Joliet Prisons

Joliet Prisons

Lawmakers want curtains down in prisons Still there:

Guards point to dangers

By Bob Okon, HERALD-NEWS WRITER

Springfield -- Lawmakers want to ban curtains in state prison cells while authorities insist they want them down.

The curtains over cell doors are dangerous, guards say, because inmates behind them can wield a knife or be up to no good as happened: * On April 30 when an inmate thrust a nine-inch shank through a curtain and into the face of a guard at the Pontiac Correctional Center; * On April 29 when an inmate was found dead with a beaten skull and broken neck within the improvised privacy of a curtained-off cell. Curtains, that come in the form of sheets or blankets, are not one of those new norms that mark changed ways in prison life since the days inmates carried nicknames like "Mugsy."

"Most people when they hear about this are in a state of disbelief that this goes on," said Steve Trossman, a spokesman for the correctional officers' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. "We represent correctional officers in many other states," Trossman said. "We don't know of any other states that allow curtains in cells. When we tell correctional officers in other states about it, they're just dumbfounded."

Guards back a proposed law to ban curtains in cells. They say the law is necessary because prison administrators aren't enforcing Illinois Department of Corrections' policy that bans cell covers. In turn, prison administrators accuse guards of foiling efforts to enforce the policy and even giving back curtains after they're taken from cells. "When they were ordered to take them down, they mysteriously reappeared the same day," said Nic Howell, spokesman for the corrections department. Howell said night-shift guards have brought back curtains taken away by the day shift.

The question of curtains has become very public since the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill banning them. State Sen. Edward Petka, R-Plainfield, has introduced a bill in the Senate to push the proposal closer to law.

The finger-pointing on the curtains issue doesn't help the image of a state prison system already tainted by recent broadcasts of videotapes showing mass murderer Richard Speck snorting what appears to be cocaine and frolicking in women's underwear when he was alive behind bars. But Howell said the curtain controversy is not new. "Curtains have been an issue probably over the last 30 or 40 years," he said. Despite the prolonged presence of privacy curtains over prison cells, Howell said he did not think a law was needed to change things. What's needed, he said, is a unified effort in the prison system. "We've already elicited that from the union, and they agreed," Howell said. "It's just a question of doing it in a reasonable, effective way."