Report: Overcrowding after Dwight prison closing

Posted on December 15, 2014

Gov. Pat Quinn closed Dwight Correctional Center in 2013 as a cost-saving measure. (WJBC file photo)

By The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD – A new report from a prison watchdog group has found that moving about 1,000 female inmates from a now-closed prison in Dwight into a prison in Lincoln has exacerbated overcrowding and failed to generate meaningful cost savings.
 
The Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers obtained a copy of the report expected to be released Monday by the Chicago-based John Howard Association. Gov. Pat Quinn ordered the closing of the Dwight Correction Center last year as a cost-cutting move.
 
But the report from the association found nearly 2,000 inmates are now residing in the Logan Correctional Center, which was built to house about 1,100 inmates.
 
Illinois Department of Corrections officials say the state's financial situation has created challenges but they called the transfer a "relatively smooth transition.''

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