Over the last few weeks the Illinois Department of Corrections has been moving 600 men into gymnasiums across the state where they’re now living. It’s the latest sign of the overcrowding problem facing the prisons -- but it’s something the public will not see.
That’s because Illinois Governor Pat Quinn refuses to let cameras in the facilities to document conditions. It’s part of Quinn’s pattern of obstructing public debate on prisons in Illinois. Illinois Public Radio’s Robert Wildeboer has this update on the ongoing struggle for transparency in a department that costs Illinois taxpayers more than a billion dollars every year.