Funds don't belong in Washington Park [Illinois]

Published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 24, 2003

The mayor of Washington Park wants the Census Bureau to credit the village with the 650 prisoners in the Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center.

Apparently, the village annexed the land around the prison in 1995, but failed to notify the census that the prison had moved. An estimated $71,500 in annual population-based aid will go to where the prisoners are counted.

While it is understandable that Washington Park would be tempted to cover its budget deficit by any legal means necessary, looking to prisoners for economic salvation raises broader questions for state and national policy makers. Shouldn't these funds go to the communities that the prisoners came from and to which they will eventually return?

Few of the prisoners at Southwestern originate among Washington Park's 5,345 residents. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, 59 percent of Illinois' state prisoners are from Cook County and another 10 percent are from the counties surrounding Cook, almost 300 miles away.

To prevent crime, Illinois would be well served to proportionately fund educational and community resources in the communities that prisoners come from. Allocating government funds based on population makes sense, but only if everyone is counted in the right place: at home.

Peter Wagner

Springfield, Mass.