Julie Wilkerson doesn’t like to toot
her own horn. Less than two years ago, Wilkerson was
earning slightly less than $40,000 a year as a band director and
associate music professor at Rend Lake College, a two-year school
near Carbondale. Today, she earns $65,000 a year as an assistant
warden at Big Muddy River Correctional Center in Ina. Not bad,
considering that Wilkerson had apparently never drawn a prison
paycheck before the Department of Corrections hired her in the
summer of 2004. Wilkerson isn’t eager to talk about her
meteoric rise in the field of corrections. “It would be best
to direct your inquiry to the office of communications,”
Wilkerson answers when asked several times to comment on her
hiring. If she got clearance to speak with a reporter from the
central office, would she comment? “It would be best to
direct your inquiry to the office of communications,” she
repeats. After checking, Dede Short, corrections
spokeswoman, says she found no evidence that Wilkerson had ever
held a prison job before she became an assistant warden. What other
experience or education does Wilkerson have that qualified her to
become a top administrator in a prison filled with murderers,
rapists, and other dangerous felons? “She worked with students at the
college,” Short answers. “And she’s overseeing
programs with inmates — she’s assistant warden of
programs. She helps prepare them for eventual release.”
According to the written job description for Wilkerson’s
position, the assistant warden for programs is a supervisor who also “maintains and enforces
disciplinary, safety, security and custodial measures.” Corrections in Illinois used to be a
work-your-way-up profession. Not anymore. Wilkerson is one of
several top prison administrators whose qualifications appear
questionable and who were hired under Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Federal
investigators have subpoenaed hiring records in corrections and two
other state departments, transportation and child welfare. Several
Democratic Party contributors and operatives, including a former
auto-parts store manager and a farmer who also sold irrigation
equipment, have been hired as assistant wardens since Blagojevich
took office. At least eight prison wardens have contributed to
Democratic campaigns. Two were hired by corrections after
Blagojevich took office, and seven of the eight were named wardens
under his administration. In Wilkerson’s case, she gave
$1,500 to Secretary of State Jesse White, a Democrat, three months
before she was hired by corrections. In 2002, she contributed $500
to White. Short says there is no quid pro quo at play
with Wilkerson or any other prison administrator. “We hire
people for their ability to do the job, not for their political
affiliations,” Short says. She adds that assistant wardens
are at-will employees who can be hired and fired without regard for seniority. Even with experienced administrators, prisons
can be dangerous places where mistakes carry brutal consequences.
Rank-and-file prison employees are concerned about who’s
getting hired for top administrative posts. “We’ve recently witnessed the
meltdown at FEMA when political hires replaced career professionals
in that federal agency and the tragedy that occurred in New Orleans
as a result of the inexperience of people who had been put in
positions of power,” says Buddy Maupin, regional director for
Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, which represents corrections employees.
“Without commenting on any one particular person’s
qualifications, it’s our concern that we’re witnessing
a similar set of issues arising in the Illinois Department of
Corrections.”
Making matters worse, Maupin says, is a steep
decline in the number of front-line correctional officers since
1998. At some prisons, the ratio of guards to inmates has dropped
by as much as 45 percent, he says. The decline began under former
Gov. George Ryan and has continued under Blagojevich, who, citing
fiscal restraint, has refused to fill thousands of state jobs. “Without question, prisons are more
dangerous today,” Maupin says.
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2005.
