Interactive Tool Illustrates Incarcerations Impact on Young People / Public News Service publicnewsservice.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from publicnewsservice.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Mothers of incarcerated people, joined by other prisoners’ rights advocates, stand in front of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s home in Lincoln Park on Friday morning, They want the governor to halt construction of the Illinois Youth Center and allow contact visits in Illinois prisons tor resume.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Against a backdrop of bright pink tulips, protesters stood outside Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Gold Coast home on Friday with flowers, signs and a painted piece of cardboard that read, “Dear J.B., on this Mother’s Day, set our loved ones free.”
That oversized Mother’s Day card included demands that Pritzker sign clemency petitions to for prisoners they say have been wrongfully incarcerated and that he stop construction of a new youth prison at the Lincoln Developmental Center.
The Lincoln Developmental Center, first called the Illinois Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children, had a sordid history before former Gov. George Ryan closed it in 2002. Founded in 1877, it was an institution for developmentally challenged children and became the largest employer in Logan County. Ryan was pressured to shut it down by those advocating for the developmentally disabled after abuse and neglect, including preventable deaths, were reported. The state now has plans to repurpose part of the abandoned facility and turn it into a youth detention center for up to 30 youth. It would be the first so-called Illinois Youth Center opened under Gov. JB Pritzker s 21st Century Illinois Transformation Model – a plan that promises to make major changes to the state s juvenile justice system in coming years.
Normal, IL, USA / www.cities929.com
Mar 16, 2021 2:20 PM
The Illinois Capital Development Board (CDB) has selected Cordogan, Clark & Assoc., Inc. as the preferred architectural design firm for the renovation and construction of the Lincoln Developmental Center in Logan County. CDB will oversee the project’s design and construction in accordance with the protocol for state-appropriated projects.
Through Governor Pritzker’s bipartisan capital plan, the first in nearly a decade, the Department of Juvenile Justice will receive nearly $21.1M. The administration has released $2.5 million to begin designing the project which will remodel two cottages for housing juveniles, plus one cottage for new classrooms and one cottage for new administrative use. The project will also include designing and constructing a new multipurpose building, which will include a gymnasium, classrooms, and office space. The mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection (MEP/FP) systems will be upgra
Updated 2/26/2021 8:43 AM
A former Chicago Bears offensive lineman who became a guard of a different sort after his pro football career ended was acquitted this week of charges he ran a fight ring among detainees at a state youth prison in St. Charles.
Johan Asiata who spent 2009 and 2010 with the Bears before he was cut in 2011 was found not guilty Tuesday of official misconduct, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint.
Kane County Judge David Kliment issued the not guilty verdicts for Asiata and two co-workers at the Illinois Youth Center St. Charles. The facility is a medium-security detention center for boys.