ABC 7 I-Team sources with knowledge of the situation said the simple reason Peterson was moved was high maintenance, not high security. A lot of prisoners receive similar transfer treatment for various reasons but few are as recognizable and in need of regular management as Peterson.
By any measure 63-year-old Peterson has been a high maintenance prisoner from his made-for-television criminal "celebrity" status, to his in-your-face wise-cracks with media and correctional officers to his outrageous murder-for-hire plot against the Will County prosecutor that was hatched while behind bars at Menard.
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On Tuesday Peterson was moved from Menard State Prison to the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Center. State officials said that it was under the terms of the Interstate Compact Agreement and that they do not discuss prisoner movements for safety and security reasons.
His attorney said he didn't know anything.
"He's not an informant, he's not sick he's not being threatened he's not threatening other people he doesn't have new charges. I don't know," Steve Greenberg, Peterson's attorney, said.
State officials also have denied that he was involved in an escape plot. I-Team sources said there was no safety or security reason for moving Peterson. It was a high maintenance transfer.
Under the Interstate Compact Authority, several hundred prisoners are moved every year from state prisons across the country to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Illinois state prisons currently house some federal prisoners transferred from elsewhere.
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According to a study of compact transfers, "inmate protection" was the reason for most of them. But in Peterson's case, it appeared not to be so sinister.
Peterson's Federal Bureau of Prisons record has finally been updated to reflect his new cell in the Terre Haute facility.
The Illinois Department of Corrections did not comment on information that Peterson was moved because he was a high maintenance inmate and sent the I-Team the same general statement a spokesperson released two days ago.
Peterson's attorney said he has yet to speak with his client now in Indiana and is awaiting clearance from the Bureau of Prisons.