JOLIET – The smell of something having been burnt recently made an impression during a tour of the Old Joliet Prison by city and museum officials on Thursday.
"It smells like last night someone was in there," said Greg Peerbolte, director of the Joliet Area Historical Museum, which wants to join the city in a partnership to acquire the prison.
Fires at the vacated prison on Collins Street have been one of the motivating factors in possible city-museum ownership of the sprawling, decaying and vandalized prison property.
Peerbolte wants access to the property for prison tours while there is still something to look at.
(Greg Peerbolte, director of the Joliet Area Historical Museum (left) and Joliet Councilwoman Jan Quillman (right) wait outside the Collins Street prison)
Former City Manager Jim Hock supported the idea before he retired in May, saying the city's firefighters and police are called to the site enough that they may as well take control of it.
But the city council, questioning the potential pitfalls and liabilities of prison ownership, has resisted the idea of city ownership.
Mayor Bob O'Dekirk was non-committal after the 90-minute walk through the prison grounds on Thursday.
"I'm just asking questions today," O'Dekirk said when asked if what he saw persuaded him one way or the other on city ownership.
O'Dekirk said he, too, was concerned about the appearance of recent burning since Joliet firefighters are called to put out prison fires.
"I spoke with the state officials about that. It's intolerable," O'Dekirk said
The last time the Joliet Fire Department was called to the prison was May 29 when one of the industry buildings burned.
But what was evident during the tour, Peerbolte said, is that more burning is going on behind the prison walls than gets noticed on the outside.
"We saw several piles where people were trying to burn something," Peerbolte said. "I think that underlines the urgency of the situation."
Fires are believed to be started by people breaking into the prison, which has been going on for years.
Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Nicole Wilson, who also was on the tour, would not discuss the evidence of recent burning in the prison.
"You know there have been recent fires in there. There's no point in me rehashing that," she said.
Wilson would not provide details of how often the Department of Corrections patrols the prison or what it does to try to keep out trespassers.
"The department continues to work with the city of Joliet to secure the site. We secure access points as much as we can," she said. "The points where people are getting in, we work to secure as much as possible."
On the morning of the tour, however, a section of chain-link fence was cut away making an obvious trespassing entry right next to a metal sign that read, "State Property No Trespassing Keep Out."
Tourists who stop, however, don't have to look hard to notice that the stately, turreted, limestone administration building at the end of the parking lot features many busted windows.
Signs of vandalism are quickly evident from the prison parking lot, which is now used as the one spot where tourists can stop to look at the prison, take photographs, and read prison history described on sign boards.
"Graffiti already," Jan Nahorski, the city's graffiti abatement officer, said as he approached the administration building and saw the front entrance had been spray painted.
Nahorski was among about 20 people, most of them city department heads, who joined the tour to assess the prison's condition.
They included David Mackley, the city's director of building inspections and the person in city hall who may know the most about assessing the condition of property.
"No comment," Mackley said, when asked after the tour what he thought of the prison.
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell file photo)
A study done for the city in 2014, when Joliet was considering acquisition of the prison, estimated the cost of stabilizing the property against continued deterioration at $3.8 million.
The Department of Corrections did not allow media to join the tour.
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell file photo)
But The Herald-News went into the prison before the tour with Joliet police who patrolled to ensure no vagrants were inside the prison before the tour started.
The first step into the administration building showed how badly the prison buildings have been vandalized.
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell file photo)
"Watch out for the blood," one officer said, pointing to dried spots on a floor that also was littered with broken glass.
Much of the walk through prison buildings is made stepping onto broken glass and other debris.
Graffiti is everywhere.
Some of it is dated, giving some idea of the frequency and duration of the break-ins.
Much of it is profane. Some of it is racist. Some images show artistic talent. Others are crude phallic symbols or adolescent outlines of the female body.
Graffiti messages range from "Death is fun" to "love everyone" to "Be a creative soul."
(Officer John Struna file photo)
"Definitely worse," Officer John Struna said of the condition of the prison since his first visit a couple of years ago. "The overgrowth. More deterioration of the buildings."
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell, left, and officer John Struna file)
Struna walked up to the attic of the old hospital building, showing where a wood floor has become soaked from rain leaking from the roof to the point that it is not safe to walk on.
(The Collins Street prison chapel file)
Just below on the third floor, the door to one room was ajar, but it could not be opened any farther because it was blocked by debris from a fallen ceiling.
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell walks along a cell block used to house inmates)
"What might have been," Lt. Steve Breen said as he looked around at burnt-out buildings and other damage to the prison grounds, "if as soon as they shuttered the place that day they had worked out a deal."
The Joliet Correctional Center was closed in 2002, and the debate over what to do with the famous prison has been going on for years.
Because of its use as a setting in the movie "The Blues Brothers," the TV series "Prison Break," and for scenes or as a reference in movies and television shows for decades, the Old Joliet Prison has national and even international recognition.
Peerbolte said it's the number one destination point requested by visitors to the Joliet Area Historical Museum, Peerbolte said.
It's thick limestone walls convey a classic prison image.
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell file)
It's myriad buildings and passageways also show how difficult it is to patrol and secure. "It's pretty massive," Breen said when asked of his impression of the place.
It was Breen's first time inside the prison.
His other impression was how much damage has been done.
"You get the vagrants, vandals, and then Mother Nature takes over," Breen said.
People are the biggest culprits, Peerbolte said.
"Man is doing more damage to the site than Mother Nature at this point," he said. "That's really the greatest threat."
Peerbolte, who has been in the prison before, said he will develop a tour plan based on the damage that is there now and where visitors can be safely guided.
(Sgt. Patrick Cardwell file)
O'Dekirk said the matter will need to be discussed by the city council again before the city decides anything, but much will depend on how persuasive Peerbolte can be.
"A lot of it falls on the museum," O'Dekirk said. "They're going to have to sell it."
Wilson said the state will cooperate with the city if Joliet wants to take over the prison.