IDOC falls behind again in vendor payments?

The IL Department of Corrections has fallen behind in paying at least one state Licensed Transitional Housing Facility.  IDOC inmates report that the parole of  12 sex offenders who were temporarily assigned to live at the Another Chance Center in East St. Louis, IL , was “violated” on  June 8, 2010, by IDOC.  Tuesday, all parolees at that center were remanded into the custody of IDOC  and moved to the Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro, IL.  Graham is an IDOC facility for special populations including sex offender treatment. Eleven of the twelve parolees were holding down jobs in the community as well as living at the facility during their MSR. They were also complying with all IDOC regulations.

Apparently, IDOC fell behind in paying rent to the facility on behalf of the inmates, so they were unable to remain at the center. The parolee violations were not the fault of the individual inmates.  IDOC parole agents used the provision that the parolees were not meeting the requirement that they have  “approved places to stay” in order to “violate” their parole.

The Another Chance Center anticipates that the state will “catch up” in shortly in it’s payments to the facility, but it will take at least another 30 days for any of the inmates returned to Graham to possibly be approved to return to the facility. The interruption in their MSR may place the inmate jobs in jeopardy.

This cash problem at IDOC is similar to other recent money shortages IDOC has faced lately, such as the approximately $6,000 owed by the state to ammunition vendor Shore Galleries which forced the vendor to cut off ammunition sales to IDOC in April 2010. Southeastern IL  College dropped it’s Prison Education Program at two southern IL prisons early this month due to lack of payment from the State of IL and IDOC.

These incidents may be the start of a trend due to the immense State of Illinois budget shortage. That the 12 inmates affected in this IDOC money problem were sex offenders  and that the problem should be resolved shortly is beside the point. This is a warning of things to come for other IDOC inmates on issues related to medical care, facility conditions, libraries, parole, half way house availability, educational programs and work release centers across the state of Illinois.  In these times of budgetary crisis, IDOC will cut expenditures wherever it can effect short-term savings. IDOC is already stressed to the max by having to house the additional non-violent offenders for their on-going terms that it would ordinarily have released earlier through Early Release programs. The estimate has been tossed around in the media that it costs IDOC presently $2,000 per day per inmate to house these individuals pending the legislature’s resolution of issues related to the Early Release programs.