Illinois Officials Open Pontiac Prison to News Media

The warden at the maximum-security prison in Pontiac says there have been no problems or violent incidents with inmates shipped from the now-closed Tamms Correctional Center.

Randy Pfister said after a tour Friday with a dozen news reporters that his staff made expectations clear to the roughly 160 inmates transferred in December. That's when Gov. Pat Quinn ordered the "supermax'' prison in far southern Illinois closed because of its high cost.

But Pfister did not take reporters through the section of the north cell house where the most violent ex-Tamms prisoners are housed. Reporters did see a gallery of cells housing former Tamms residents.

However, those men would have completed their disciplinary time at Tamms had the penitentiary for ``the worst of the worst'' remained open.