Stateville Correctional Center

Stateville Correctional Center is a maximum security state prison for men in Crest Hill, Illinois, USA.

History

Opened in 1925, Stateville was built to accommodate 1,506 inmates. The prison was designed around a concept proposed by the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the panopticon. A panopticon "F-House" cell house is commonly known as a "roundhouse", which features an armed tower in the center of an open area surrounded by cells. Stateville has the only remaining "roundhouse" still in use in the United States. cite web
title =Stateville Prison in Joliet, 1992
work =chicagohistory.org
url =http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11144.html
accessdate=2006-09-05 Includes photo of the roadhouse]

Current use

Today the prison holds an average of over 2,700, at an annual cost of over $33,000 per prisoner.

With nearly 1,300 employees, Stateville is a Level 1 facility, the highest of eight security level designations. There is also a minimum security unit commonly referred to as the Stateville Farm, which is a Level 7 facility.

Stateville is located two miles north of Joliet, Illinois, in Crest Hill, on a site of over 2,200 acres, of which 64 acres are surrounded by a 33-foot concrete perimeter with 10 wall towers. Stateville is often confused with the former Joliet Correctional Center, which closed in 2002. Located in the nearby city of Joliet, the former Joliet Prison is much older and smaller. It is located about 2.5 miles southeast of Stateville, across the Illinois & Michigan canal.

Further information

*In the 1940's the US government tested malaria vaccines on the prisoners. cite web
title =Historian examines U.S. ethics in Nuremberg Medical Trial tactics, Andrew Ivy, a medical researcher and vice president of the University of Illinois at Chicago, testifies for the prosecution at the 1946 Nuremberg Medical Trial.
work =Larry Bernard
url =http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/96/12.5.96/Nuremberg.html
accessdate=2006-09-05 ] "See main article, Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study."

*Stateville is where Leopold and Loeb were incarcerated. Stateville was also where Richard Speck was housed, and where the infamous Speck videotapes were shot. Before Tamms Correctional Center was opened, executions were performed at Stateville.

*A photograph of the interior of the "F-House" is used to demonstrate the concept of the panopticon in some editions of Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish".

*MSNBC created a documentary about the Stateville Correctional Center (MSNBC Investigates 'Lock-Up' series).

Notes

External links

* cite web
title =Stateville Correctional Center
work =The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC)
url =http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/facilities/information.asp?instchoice=sta
accessdate=2006-09-05

* [http://www.auditor.illinois.gov/audit-reports/compliance-agency-list/corrections/stateville-cc/fy02-corrections-stateville-cc-comp-digest.htm 2002 Audit]