Jail break? Joliet prison may reopen for paintball fun

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 23, 2003 | TED SLOWIK

[sarcasm]

It could be a return to bad guys vs. good guys at the shuttered Joliet Correctional Center.

The prison, which closed in 2001 after 143 years of housing such notorious criminals as Baby Face Nelson, could reopen as a paintball playground.

"The game would be based on a prison break, of course. One team would be guards, the other would be prisoners," said Angie Mercer, president of the Joliet Regional Landlords Association.

Members toured the 72-acre prison site this week. Mercer conceded her group has no firm plans for financing the venture.

Since Gov. George Ryan ordered the Illinois Department of Corrections to close the facility as a cost-saving measure nearly two years ago, the state has hosted several tours of the facility and is having its value appraised.

"We don't have any offers on the table," said Brian Fairchild, a spokesman for the Corrections Department.

But Joliet county and federal officials all have expressed an interest in the former prison. Most recently, the state entertained discussions with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement about housing illegal immigrants in the 1,200-bed facility.

Will County is interested in possibly using the former prison as an adult detention facility, County Executive Joe Mikan said. However, the expense of operating the facility may be cost-prohibitive.

"Buying land and building may be the cheapest way to go," Mikan said. "[But] we're not ruling out any possibility."

Joliet officials have toured the facility, and some have suggested acquiring the site for use as a museum or a visitor's center. However, Joliet is not actively trying to acquire the property, city officials said.

"I'd like to see our staff contact nearby cities interested in getting together to make a museum out of it. It's too expensive for one municipality to operate," Joliet Mayor Art Schultz said.

Steps are being taken to declare the 26-building campus a local landmark and have it placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mercer said she thinks the facility would fail as a museum, and that she is determined to make the paintball plan a reality.

"Someone who sits and talks about it will never get the dream done," she said.

Besides housing convicted criminals, the prison was used in several movies, including the 1980 film "Blues Brothers,'' with John Belushi's character, Jake Blues, collecting his belongings--"one black suit jacket; one pair of black suit pants; one hat, black; one pair of sunglasses; twenty-three dollars and seven cents"--and walking out the door a free man. The prison was also featured in the 1994 Oliver Stone movie "Natural Born Killers" and the 1987 Nick Nolte film "Weeds."

[Greybird]

One of Jake's belongings, toted up by the fastidious clerk (Frank Oz) as Jake is being released, is always omitted from TV showings of "The Blues Brothers": "One prophylactic. [grimace] Used." Such prudes at TNT, I'd say {wicked grin}

Unfortunately, the closing of this facility is one more lost reference in Steve Goodman's fabulous song "Lincoln Park Pirates," about the (in)famous Chicago towing company:

We break into cars when we gotta
With pickaxe and hammer and saw
And they said this garage has no license
But little care I for the law

All our drivers are friendly and courteous
Their good manners you always will get
'Cause they all are recent graduates
Of the charm school in Joliet

[riverrunner]

Sounds like fun.