Clemons. “There are about 650,000 square feet of office space open,” Clemons said. “I would say probably two-thirds of that was state offices.”
If Quinn’s recent layoffs come to pass, at least 183 jobs at five state agencies in and around Springfield would disappear, according to letters sent to AFSCME by agencies facing layoffs.
The letters indicate the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, with offices on Adams Street, could lose seven employees. The Department of Revenue could lose 33 employees from its offices on Jefferson Street. Seven employees at the Department of Human Services on South Grand Avenue would be axed, as would 14 employees at the Healthcare and Family Services office on the same street. The Department of Corrections would be hardest hit, with 122 staff facing termination or relocation at facilities in Sangamon and Logan counties. Illinois Correctional Industries, which uses inmate labor to produce and sell goods like park benches and police uniforms, would lose one employee at its Sangamon County location and five at its facility in Lincoln.
The Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln will bear the brunt of the layoffs. At least 116 employees there face termination or transfer — among them 88 prison guards that would be cut or sent to work at other state prisons.
John Black, a correctional officer at Logan and head of the prison’s union, said many guards have had less than a month to plan the rest of their lives, forced to choose between losing their jobs and relocating their families to new communities if they accept positions at other prisons.
If layoffs happen, Black said, many of his fellow union members will face tough decisions and little time to make them. The guards left behind at the prison face complications as well, Black pointed out. Though IDOC has plans to release 1,000 nonviolent inmates from prison early, Black said that won’t come close to addressing the understaffing problem already present at the facility.
“We’ve got a ratio of one officer to 145 (inmates) currently,” Black said, adding that IDOC has had money allotted the past two years to hire more guards, but has not done so.
“You know what they did with that money?” he asked. “They spent it on overtime instead of hiring more staff.”
Even though he likely won’t lose his position or be relocated, Black still worries about the toll layoffs will have on his family. After working the overnight shift at the prison for several years, Black had finally gained enough seniority to be put on the day shift, but he will be forced back to the overnight shift if the layoffs occur.
“I’ve paid my dues, done my time on second shift, done my time on midnights,” Black explained. “You’re just now taking 100 and some guys out from underneath me, where I don’t have seniority anymore.”
Black said the state needs to consider the far-reaching effects the layoffs will have on communities when laid-off prison guards leave and take their families with them.
“You’re not only taking 100 people out of the community,” Black said. “You’re now taking my spouse out of the community, you’re taking my kids out of the school and you’re taking my tax dollars out of the district.”
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