Rep. Blaine Wilhour
Rep. Blaine Wilhour
State Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) is tracing much of the cause for an outbreak of the coronavirus at a suburban prison back to the doorsteps of Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“Another day and another insufferable press conference in Chicago as the inept mayor and governor of Chicago assess blame to deflect from more of their own dismal failures,” Wilhour told the South Central Reporter. “Again, we see him putting his political agenda ahead of all else.”
Experts are now sounding the alarm about how over the last several weeks, at least 49 inmates and 17 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, putting an even greater strain on the already ravaged state hospital system and potentially posing grave dangers for the state’s interconnected corrections system. Tests on almost 200 others are still pending.
“By going against sound advice and refusing to lock down the state prisons, he recklessly put the health of our prison workers at risk, including 17 staff members at Statesville who have contracted the virus,” Wilhour said of what he sees as the governor’s slow response time. “The governor locked down law-abiding citizens but refused to lock down prisons.”
Pritzker has now ordered the deployment of at least 30 medics from the Illinois Army National Guard to the Statesville Correctional Center, where they will set up medical tents to treat sickened inmates. The department has also suspended all visitations to all facilities and placed them on quarantine.
The number of coronavirus cases at Cook County Jail has also exploded, where as of April 3, 167 detainees and 46 correctional officers were known to have tested positive for the virus, prompting a number of suits from civil rights groups seeking to force the state to some of its most vulnerable prisoners.
It all strikes Wilhour as objectionable.
“Completely unacceptable, failure of leadership,” he added. “To the folks who have to work in prisons under these conditions, I apologize that our governor values the ACLU and social justice warriors more than you.”
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