- Illinois Governor Jim Edgar swooped into the Tamms SuperMax Correctional Facility Thursday and described the 500-inmate maximum security prison as a sort of principal's office for Illinois' inmate population.

"This facility will send a message to all inmates within our correctional system that if they don't follow the rules, if they are troublesome, they will end up at the SuperMax," Edgar said. "Which is not a very pleasant place."

Edgar flew into Tamms by helicopter for a prison tour that included a health care center, cafeteria, cells and the execution chamber. After walking through the main building, which is situated on 24 acres within a 223-acre site, Edgar addressed some members of the public.

After some initial delays, he said, the SuperMax construction is back on schedule and should be completed by November 1997. Brian Fairchild, a public information officer with the Illinois Department of Corrections, said an additional $13 million was sunk into the project this year, raising the overall cost to $73 million. A portion of the additional funds went to making sure the project would be completed on time.

"For that 13 million we get the work-camp facility, which is $8 million of it, and beef up the spot checking and keep it on time," Fairchild said. "Some of the overruns were -- basically we've got to build this place like it was in downtown San Francisco."

With the facility located so close to the New Madrid Fault it was classified as a Class 3 earthquake zone, Fairchild said. That required the foundation to be fortified.

"There are millions of pounds of concrete in the foundation," he said, "and that's where most of the extra money went."

Edgar said the additional money for the SuperMax was drawn from the state's general revenue fund, which has left the government with less money for education and other programs. He said his office was forced to take the money from general revenue when a lawsuit was filed by the Democrats in the Illinois House of Representatives. The Democrats, Edgar said, filed suit when Edgar tried to find a way of financing the construction of new prisons through private organizations.

Edgar stressed that while the state was looking to privatize the construction of new prisons it had no desire to privatize the operation of those facilities. The lawsuit did more than just slow up SuperMax. It has delayed construction of a new facility in Pinckneyville.

"That (the lawsuit) has put everything on hold that wasn't already far enough along," he said. "And one of those is Pinckneyville. As long as that lawsuit is there we're not going to have the ability to move ahead on Pinckneyville."

Edgar said the SuperMax facility will both help the state maintain order and discipline and create 440 new permanent jobs between SuperMax and the work camp already open.

Edgar said the construction of the facility has already employed 120 area workers and that number will rise to around 200 by the time the SuperMax is completed.

The SuperMax is being constructed specifically to house the state's most dangerous criminals. While no facility made by humans can be considered escape-proof, Fairchild said SuperMax is "as close as modern technology can get us."

The walls of the prison will be 12 to 16 inches thick with metal bars running horizontally and vertically through concrete and wire mesh.

"Even if you had a jackhammer and you got all the concrete away, then you'd have to procure an acetylene torch to cut the metal out without us catching you," Fairchild said. "There will be over 100 video cameras that can virtually survey every square inch of the common area."

SuperMax will be a lock-down prison in which contact with other prisoners and the outside world will be virtually denied, Fairchild said. This aids prison officials in controlling any gang-related activities either in or through the prison system.

"I think the real issue is what we're doing to control gang members that we have locked up," he said. "That's our big challenge and this (SuperMax) is the big answer."