Quinn still targeting Aurora facility closure
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn plans to move forward with closing the Fox Valley Adult Transition Center in Aurora at the end of August, even though lawmakers gave him the money to keep it open.
The center houses about 130 women who are low-level offenders holding jobs and trying to transition back into private life. Under Quinn’s plan, the women would instead go straight into the community, wearing electronic monitoring bracelets.
In the budget they sent the governor last week, lawmakers gave Quinn $18.8 million to keep the Aurora facility and a number of similar ones across the state open.
“It’s something I urgently stressed and tried to get done,” said state Sen. Linda Holmes, an Aurora Democrat.
“They need to transition into finding a job,” she said of the women housed at the Aurora facility. “And finding a job is so tough, even without a criminal conviction.”
But it’s ultimately the governor’s decision whether he wants to spend the money, and Quinn budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft said Quinn intends to proceed with the Aug. 31 closing date set previously.
Because the facility employs fewer than 25 people, it didn’t face an otherwise-required administrative hearing of lawmakers over its fate.
And Quinn still has powers to adjust the state budget lawmakers sent him before or shortly after the Illinois fiscal year begins on July 1.