Understaffed
After my transfer to Centralia Correctional Center, I wrote a letter to the Warden and to Governor Pritzker about the commissary not being fully manned. They are missing an employee to ring out sales in one of the four windows. Because the Commissary is understaffed, we have no weekly shopping. Even though I am now in A-Grade, I am not allowed a weekly shop, but more importantly, 60 percent of the revenue raised at the Commissary goes into the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) budget. Thus the prison is losing 25 percent of the sales revenue daily because the fourth window is not manned and the prisoners can only shop twice a month instead of weekly. So actually 50 percent of the monthly income to the IDOC budget is not generated. Then the taxpayer is forced to pick up this lost revenue with their taxes.
Response
Here is the letter I received:
Mr. Harris,
Cheryle Hinthorne, Assistant Warden of Operation
This is in response to your letter to Governor JB Pritzker regarding the Inmate Commissary at Illinois River. Yes, although we do have four Inmate Commissary windows, we currently only have three Inmate Commissary employees. If and when we get approval to hire a fourth employee, the position will be filled and all four windows of the Commissary will be used to service our population.
Centralia Correctional Center
Well I did not get a response to my issues raised.
Who would the Warden need permission from to open the fourth window? But we shall see what takes place.
I know the Governor is pushing to balance the budget. With the IDOC budget being one-third of the state budget, one would think any avenue to generate income into that budget would be utilized to the fullest. I would love to get taxpayer feedback on this lost monthly revenue.
