Vandalia, IL-(Vandalia Radio)- The Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections issued a Memorandum to the employees at the Vandalia Correctional Center on Wednesday.
In the Memorandum, Director Rob Jeffreys starts off by saying “I want to dispel some false information that is being spread throughout the state and specifically at Vandalia Correctional Center. Vandalia Correctional Center is NOT closing nor was it being considered for closure.”
The letter goes onto state that “The document that was distributed titled “Consolidation/Conversion Overview” dated February 2022, is an extension of the previously shared May 2021 plan. As we discussed in the May 2021 plan, as an agency we must ensure we are safely and efficiently operating our facilities and effectively managing the population. The proposed consolidation plan at Vandalia Correctional Center would allow the Department to efficiently operate the facility and better serve the population by moving the staff and population to the newer units on the grounds of Vandalia. The plan WOULD NOT have resulted in layoffs or geographical transfers. All employees at Vandalia would continue working at Vandalia. There were also NO plans to demolish any buildings at Vandalia, instead we were exploring alternative uses for some of the units that would have been consolidated within the facility.”
The memorandum also talks about prison population, as Jeffreys says “Transfers in Vandalia has slowed down just as they have at some of our other minimum-security facilities. When the Consolidation/Conversion overview was shared on 2/10/22 Vandalia’s population was at 301. On 6/1/22 Vandalia’s population was 525 and as of today the population is 458. We also have low populations at some of our other minimum level facilities such as Robinson-622, Vienna-541, East Moline-487 and Southwestern-285.
The memorandum also says “At this time, we have decided to hold off on the consolidation/conversion at Vandalia. If it is decided in the future to revisit this plan, we will notify AFSCME Council 31 and continue discussions.”
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