A hot topic among people in Illinois is the
proposal to close Dwight Correctional Center. This is a major problem for not
only the officers who work at Dwight but also the surrounding communities.
According to an article from the Pantagraph, the region around Dwight could
take a hit of around $45 million dollars if the prison would close. The Dwight
Prison holds over 100 jobs for residents of surrounding communities. These jobs
could include: construction, retail trade jobs, health care, social assistance
jobs, local government, food service and many others. If the prison was to
close then many people would have to move to other towns to find more work,
this would hurt the community greatly. The housing market for the surrounding
communities would also hurt because the people would be moving out of the
community. This would also affect the community because family members who were
working in the community but not at the prison would also be leaving too.
Dwight closing could also affect the businesses in the community. Less people
living and working in Dwight would mean less products being bought at local
stores or businesses.
Another major problem that could come from
closing this prison is that a lot of the women who are incarcerated at Dwight
are from the Chicago area and moving them out of Dwight makes it difficult to
maintain a good support structure with their families. This is a problem
because the less support inmates have from families the more likely they are to
re offend once released.
Sources:
I dont understand the reasoning of closing this prison. I feel as if nothing really positive will be coming out of closing it. Where would all the ladies incarcerated in Dwight go? I think its going to be more work to close it and figure out where all the ladies are going than to keep it open. If they are trying to do what is best for the surrounding community then they should keep it open so that people can keep their jobs, homes, lives, and have less stress for everyone.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've heard one of the major costs of keeping Dwight open is just that it is so old that the maintenance is quite costly. Closing this prison would save the state some money their. However, there are a lot of women incarcerated here and the question would be what to do with them!? There simply is not enough room through out the other female institutions in Illinois so they would either have to big a newer institution or add on to the existing ones. Both of these options seem pretty costly. I think they should take that money and just update Dwight to make it a more cost effective facility.
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