OFFICIALS HAPPY WITH PRISON PLAN; SOUTHERN ILLINOIS LOBBIES FOR FACILITY

ANNA, Ill. -- The Union County Economic Development Corp. is pleased with Gov. Jim Edgar's endorsement of a proposal to build a $60 million, free-standing, super-maximum-security prison to house the most violent of the state's more than 32,000 inmates.

Edgar Monday threw his support behind a proposal to build the facility. He said he favors a "stand-alone" facility over building cell-houses at existing prisons.

"These (violent) prisoners, when mixed with the general inmate population, not only endanger lives but force lockdowns and other control measures that disrupt drug treatment, educational, vocational and prison-industries programs," Edgar said.

"This is great news," said Jerry Reppert of Anna, president of the Union County Economic Development Corp., which is petitioning the governor and Illinois Department of Corrections to put the new prison in Southern Illinois. "As a free-standing building we have a chance to have it placed in the immediate area," said Reppert.

Lee Roy Rendleman, chairman of the economic development group, agreed. "It's fantastic," he said.

The Union Country group started a petition drive in mid-March when an Edgar-appointed task force determined that a super-maximum facility was needed.

"Until Monday the governor never really endorsed the bill," said Reppert, who was on hand at Monday's news conference. "He was concerned about the cost."

The prison would have 300 employees and cost $15 million a year to operate.

Planning of the project could start this summer, with a prison opening as early as December 1996, said Reppert.

Reppert said he wanted to put petitions containing the names of more than 6,000 people on the governor's desk later this month.

"We want community support to attract the attention of the Department of Corrections," said Reppert. "We have discussed the proposed prison with a number of people throughout four counties, including senior citizens, and have received support in most cases."

"We've been waiting for the legislation to pass before delivering our petitions," said Reppert. "The only hurdle left is getting it out of the House, and I think that will happen this month.

"The governor said Monday he would sign the legislation and start the funding process for the initial planning stage."

Reppert said his group would propose four sites for the prison: two in Union County and one each in Alexander and Pulaski counties.

"This campaign is a four-county one," said Reppert. "It involves people in Union, Alexander, Pulaski and Johnson counties."

People in the area are not strangers to prisons, he said. "We have a federal maximum security prison at Marion, and state facilities at Chester (Menard Prison) and a minimum security facility at Vienna in Johnson County.

Rendleman sees the four-county area as a frontrunner in the race to land the new prison, and urges Southern Illinois residents to send letters to the governor and area legislators in support of the facility.

Edgar, at the Statehouse news conference Monday, said he was endorsing the 500-bed, $60 million project as a part of a larger legislative package aimed at dealing with prison crowding that is now stuck in the legislature.

The package includes controversial elements that would give some inmates more time off on their sentences if they undergo educational or vocational training or drug treatment. It also would increase the use of home monitoring and military-style boot camps.

With more than 32,000 inmates in cells designed to house 22,000, officials in the Department of Corrections have warned that penitentiaries would be unable to accept more inmates after July 1994.

Edgar had said he likes the idea of a super-maximum-security prison but not its estimated $60 million construction cost.

Edgar said discussions with Corrections Director Howard Peters, who was present at the Monday meeting, prison guards and their union leaders convinced him that it made more sense to go ahead with a stand-alone super-maximum prison than to add additional cell-houses at an existing site.