Judge orders Illinois to transfer Stateville prisoners by end of September

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois prison officials have until the end of September to move most of the people held at Stateville Correctional Center in southwest suburban Crest Hill to other prisons around the state.

A federal judge ordered the move after civil rights lawyers argued the living conditions at Stateville were too hazardous.

It's the latest development in plans to eventually tear down the old prison and build a new one on the same site.

AFSCME Council 31, the union representing Stateville workers, has said the prison's closure would cause an immense disruption to the state prison system. They are planning to fight the ruling.

In March, Gov. JB Pritzker announced a $900 million plan to demolish and replace Stateville, along with Logan Correctional Center in central Illinois.

The governor's office has estimated the projects would save the state $34 million a year in operational costs. It would also save hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance for the two prisons, after decades of neglect at the facilities.

Stateville, a maximum-security men's prison, first opened in 1925, and as of June 30, it housed 568 prisoners, down from nearly 2,000 a year earlier, according to data from the Illinois Department of Corrections. Logan, a multi-level security women's prison, first opened in 1978, and housed a little over 1,000 people as June 30, about the same number as one year earlier.