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Joliet Correctional Center

Real Location: Joliet Correctional Center
Address: 1125 Collins St, Joliet IL
Status: Location still exists

Description: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Joliet Correctional Center (colloquially known as Joliet Prison) was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States from 1858 to 2002. It is featured in the motion picture The Blues Brothers as the prison Jake Blues is released from at the beginning of the movie. It is also the location for the Fox Network's Prison Break television show.

The prison was built with convict labor at a total cost of $75,000 and had space for 761 inmates. Opened in 1858, just outside of Joliet city limits, it replaced Alton Prison (opened 1833, closed 1860). The limestone buildings were designed by William W. Boyington (he also designed the Chicago Water Tower and the Capitol in Springfield), based on the panopticon ideas of Jeremy Bentham. At the time of building it was the largest prison in the country and the design became a model for United States prisons.

The first 33 inmates arrived in May 1858. Both criminal prisoners and prisoners of war were kept there during the Civil War. The first corrections officer to be killed there was Joseph Clark in 1865. By 1872 the population had reached 1,239, a record number for a single prison. From the 1870s the prison had work contracts with local businesses.

The prison was slow to adapt to change; there was no running water or toilets in the cells in 1910 and the construction of the nearby Stateville Correctional Center in 1917 (opened in March of 1925) was meant to lead to the swift closure of Joliet. A women's prison was added across the road from the main structures in 1896 but closed in 1932.

The number of inmates peaked at 1,300 in 1990 and was still 1,156 in 2000, although capacity had been raised to 1,300 over 1999-2000, from 1,180 previously. In 2000 there were 541 staff. From the 1990s the prison worked more as a reception and classification center for northern Illinois, holding prisoners for less than a month and processing over 20,000 a year.

Often confused with Stateville Correctional Center, which is also located in Joliet, Illinois, it is in fact a completely separate prison. It is Stateville, not Joliet, which has the famous "panapticon" roundhouse, and where John Wayne Gacey was housed.

Joliet Correctional Center closed as a holding prison in February 2002. Budget cuts and the obsolete and dangerous nature of the buildings were the cited reasons. All inmates and most staff were transferred to new buildings built at Stateville, the other maximum security prison in Joliet. Joliet continued as an intake center until March 2004.

Coordinates: 41.54693,-88.07427
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