Joliet Block Party blocked out of Old Joliet Prison

City manager says procedures must be established, but event organizers say they’re baffled

An event dubbed Joliet Block Party to be held at the Old Joliet Prison was canceled last year because of COVID-19 and this year because of the city of Joliet.

City Manager James Capparelli halted the Joliet Block Party from moving forward as planned less than two weeks before it was scheduled to take place.

The event, sponsored in part by the Collins Street Neighborhood Council, was supposed to be Sunday. Event organizers intended it to be their second day of a fundraising weekend for prison restoration efforts. The fundraising weekend begins Saturday with an 11-hour party titled Big Bash at the Big House.

Organizers who met Tuesday with Capparelli say they left the meeting baffled as to why the Joliet Block Party was called off.

“When we asked him to explain some of the terms he would use, he would give us no answers,” said Tanya Arias, president of the Collins Street Neighborhood Council.

Arias said Capparelli repeatedly referred to it as “a political event,” which, she said, it wasn’t.

The event was conceived two years ago with representatives from the Joliet Area Historical Museum, which oversees the prison, as an event for people in the Collins Street neighborhood who have lived near the former Joliet Correctional Center for decades.

Capparelli said the organizers kept trying to put words in his mouth, and he never tried to characterize the Joliet Block Party as political.

City Manager Jim Capparelli listens to council discussion on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. The Joliet City Council discussed an amendment to allow for liquor consumption and video gambling at gas stations.

“I never said that. They kept trying to say that,” Capparelli said. “They kept saying, ‘You’re trying to say this is a political event.’”

Capparelli said he called off the party because the Joliet Area Historical Museum was basically providing the space for free to a neighborhood organization to have an event. He said the event would have raised the specter of a precedent being set in which free use of the prison would have to be permitted not only for any neighborhood organization in the city but any group whatsoever, including motorcycle gangs.

“The museum doesn’t get to pick and choose which group gets to have a fundraiser for them,” Capparelli said. “I’m not going to allow them to say they’re going to have an open house for the Outlaws motorcycle gang.”

Members of the Collins Street Neighborhood Council said they tried to make a point with Capparelli that they had a unique tie between their neighborhood and the prison.

“We had community clean-ups when it was abandoned,” said Amy Sanchez, who has been involved with prison renewal efforts since 2010. “The idea behind the Sunday event was to engage the community surrounding the prison.”

A sign along Collins Street outside the Old Joliet Prison marks state; recognition for Joliet efforts to restore the former Joliet Correctional Center.

The city leases the prison from the state of Illinois, an undertaking aimed at protecting and restoring a sprawling facility that had been subject to deterioration, vandalism and even arson fires in the years after it was shut down in 2002. The building attracted visitors from the world over.

A number of events already have been held at the prison, but Capparelli said that the Joliet Block Party was an aberration because the museum had little role in organizing it. He said the whole purpose of blocking the party was to set up standard procedures for prison use.

Although Capparelli denies any political concerns being involved, Councilman Cesar Guerrero said he caught wind several weeks ago of some concerns in connection to “a conflict of interest” concerning himself and the event.

Cesar Guerrero addresses the council on Monday, May 3, 2021, at Joliet City Hall in Joliet, Ill. After a tight race, three new City Councilman were sworn in at a special meeting on Tuesday.

Guerrero, who was part of the original organization efforts, said he stayed out of the event after being elected to the City Council in April, especially since he was appointed to the council’s Prison Committee.

“Right away, I took a step back to try to avoid this kind of situation,” he said. “But here we are regardless.”

Arias said the purpose behind the Joliet Block Party has been turned on its head.

“The community was very disappointed,” Arias said. “We wanted to build that trust between the city and museum and the community. Now there is distrust.”