Pinckneyville Prison Union Head Critical of Inmate 'Warehousing'

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Guards at the Pinckneyville Correctional Center say taxpayers have wound up with a maximum security prison for a medium security prison price.

And, as the prison fills to nearly double its original capacity, a top union official says incidents like the Dec. 14 hostage-taking of a prison librarian could have been prevented in a reduced prison population with adequate staffing.

Four months earlier, the same inmate who was shot and killed by a corrections tactical team member, was caught carrying an illegal piece of metal off a typewriter, according to Randy Hellmann, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 943.

Hellmann is a perennial complainant about staffing and prison conditions, speaking on behalf of all prison employees in the interest of their safety.

Hellmann authored a letter this week following the hostage taking and in it he says there is a need for change at the medium security prison. The letter comes on the heels of reports that prison assaults statewide are growing exponentially

Hellmann adds that the segregation unit of the prison which houses in-house offenders has been cut in half in order to bed the intake of prisoners from other state corrections facilities.

"This action by DOC has seriously undermined Pinckneyville's ability to respond to serious breaches of security and maintain the needed level of discipline for the inmate population," Hellmann said in a letter sent to the newspaper.

Hellmann writes to the Du Quoin Evening Call: "Many stories must be told of this horrifying incident. The story of a united staff, administrators, supervisors and front line staff alike. management and union working in tandem to reach a common goal, the safe release of our co-worker. The message and mission were one in the same. "All" involved were there to support the administration and its efforts to resolve this incident with no harm to either party, the hostage nor the hostage taker. Unfortunately, the offender gave no choice and after approximately seven hours of negotiations, swift decisive action was needed to protect the safety of our friend and co-worker which led to the death of the offender."

The union and corrections officers say Illinois DOC is understaffed by at least 1,000 guards. The Du Quoin Evening Call followed the hostage-taking incident on December 14, and that day guards told the Call that the prison library in a vocational-education building in the center of the compound "is not very secure."

DOC continues its investigation of the Dec. 14 hostage taking and DOC has not commented since the inmate's death.

Alonje Walton, 37, was shot and killed after holding the duct-taped librarian hostage for nearly seven hours. Hellmann says that if the prison's segregation area had not been reduced in size, Walton may not have been part of the general prison population, having been found with a metal part from a typewriter. Hellmann said there has not been a facility-wide shakedown of the prison in five years.

"Warehousing inmates seems to be the department's primary concern. Upper level management has seen fit to push to double cell dangerous disciplinary inmates in reduced segregation cells while increasing the general population counts in facilities at capacity to make more bed space. In effect, reducing total inmate management while shuttering units at Vandalia and Vienna which could provide the needed bed space. All this while attempting to lay off front line staff."

Hellmann's letter continues: "How many hostages must be taken? How many lives must be lost? Next time the outcome may be different."

It was the Illinois Department of Corrections tactical team that brought an end to the hostage-taking. Illinois State Police District 13 at Du Quoin spokesmen say their command had nothing to do with ending the incident, but will assist with the review.

DOC is quoted as saying that the 214 segregation beds in the prison is comparable to other prison settings.

Hellmann credited the entire prison staff for bringing the frightening Dec. 14 incident to its end. The prison went back on lockdown after Walton was killed. It had been on lockdown in early December following a handful of inmate incidents.

Hellmann said the prison population has climbed by 100 inmates in recent months while the number of staff members has dropped.