ILLINOISANS TO BUILD TAMMS PRISON

TAMMS, Ill. -- The more than 250 construction workers needed to build a $60 million super maximum-security prison in Alexander County will be hired from Illinois.

Gov. Jim Edgar announced Monday that the Illinois Capital Development Board will require contractors and subcontractors who build the prison at Tamms to sign binding labor agreements with regional unions to hire Illinois workers.

"This unique agreement will require Illinois trades people to build the new prison and adjacent work camp," said Edgar, who was in Tamms Monday. "The spirit of cooperation expressed by the Egyptian Building and Construction Trades Council is a positive commitment to this partnership for progress in the region."

Edgar said the good-faith agreement includes a pledge by local trade unions to not strike, slow down work, picket or allow other work stoppages of any nature.

Following the announcement of the agreement, the governor accepted the deed to the super max prison property from Tamms Mayor Walter Pang. The community has established a special fund for donations to pay for the property, which it pledged to the state.

When fully operational, the prison will house 500 of the state's most violent inmates. The facility will employ approximately 385 people and operate on a $17.5 million annual budget.

About three quarters of that budget will pay the salaries and benefits of employees, said Illinois Department of Corrections Director Howard A. Peters III.

"One of the primary reasons we recommended Tamms as the site of the new super max prison was the high unemployment and jobless rates in the area," said Peters, who accompanied Edgar to Tamms.

"In December of last year, at this same building -- The Tamms Community Center -- the governor announced that Southern Illinois will begin to reap the benefits of the new prison a year ahead of schedule."

At that time, on Dec. 27, Edgar announced that a work camp would be constructed at Tamms a year before the main prison is to open, providing 95 jobs to staff the camp and prepare for the new prison.

"The governor brought you good news then, and he's bringing you good news again -- bringing these jobs to Southern Illinoisans," said Peters. "We in corrections are proud to be a part of this first-of-a-kind labor agreement."

Bids on the 200-bed work camp will be let in late April, and bids for the rest of the project, which includes the 500-bed super max facility, will be let in late fall.

"This agreement will assure that the Capital Development Board can build this new prison in a timely manner without delay," said Roger Sweet, executive director of the Illinois Capital Development Board, which will oversee construction. "We're proud to be involved in an arrangement which will see local trades people working on a major state construction project. This will be an excellent return on state tax dollars.

"This is truly an equitable arrangement," said Edgar. "After all, Illinois Trades people pay Illinois taxes and Illinois taxes are being used to build the new prison."