Rauner plans to close F House at Stateville Correctional Center

CREST HILL – Gov. Bruce Rauner announced Friday that he will shut down F House at Stateville Correctional Center.

Rauner announced the decision in a column published in the Chicago Sun-Times in which he called F House "one of the state's oldest and most costly prison housing units" and said it poses safety hazards for both inmates and staff.

F House is the last remaining "roundhouse" prison structure in the United States, according to the governor's office. It was built in 1922.

The column and a statement put out later by the governor's office did not say when F House would close.

State Sen. Patrick McGuire, D-Joliet, however, said he had learned that the governor wants to transfer 347 inmates at F House in the next six weeks to other buildings at Stateville and other maximum-security prisons.

McGuire in a statement put out Friday afternoon said he learned of the plan through the Sun-Times column.

"Stateville is a maximum-security prison, and F House is where maximum-security offenders who pose threats to staff and other offenders are housed," McGuire said.

McGuire criticized Rauner for making the decision without consulting prison employees.

The governor's office in a news release stated employees now working in F House will be transferred to other positions at Stateville.

Stateville Correctional Center is located in Crest Hill.

Crest Hill Mayor Ray Soliman said the movement of inmates out of Stateville will have an impact on the city. The inmates are counted as Crest Hill residents in population totals that are used to calculate certain state and federal taxes that come to the city.

Soliman said the announcement "took us by shock."

"I am frustrated and disappointed that no one from the Department of Corrections or the governor's office reached out to the city of Crest Hill," he said.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents Stateville employees, said the union was concerned about the impact on a "severely overcrowded" prison system.

AFSCME in its statement said Stateville now has 3,496 inmates in a facility built to house 3,162.

The union said Rauner has not provided details on the plan and that "the closure risks disrupting the prison system's safe operations and could pose a greater threat to the safety of employees and inmates alike."

The news release from the governor's office includes a statement from the John Howard Association, a prison reform group, that supports the closing of F House and calls it "not fit for human habitation."

Soliman said he has toured F House and agreed it is "possibly outdated and antiquated." He added, however, "I would hope there was a plan to build another cell house and build that on Stateville property."