Same building, new purpose: Assumption alums tour prison

BY SCOTT WUERZ     News-Democrat

EAST ST. LOUIS --

But for the Assumption High School class of 1957, a tour of their old school Friday made it seem even more that way.

It is a prison.

The former all-boys Catholic high school, which closed in 1989, was reopened six years later as the Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center, a minimum security prison. Located at the corner of St. Clair Avenue and Illinois 111, it houses nonviolent drug offenders who eat in the same cafeteria where students had their lunches, sleep in dorms where classes were once held and work out in the gym where basketball games, band concerts and school dances took place.

"For me, it was great to get to see the gym," said grad Gerold Thebeau, who transferred to Assumption after three years at St. Henry's Preparatory School in Belleville. "That's where the senior prom was held, and I had the first date of my life. Her name was Doris, and she was from Granite City. I never will forget that dance."

A tour through one of the dorm areas jogged the memory of grad Tim Krumm who said he had freshman and sophomore classes there. In those days, according to Krumm, students sat in the same room all day and their teachers moved from room to room teaching different subjects.

"Everything was regimented," Krumm said. "You went to your locker at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. They didn't want you in the hall. And if you were in the hall, there was no talking. Otherwise one of the brothers would slap you in the head."

Another member of the tour muttered, "I can see Brother Middleton right now."

Assistant Warden of Operations Jeff Parker told Krumm that students, in some ways, had it harder than the prisoners. "We're not allowed to hit them," he said.

Today, the job of the prison staff is to wean inmates off drugs -- especially meth -- and teach them the skills they need to make something of their lives.

Life is regimented, with long hours of work and classes. There are 671 inmates. They average age 25 and serve about 15 months. Most are from the Chicago area, but one mentioned to the tour group that he attended Assumption in the 1970s.

The tour was arranged by former Illinois State Police Capt., U.S. Marshal and Belleville Police Chief Terry Delaney, who oversaw the conversion of the school into a prison in 1990. The project later was cut from the state budget, then revived, and the prison finally got its first inmates in 1995.

"The one thing I didn't get a good look at was the old assistant principal's office -- I spent more time there than any place else," joked Delaney, who said he was a smart-mouthed public school kid when he went to Assumption for some straightening out. "I left with a lot more discipline than I came in with."

Current warden Jim Davidson is a 1968 Assumption grad.