Illinois prison experts who want to see the inmate population decrease are questioning Gov. Pat Quinn's cost-saving plan to close six adult transition centers.
Prison officials estimate about 1,000 residents would be paroled and monitored electronically.
The work-release facilities house low-level criminals nearing release and help them prepare to re-enter the community.
John Maki of the prison watchdog John Howard Association calls the decision to close the centers "short-sighted."
Maki says the state should expand transitional settings to ease prison crowding.
But Nancy LaVigne of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., says halfway houses sometimes hinder an ex-convict's progress.
LaVigne says the centers typically cater to minor criminals who have family support and would do well at home on parole. She says electronic monitoring for them makes sense.
