Going Behind Locked Doors

A prison reform group based in Chicago that visited some Illinois prisons last year opined that problems at those prisons – including Vandalia Correctional Center – include overcrowding and deteriorating facilities.

To show that they have nothing to hide, Illinois Department of Corrections decided to schedule media tours at three prisons highlighted in a report by the John Howard Association of Illinois.
One such tour was held in Vienna last November, and last Friday, about 12 newspaper and radio reporters visited Vandalia Correctional Center.
That tour included visits to several dorms, commissary, cafeteria, chapel, and meat processing and pasteurizing plants.
At the conclusion of the tour, VCC officials made available four inmates, who responded to questions about their criminal histories and voiced opinions on the facilities.
During the afternoon, prison officials stressed the importance of the various vocational programs offered to inmates, and announced the upcoming addition of a new program.
The tour group was led by VCC Warden Vincent Dozier, who spoke to the media both before and after the tour, and answered questions along the tour route.
On the issue of overcrowding, Dozier said that the facility currently houses 1,647 inmates, with about 400 being housed at the work camp, which formerly housed those inmates who traveled throughout the region to assist governmental and public entities with such chores as mowing and painting.
While the regular capacity of the prison is 1,100, Dozier said, the operating capacity is 1,784.
Living quarters on the tour included L Dorm, one of those noted in the JHA report because of flooding at the time of group’s tour in June of last year.
Taking the media through both levels of the dorm, Dozier noted that the flooding issue there has been addressed with the purchase of a sump pump.
Also visited was the E Dorm, which sustained a ceiling collapse during a heavy rainstorm in the summer of 2011. The private company working on the roof at the time of the collapse, Dozier said, paid for the repairs.
The warden said that VCC formerly had farming, slaughterhouse and dairy operations – ones that provided products for all state prisons – but, “through the test of times, we lost those programs, for a variety of reasons.”
It does, however, continue to operate a number of programs that Dozier said teach inmates “to be more productive, to be a more confident person.
“One of the crown jewels, (something) that we are extremely proud of,” he said, is the gardening program that donated about 9,000 pounds of produce to local food banks.
Dozier said that about 71 percent of the prison’s inmates are enrolled in either educational or vocational programs, and that there are 45 inmates on the waiting list for vocational programs.
Those programs include auto body repair, construction occupations, horticulture and welding.
Those in the construction occupations program are helping state employees renovate a barn on the VCC grounds for an equine instructional program.
Kathleen Mattingly, Illinois Department of Corrections coordinator of vocational programs, said that 20 retired thoroughbreds at Fairmont Park in the Metro East will be brought to VCC once the work on the prison facilities iscompleted.
All of the work to prepare the VCC grounds for the retired thoroughbreds, Mattingly said, is being funded with donations.
In addition to creating stables, the work includes fencing in an 11-acre area east of the barn. As donations come in, two more 11-acre areas will be fenced in.
The goal is to use 60 acres of VCC property for the new program.
Through this new program, inmates will be trained in horse care and stable management.
A second goal, Mattingly said, is to help inmates “develop a sense of loving someone, having someone depend on them.”
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On the issue of security staffing, Dozier said that VCC recently received 18 new correctional officers due to other IDOC closures, and that overtime hours are down significantly from a couple of years ago.
In 2010, the facility was experiencing 280-300 overtime hours a day. Today, Dozier said, it’s “50 … 60 tops, because of roster management.”
After the tour, a representative of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – a union that represents the majority of VCC employees – responded to comments made by Dozier about staffing and security.
Eddie Caumiant, AFSCME Council 31 regional director and the union’s liaison for IDOC, said, “We’ve got an aging work force.”
Spikes in the retirement numbers, combined with the state’s failure to replace many retirees, creates serious security issues, he said.
“We were already low, and everyday, we get lower (in the number of employees),” Caumiant said.
He said that Dozier gave rated and operational capacity figures. “What he doesn’t tell you is that the design capacity was 800 (inmates) when this place was built.”
Overcrowding is a serious problem he said, talking about the housing of about 70 inmates living in close quarters in a lower level of a dorm.
“Imagine that (floor) with 40 more (inmates),” he said.
“Staffing is absolutely not sufficient in those kind of circumstances,” he said.
Caumiant said that while Dozier seemed proud of daily overtime hours dropping to 50, “but that tells me that they are not staffed enough here.
“You can try to run a prison with a skeleton crew, but you’re begging for trouble,” Caumiant said.
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Four inmates agreed to speak to the media, and Marvin Greenleaf of Chicago was among those.
Greenleaf said that he has been housed at the VCC work camp for about two years, this being his fifth stint in Illinois prisons.
“I wasn’t ready for change,” Greenleaf said, when asked about why he kept returning to prison.
“I wasn’t ready to change,” he said. “When I got out, I would forget the pain and suffering.”
He had the feeling of “I want everything now,” Greenleaf said.
Asked why it will be different when he gets out this time, Greenleaf said, “I’m a little bit older now,” and that he now realizes it’s time to be responsible for his wife and family.
Over the years, he said, his wife has been “paying all of the bills.
“How (does) that make me feel?”

Marvin Greenleaf of Chicago was among the inmates speaking to media during a tour of Vandalia Correctional Center last Friday.

Victor Dozier, warden of Vandalia Correctional Center, responds to media questions after a tour of the prison on Friday afternoon