Failure to Pay Prison Vendors Places Correctional Officers at Risk

by Wesley Fox According to the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Department of Corrections is $95 million behind on its bills.  Many prison vendors have not been paid in months. Some have stopped extending credit to correction centers, and two havestopped doing business with the Department of Corrections altogether.  If Illinois does not start paying its bills on time, more...

by Wesley Fox

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Department of Corrections is $95 million behind on its bills.  Many prison vendors have not been paid in months. Some have stopped extending credit to correction centers, and two havestopped doing business with the Department of Corrections altogether.  If Illinois does not start paying its bills on time, more vendors will likely take their business elsewhere.

The situation in Illinois prisons is also becoming more strained because the prison population has grown significantly in the last year.  Governor Quinn’s suspension of the early release program and theMeritorious Good Time Program has led to prisoners serving longer sentences than before.  The budget woes combined with the increase in prisoner population has made prisons less safe for correctional officers and inmate assaults on staff have increased recently, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Illinois’s budget problems affect everyone, and this is just one example providing a stark reason why Illinois must do more to address its dire financial situation and poor budget management.