Pontiac Correctional Center, established in June 1871, is an Illinois Department of Corrections maximum security prison (Level 1) for adult males in Pontiac, Illinois. The prison also has a medium security unit that houses medium to minimum security inmates and is classified as Level 3. Until the 2011 abolition of the death penalty in Illinois, the prison housed male death row inmates, but had no execution chamber. Inmates were executed at the Tamms Correctional Center. Although the capacity of the prison is only 1,058, it has an average daily population of 1,660.
In May 2008, Governor Rod Blagojevich’s administration proposed to shut down the Pontiac facility, which would phase out the prison between January and February 2009. The inmate population would be transferred to the Thomson facility, a newly-built maximum security prison, which is also equipped to house segregated inmates. The Pontiac facility is one of the largest employers in the Livingston County community. Governor Pat Quinn cancelled plans to close Pontiac Correctional Center on March 12, 2009.
Read more about Pontiac Correctional Center: History To 1931, Riots, Proposed Prison Closing, Notable Inmates
Famous quotes containing the word center:
“There is nothing more natural than to consider everything as starting from oneself, chosen as the center of the world; one finds oneself thus capable of condemning the world without even wanting to hear its deceitful chatter.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)