Daily Herald – Suburban Chicago’s Information Source
(
visit link)
In Oxford, George is just another visitor
But most residents not impressed by former Governor's arrival
November 8, 2007
OXFORD, Wis. -- George who?
While Illinoisans were treated this week to minute-by-minute updates on the status of George Ryan's freedom, the 536 people of the small town of Oxford, Wis., barely knew who the former governor of Illinois is, let alone that he had been convicted of racketeering and sentenced to serve time in their prison for the next 6½ years.
"I didn't know that til today," said Maggie Mae Hilliard, owner and proprietor of Maggie Mae's Cafe on Route 82 in Oxford.
While the town may be small, the residents weren't so unsophisticated that the arrival of a former governor and Nobel Peace Prize nominee set their hearts atwitter.
"It don't mean nothing," said Ken Driscoll, a real estate salesman dining at Maggie Mae's. "We've had plenty of Illinois politicians here before."
No doubt. The prison has already hosted former U.S. House of Representatives member Dan Rostenkowski from Chicago. It also has seen its share of aldermen, judges and lawyers caught up in the corruption busts that occur as regularly in Illinois as the leaves fall from Oxford trees every autumn.
Still, a former governor is a novelty, even at this oft-visited, involuntary home for wayward politicians.
"I don't think there was a governor (here)," mulled Driscoll.
Right you are, Ken. The last Illinois governor to go to the hoosegow was Dan Walker, and he served his time in Duluth, Minn. Ryan was scheduled to serve his time there, but he and his lawyer -- former Gov. James R. Thompson -- used their influence to prevail upon the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to send George to this friendly burg instead.
Not that the good people of Oxford aren't happy to host Ryan. Prisoners mean a prison, and a prison means jobs and an economic engine for the Oxford region, where wild turkeys still can be seen crossing the country roads from time to time. It also means visitors and customers for the nearby businesses like the Redneck Saloon, just a ways up the road from the prison.
"A lot of women go in there (the prison) and take stuff for the guys," said Driscoll. "It's good for the restaurants, the gas stations."
In fact, by the time Ryan reported for prison, a local businessman even had a sign up advertising a "Welcome George Ryan Special" on cabin rentals.
With 200 prisoners in the minimum security camp, plus the 1,000 or so in the medium-security prison next door, visitors generate a lot of traffic in this town, said Village President Dennis Head, who welcomed reporters into his small white-framed house like they were long-lost cousins rather than the pesky Illinois busybodies they really are. Head himself worked at the prison -- the medium security portion, not the camp where Ryan will serve time -- before retiring.
"There's a good relationship between the community and the prison," Head said.
The relationship is especially good for Hilliard, who's not only a restaurateur but a country music singer of local fame. Maggie Mae didn't start singing until five or six years ago, when a divorce served as her unlikely muse. Now she's doing appearances on country music channels.
She apologizes as she has to interrupt her interview to go sing for her customers. She promised, she explains with a smile.
When she returns, she's non-judgmental of Ryan and the other guests living in the prison nearby.
"They're going to have to do their time -- doesn't mean they're a bad person," she says. "He (George Ryan) may inspire a new song."
Chicago Tribune
(
visit link)
NATION
No fences, no violence, no privacy
Oxford camp lacks cellblocks and offers inmates a walking track, culinary classes
By E.A. Torriero and Michael Higgins, Tribune staff reporters
November 7, 2007
OXFORD, Wis.
When he reports Wednesday to the Oxford federal prison camp as inmate 16627-424, former Gov. George Ryan will be issued a pair of steel-toe shoes, a few button-down shirts and several khaki trousers.
The man who directed multibillion-dollar state budgets will make as little as 12 cents an hour on work details that begin around dawn. He and three other inmates will share a Spartan barracks-like bunk room and a single toilet.
Ryan likely will share the grounds with an assortment of drug offenders and white-collar criminals among the 200-plus inmates, including Chicago insurance mogul Mickey Segal and Donald Tomczak, a high-ranking Chicago city official convicted in the Hired Truck probe, records show.
But one thing is certain, say locals and experts familiar with the prison camp: Ryan will not do hard time.
The prison camp has no cellblocks, provides a track for walking and offers classes in culinary arts and college correspondence courses, according to federal officials, ex-inmates and visitors.
And come next spring, when people from his home state flock by the thousands to their seasonal cabins, Ryan could be planting flowers on a landscaping crew sprucing up the grounds of the wooded camp.
"It's like a hotel in there," said Ken Driscoll, an Oxford businessman who has toured the facility several times. "It's clean and comfortable and quite quiet."
Locals find it ironic that Ryan will spend his 61/2-year sentence surrounded by tall trees, lakes and recreation theme parks where Illinoisans come to vacation and forget about their scandals back home.
But through the years, Oxford has been a popular destination for federal convicts from Illinois because it is about 200 miles -- less than a four-hour drive -- from Chicago, making it relatively convenient for visits from family and friends.
VIP visitors the norm
In Oxford, home to fewer than 600, people have grown accustomed to strangers arriving in limousines and fancy cars with Illinois license plates. They are usually weekend visitors to the prison and are allowed to see an inmate up to 35 hours per month.
Ryan follows in the footsteps of a long list of other besmirched Chicago-area public officials -- congressmen, aldermen, law enforcement officers and judges -- who have spent time at Oxford.
"Over the years, it's made a nice rest home for crooked Illinois politicians," Driscoll said.
Known in these parts as "the university," a sarcastic nickname taken from a famous school of higher learning in England, Oxford has been a place of detention for everyone from peace activists to a Cuban spy.
It's so remote, and usually so serene, that many in these parts give no thought to the camp and the adjacent medium-security federal prison surrounded by high fences of concertina wire.
Lockdown at the camp comes infrequently, usually when seasonal fog rolls in, leaving it vulnerable to escape attempts.
The low-slung ash-brown camp building has a basketball hoop out back and looks like a recreation center. It has state-of-the-art exercise equipment inside.
"It's better than a Bally's [fitness center] in there," said Tracy Holliday, a waitress in town who has relatives working at the camp.
But the view from inside the camp can be far less rosy.
Inmates at Oxford don't live in fear for their safety, but neither does the camp fit the stereotype of a federal "country club" prison, said Ronald Durham, an anti-war protester who served 3 months at Oxford in 2005 for civil disobedience.
"People are kind of deprived of their humanity," said Durham, 26, of Chicago. "Instead of being treated as a person, they're treated as an inmate. And there's a big difference."
Durham woke for breakfast at 6 a.m. and began work washing dishes at 7 a.m. He said he made just a few dollars a week -- so little that he didn't really keep track. The prison is crowded, he said, and inmates like to walk on a small track in the yard just to have some space.
It also took a while to adjust to being constantly counted and recounted, Durham said, and "having guards shine a light in your face to make sure you're there."
Media-driven buzz
Usually, prisoners arrive with little fanfare. Ryan's pending arrival has locals buzzing only because of the appearance of Chicago news media crews. Many residents had no clue Ryan was coming and know little about his conviction. Some vaguely remembered his record for clearing Death Row while governor.
"I heard on the news that someone from Chicago was coming to jail," said Darlene Borud, who owns the hardware store in town. "I thought it was the mayor. But I asked my husband and he said, 'No, it's the governor.' ... We just don't pay it too much mind."
Although the federal correctional complex is one of the largest employers in the region, it's not the most famous regional landmark, Oxford residents said.
Chicken processor Brakebush Brothers Inc. -- "make the chicken that makes the menu" -- is renowned for supplying the nuggets and tenders at Green Bay Packers football games. And the owner of Maggie Mae's Cafe -- "the little place with big tastes" -- has developed a national cult following for country music she sings to diners.
Before the deadline for Ryan's check-in at 5 p.m. Wednesday, cafe owner Maggie Mae Hilliard hopes to have a little ditty composed in Ryan's honor that she will belt out for patrons and visitors from Chicago.
"Right now, he's just another prisoner," she said. "But maybe if I write a song, it'll make him famous."
E.A. Torriero reported from Oxford and Michael Higgins from Chicago