State Senator Jason Plummer and State Representative Blaine Wilhour hosted a town hall on Wednesday evening to discuss what has transpired in the last nearly four and half months since information surfaced about a plan for consolidation at the Vandalia Correctional Center. To open the meeting, Senator Plummer walked through a timeline highlighting steps taken by legislators as well as responses from the Department of Corrections. After the initial information surfaced on February 9, legislators acted in about 48 hours and requested details on the plan for VCC. Then during a web meeting on March 1 with IDOC Director Rob Jeffreys agreed to a town hall meeting, the director agreed to a town hall meeting for which legislators offered dates for on March 4. On March 14, Director Jeffreys informed legislators he would not partake in a town hall to which legislators asked him again on March 21 to partake after his initial statement that he would. After Director Jeffreys then stated on April 6 that the DOC would look to engage with the union first and on May 6, legislators asked for a joint committee hearing. With over two months passing since it was stated that the DOC would engage the union, Senator Plummer says he cannot speak for the union but says they have received much of the same responses as legislators have during the last several months.
Along with Senator Plummer and Representative Wilhour, State Senators Terri Bryant and Steve McClure were on hand for the town hall and during Bryant’s time speaking, she discussed how two facilities in her district, DuQuoin and Dixon Springs, were closed in the last few years in ways that she says were done unproperly without hearings and Wilhour says having the Senator and her expertise is a bonus for them as they try to get answers about VCC.
Both Plummer and Wilhour say they have to keep pushing forward to get the answers they are asking for and we’ll hear from them on that coming up Monday on Newscenter.
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