Pontiac Correctional Center

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 2172, it has an average daily population of approximately 2000 inmates. In May 2008, Governor Rod Blagojevich proposed to shut down the Pontiac facility, with a phase-out plan to take place from January through 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. Illinois has since sold Thomson to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Pontiac facility is one of the largest employers in the Livingston County community. Blagojevich's successor, Pat Quinn, cancelled plans to close Pontiac Correctional Center in March 2009 after taking office. History to 1931 The prison was operated as a boys' reform school from 1872 to 1893. It was formally established as the State Reformatory for youths after that. Among its early detainees was Charles Hair, a Cherokee convicted at age 12 of intent to assault an officer, as he was picked up in an armed raid by law offices in November 1892 raid at the fort of Ned Christie, also Cherokee. Christie had been declared an outlaw after being wrongly accused of killing a federal marshal in 1887, and was killed in the raid. Hair was held in Illinois for three years. When the prison was expanded to house an adult population, the buildings of the former reform school were used as the administrative offices. Two cell houses were constructed. One was a 4-tier cell house holding 296 cells, each of which measured 8'3" x 7' x 8'. The other was 5 tiers, housing 500 cells measuring 8'x 5'x 8'. The cells had iron bars in the front and contained a cot or spring bed, a stool and locker.