Tamms Correctional Center will officially close August 31^st.  The news comes to employees after Governor Pat Quinn last week signed the state’s 33-billion-dollar budget, cutting the 57-million-dollars in funding that would have kept Tamms open.  It means 250 corrections employees will be out of work in less than 8 weeks.  Union President Lieutenant Toby Oliver tells KZIM KSIM this is a major hit to a region already starving for good-paying jobs.  Oliver says transferring these maximum security offenders to Menard’s in Chester will lead to overcrowding and extreme danger to all inmates.  Tamms is only half full and cost about 64-thousand a year per inmate to operate.  Employees will be offered a transfer to other state facilities after August.  Most of the workers live in Alexander County, but nearly 200 others drive daily from Union, Williamson, and Pulaski County.  The union is having severance packet meetings with employees this month.