Go figure, a prison with a 1 star review...seems sort of fitting, doesn't it?…read more
I've been visiting an inmate here for several years now, and I have to say that for the most part, this place personifies government workers in Illinois. We are on their time. If it's your first time visiting Stateville, get ready to be denied access, even if you're on the inmate's approved list. It's happened to pretty much everyone that I know. They try to tell you you're not on the list. They tried telling me that maybe he forgot to put his sister down because he put his OTHER sister on the list and he needed to put both of us on there (uh, not the case. My brother may be an idiot for other reasons, but not putting his immediate family on a visitors list so that he could have contact with the outside world and food other than the garbage they serve on the line isn't something that he would do).
On multiple occasions, we've been check in (and check in, and searched, and checked in, and checked in one more time, just to make sure that we - two females - didn't switch identities with any of the male inmates) and assigned a visiting table just to wait over an hour and a half for the inmate to come downstairs. Apparently the guards only get the prisoners if they feel like it.
The vending machines used to be way overpriced, but I guess enough visitors complained (wrote to their elected officials in Springfield) that the prices are now somewhat reasonable. What hasn't been fixed, however, are the machines themselves. Every time we go, at least one machine is out of order. More often than not, there is little to no food in them (and I use the term "food" very loosely) and/or it's expired (especially the fruit/veggie packs).
I've been told that the infrastructure of the actual prison is deteriorating badly, with crumbling walls where daylight can be seen through the cracks (real safe, right?). The prison is filled beyond capacity, and with the recent closing of yet another prison, it's even more so.
Correctional Facilities are supposed to be rehabilitative, but I've seen my brother's mental state continually decline as a result of being locked up here as he awaits an appeal (another story for another time). The gangs are pretty fierce, even though they pretty much leave unaffiliated people alone (Neutrons are what they're called), and it's not uncommon for the whole place to go on lockdown when a fight erupts (between rival gang members or sometimes between guards and inmates). With such a savage environment, essentially a walled hole where people to go be forgotten, it's no wonder that there are so many repeat offenders.