Menard Correctional Center

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Menard Correctional Center
Menardcc.jpg
Menard Correctional Center
Location1096 1350th Street
Chester, Illinois
Coordinates 37°54′43″N89°50′31″W / 37.91194°N 89.84194°W / 37.91194; -89.84194
StatusOpen
Security classMaximum
Capacity3,861
Opened1878
Managed by Illinois Department of Corrections

Menard Correctional Center, known prior to 1970 as Southern Illinois Penitentiary, is an Illinois state prison located in the town of Chester in Randolph County, Illinois. It houses maximum-security and high medium-security adult males. The average daily population as of 2007 is 3,410. [1]

Contents

Menard Correctional Center opened in March 1878; it is the second oldest operating prison in Illinois, and, by a large margin, the state's largest prison. Menard once housed death row; however, on January 10, 2003, the Condemned Unit closed when then Governor George Ryan granted clemency to all Illinois death row inmates. [2] It is a part of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Menard Correctional Center's average prisoner age is 34 years old. Each inmate's average annual cost totals as of fiscal year 2018 $27,364. [3]

Current facility

As of 2006, Menard Correctional Center has a total of 2,600 acres (11 km2), 41 of which are inside the grounds.

The grounds are composed of six housing units. The South Lowers Housing Unit and the South Uppers Housing Unit house inmates with moderate aggression levels and those who currently have job assignments (Though closed for repairs in October 2018). The North I Cell House contains the Step-Down Unit, and General Population. The North II Cell House contains inmates in disciplinary segregation, administrative detention, and the general population. The East Cell House is heavily monitored. Inmates assigned here are classified as either Level E, High, or Moderate escape risk. The West Cell House holds inmates that are either high or moderate escape risk and are classified as High Aggressive Inmates, as well as the Protective Custody Unit.

Within the grounds there is also the Inmate Dining Hall, Chapel, Health Care Unit, Receiving and Classification Unit, Education Building, Maintenance and telecommunications Departments, Menard Division of Illinois Correctional Industries, and Randolph Hall, which acts as Menard's training complex for prison employees.

Inmates who are illiterate attend school. Other inmates can enroll voluntarily. Menard had courses for elementary schooling and several high school subjects. [4]

The current industries at Menard include meat processing, knitting and sewing, manufacturing of floor care and cleaning products, waste removal, and recycling operations.

Menard, as of 2006, employs approximately 854 prisoners. It has a daily population of around 3,416 inmates. The racial breakdown is 62% black, 28% white, and 9% Hispanic. Of the inmates housed at Menard 51% of offenders are incarcerated for murder, 21% of inmates have life sentences, and 33% are serving more than 20 years. The average age of inmates at Menard is 34 years old. [1]

Capital punishment

By 1931, Menard was one of three sites in which executions were carried out by electrocution in Illinois. Between 1928 and 1962, the electric chair was used 18 times here for those sentenced to death in the southern counties of the state. [5] The state's other electrocutions were carried out at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill and at the Cook County Jail in Chicago.

Prior to the January 11, 2003, commutation of death row sentences, male death row inmates were housed in Menard, Pontiac, and Tamms correctional centers. After the commutations, only Pontiac continued to hold death row prisoners. [6]

History

19th century

The first Illinois penitentiary was founded in Alton, the Alton Military Prison, in 1833. Reformer Dorothea Dix visited the site and was sharply critical of the filthy conditions there in an 1847 address to the Illinois General Assembly. She noted, among many other things, that Alton was the only prison in the U.S. where inmates were made to stand while eating meals. In 1858, the Alton prison was replaced by the Joliet Correctional Center and closed.

Twenty years later the Southern Illinois Penitentiary opened, taking prisoners from the southern counties of the state. It was established in 1878 overlooking the Mississippi River. [4] It accepted 200 prisoners the next year. The original buildings were finished by 1889, consisting of the North and South Cell Houses and the Administration Building. [1] A wall enclosed the 11½ acres of the prison grounds. [5] The rear wall runs over the top of a hill that was one of the prison's rock quarries. [5]

Menard also had a quarry outside the walls. [4] All the original buildings were constructed by prison labor. [1] The original North and South Cell Houses each contained 400 cells on four tiers. Inmates lived two to a cell. None of these cells had plumbing. Buckets were used instead.

The exterior includes columns and an awning portraying skeleton keys and a scale of justice. The entranceway has two stone lions. Christie Thompson and Joe Shapiro of The Marshall Project wrote that the exterior "looks more like an ornate university building than a maximum-security facility. [7]

20th century

In 1928, the prison suffered from massive overcrowding. Designed to hold 800 men, the institution had approximately 2,000. [4] Thus, an additional five cages were built on each side of the cell house corridors. These cages, which housed two men each, had a center wall of steel with the top and sides consisting of iron bars. [5]

Old buildings within the prison yard were also being used as dormitories, housing prisoners until around 1930 when a new cell house was built to combat the excessive inmate population. [4] The new cell house contained 500 cells, each housing two inmates. All of these cells had plumbing. [5] In 1928, the bathhouse was located in the basement of one of the old buildings. It contained 76 showers. [4] By 1931, the baths were relocated to the basement of the commissary, containing 84 concrete showers. [5] Throughout this time, inmates were given time to bathe once a week during the winter and twice a week in the summer. [5]

In 1927, of the 484 inmates who arrived at the prison in 1927, 406 were white, and 78 were black. [4] By 1928, there were 1974 inmates and 96 guards, a ratio of roughly 1 to 20. By 1931, the inmate population had risen to 2,285 with four yard offices and 130 guards, or approximately one guard to every 17 inmates. Of the 2,285 inmates, 1,844 were white and 441 were black. [5]

In 1928, Menard owned 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of farmland outside the grounds. The farm included a dairy and a piggery that contributed to the prison diet. The root cellar was one of the largest and most intricately designed of any institutions at the time. All industries within the prison were housed in the old buildings that, by 1928, had been renovated to provide better working conditions. The major industries included clothing manufacture, a quarry, and the farm. The products were sold on the open market; however, no compensation was awarded to inmates. [4] By 1931, the farm grew to 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) and brick manufacturing and the machine shop were added to the prison's major industries. [5]

Merit, rules, and regulations

Indeterminate sentencing

In 1897, Illinois adopted indeterminate sentencing. [1] By 1931, eighty percent of the inmates were serving indeterminate sentences. [5]

Merit system

In 1903, a "grade system" was adopted for inmates. This lasted until 1920, when the "progressive Merit System" was adopted. Using this system, "good time" could be awarded to or taken from inmates based on their behavior. [1] In addition, inmates were divided into grades, A, B, C, D, and E, based on behavior. The disciplinary staff, consisting of the warden and his deputies, decided on promotions and demotions in grade levels. For example, men in grades A and B were allowed to write two letters a week. Those in C could only write once a week. D and E inmates could only write on special permission. [4]

Rules and regulations

Silence was mandatory in the mess hall and in marching lines. Smoking was permitted in the cells and dormitories. The prison commissary, around 1930, allowed inmates to buy tobacco, candy, toilet articles, canned goods, and fruit. No limit was set on the purchases. [5]

Punishments

Around 1930, punishment involved a loss of privileges. For more serious offenses the men are put in punishment cells, large cells located in a building to the rear of the deputies' offices. For some offenses men were cuffed to the bars during working hours. By 1931, this practice was discontinued. [4]

Major incidents

1952 Riot

In late October 1952, Menard experienced a prison riot in 1952, while Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson was campaigning for President as the Democratic Party nominee. Prison guards were taken hostages during the riot, which began on October 27th. One of the demands of the 399 prisoners engaged in the riot was to speak to the governor, and Stevenson left the campaign trail to negotiate with the prisoners. He was given credit for ending the riot, when he appeared at the prison on October 31st, backed up by an overwhelming show of force, and delivered the prisoners an ultimatum. [8]

There had been a previous uprising on September 22nd. A month later, prisoners took a prison lieutenant and six guards as hostages when a more serious riot broke out. [9]

Stevenson, backed up by between 100 and 200 state troopers, stood inside the prison yard and delivered the ultimatum over the prison public address system. He said, "We are going into the cells with state police armed with guns and with whatever force necessary." while the state troopers fired shots into the cell blocks held by the prisoners, before entering the parts of the prison under the control of the rioters. All seven guards were recovered unharmed. [10]

Later incidents

In the 1970s, a significant increase in inmate population, not only at Menard but also around the country, may have been the cause of two incidents during the time. In May 1973, thirty-eight inmates took over the commissary and held a guard hostage for sixteen hours. In May 1974, sixty inmates held four guards hostage, this time demanding congregation rights in the prison yard and several changes in administrative procedures. [1]

In March 1994, Menard was in the news when 24-year-old Michael Blucker took the state to court after contracting HIV when in the prison. Blucker stated that prison staff helped gang members rape him. Although the juries found the staff not to be liable, the case uncovered problems of sexual assault and gang activities within the prison. [11]

There were two deaths of prisoners who were housed in solitary confinement with other prisoners inside their cells. Circa 2004, 28-year-old Corey Fox, who was serving a life sentence for murder, killed 22-year-old Joshua Daczewitz, a person from a Chicago suburb who was convicted of arson and robbery. On November 29, 2014, David Sesson killed Bernard Simmons; the two were also placed in a solitary confinement cell together. [7]

Notable inmates

In the 1993 movie The Fugitive , Dr. Richard Kimble (played by Harrison Ford) is sent to the prison at Menard to await execution, but escapes following a bus-train collision en route.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Facts and History of Menard Correctional Center. Illinois Department of Corrections.
  2. ↑ Official Illinois Department of Corrections website Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Southern Illinois Penitentiary: Menard Illinois. Handbook of American Prisons,1928.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Southern Illinois Penitentiary: Menard, Illinois. Handbook of American Prisons, 1931.
  6. ↑ "DOC Report Online Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine ." Illinois Department of Corrections. Retrieved on September 1, 2010.
  7. 1 2 Thompson, Christie and Joe Shapiro. "The Deadly Consequences of Solitary With a Cellmate ." The Marshall Project. March 24, 2016. Retrieved on March 29, 2016.
  8. ↑ Blair, William M. "Stevenson Ends Illinois Riot; Ultimatum Backed by Force; Prisoners at Menard Prison Surrender After Releasing Seven Guards Held as Hostages -- Governor Admits Action Was 'Gamble' STEVENSON'S EDICT ENDS PRISON RIOT". The New York Times . Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  9. ↑ "ILLINOIS PRISONERS RIOT, SEIZE GUARDS". The New York Times . Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  10. ↑ "Week-Long Prison Riot Is Broken". California Digital Newspaper Collection. Madera Tribune. Retrieved 26 November 2023. Week-Long Prison Riot Is Broken MEN'AIM). 111. M'P)— st « t(> police acting on orders of Oov. Adlai Stevenson broke the week-long riot -it Menard state prison today and freed all seven prison guards held as hostages. Between 100 and 200 stale troopers, most of them armed with riot spins, invaded the strife torn east i cell block and fired several shots as they rushed in. | Order was reported restored hall an hour later with no further violence. The seven guards, held captive by the convicts since the siege begin last Monday, were tired and tutig v y out unharmed. Families of a.! but two of tfce ' hoTlcw-eyed guards greeted them in the warden's office. Stevenson, who broke off his presidential campaign and flew here last night, stood outside in the prison yard as the troopers i filed into the cell block. The decision to send the troopers ! in was made after long conferences 'held by Stevenson and Lt. Gov, Sherwood Dixon. Warden Jerome Munie. Michael F. Seyfrit, state director of public safety, and other state officials. Then Seyfrit told the .100 rebel- 1 lious convicts over the prison! loudspeaker system: "We are going into the cells with | state police armed with guns mil, with whatever force necesary to j restore order." Immediately after order was re-1 stored. Stevenson left the prison; iby automobile for a trip to Scott field, where his plane from the, , East landed last night. The prisoners were herded into i their cells as the troopers stood by with their weapons ready. The riot had ended and the men were a tired, dirty, dejected lot. The cellhouse floor was littered with accumulated debris, but there I was little visible damage to the building.
  11. ↑ Weed, William Incubating disease: Prisons are rife with infectious illnesses – and threaten to spread them to be public
  12. ↑ https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/11/15/jury-chooses-death-for-killer-of-6-women/
  13. ↑ "RondoNumbaNine Sentenced to 39 Years in Jail for Murder".
  14. ↑ https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/he-killed-five-children-here-and-youve-probably-never-heard-of-him/article_243e7951-a1ee-5146-9ab8-44e3eb959ea6.html
  15. ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-family-feud-contestant-sentenced-life-estranged-wifes-slaying-rcna99547
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