Illinois Council 31 Fighting for Prison Reform

AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois continues its fight for prison reform — winning battles and laying the groundwork for future victories.

Less than a year after the council first released its report outlining the union’s agenda, some of its recommended reforms are already underway. The governor’s budget includes funding for a new maximum security prison. The union is talking with the state about gang control, and a joint labor-management delegation has visited existing gang-control programs.

The council’s agenda, laid out in more detail in the Winter 1997 issue of News from ACU, includes recommendations that the state build a maximum security prison, eliminate gang influence in state prisons and increase staff levels.

To keep the state on track with these and other efforts, members continue to make their voices heard. On April 15, members of Local 1274 at Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Ill., did informational picketing on Hill’s horrible staff-to-inmate ratio (the worst in the state), its broken and outdated equipment, and its irregular enforcement of DOC regulations. Their actions got media attention and calls from the area’s two local legislators — who want to meet with union members.