The state of Illinois’ decision to close Logan Correctional Center was an unpopular one in Lincoln. The plan to relocate the state’s only women’s prison housing medium and maximum-security prisoners 140 miles north to Crest Hill displaces more than 400 jobs in Lincoln, a city of about 13,000 people and the Logan County seat.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker stood by the decision in a media appearance Tuesday in Bloomington.
Pritzker noted the Surplus to Success program, a $300 million initiative aimed at remediating state-owned properties which have been left vacant for decades, including the former Lincoln Developmental Center, a 100-acre former psychiatric hospital and school for developmentally disabled individuals.
“I’m not leaving those abandoned facilities alone,” Pritzker said.
In Lincoln specifically, Pritzker, a Democrat running for re-election in 2026, said the state’s desire is to attract a new industrial or commercial partner to add jobs to the struggling city.
“This is not the administration of 20 years ago that abandons properties,” Pritzker said. “In fact, our desire here is to use every resource we have in the state of Illinois to grow our economy.”
Republican Gov. George Ryan’s administration closed the 125-year-old facility in 2002 after reports of abuse and neglect surfaced, removing about 500 state jobs from Lincoln. A portion of the LDC complex which once served as its farm is where Logan Correctional Center was built in 1978, repurposing some of its nearly century-old buildings.
A minimum-security men’s prison next door, Lincoln Correctional Center, was built in 1984. The state has not telegraphed any intentions to close or relocate the men’s prison.
Numerous reports have noted deteriorating conditions at Logan Correctional Center, including one by an independent watchdog which said the prison is “falling apart.” Another, issued by the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2023, said the facility was nearly “inoperable” and carrying $116 million in deferred maintenance.
One woman, Amy Hicks, who was incarcerated at Logan said the conditions were “unbearable,” noting poor sanitation and days-long power outages. Another is suing the state, saying she was induced to give birth against her will while a prisoner at Logan.
During an Aug. 24 hearing in Springfield, a federal judge partially accepted the state’s motion to dismiss the case. Certain parties may still be held responsible for the alleged violations of the Illinois Reproductive Health Act.
Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch said he toured the prison recently with state Sen. Sally Turner.
“When you walk the property, it doesn’t look run down,” he said. “You get into the buildings and they’re aged a little bit. But they’re also putting money into that facility. When we were there they were talking about a multi-million dollar underground electrical program.”
That was shortly before the official decision was made to close.
Five-year timeline
Welch said the state has indicated it will keep Logan open “as long as it’s safe to do so.”
Pritzker said there is a five-year timeline to fully transition to the new prison in Crest Hill, which will be located near a newly built Stateville men’s prison.
Another argument for relocating Logan Correctional Center was the prison population itself. According to a 2026 Illinois Department of Corrections report, just over half of Logan’s approximately 1,200 prisoners were convicted in northern Illinois counties, making for a shorter commute for families wishing to visit. Welch said the move makes it even harder on families in the bottom half of the state.
Pritzker said Tuesday that “none of that is taken into consideration.”
“When people are put in correctional institutions, they’re really just housed wherever there is space that’s appropriate to the kinds of sentence that they’re serving,” he said. “In the future we want to make sure first that we’re doing everything we can to have safe facilities for our correctional officers to work in, as well as those who are prisoners, to live in, and that we’ve got facilities that are helping to rehabilitate the inmates that can be rehabilitated.”
The state said the new site closer to the Chicago metro area provides people leaving prison with more reentry services and employment opportunities. According to a press release, the new 800-bed facility in Crest Hill is touted as including “rehabilitative and gender-responsive spaces with housing, education, programming, medical and mental health, dietary and recreational areas to support the successful reentry of individuals into their communities.”
The state’s only other women’s prison is a minimum-security facility in Decatur.
Pritzker said economic development has been a focus of his administration and he’s committed to seeking solutions for Lincoln. That includes the addition of a new juvenile detention center, the Monarch Youth Center, built near the perimeter of the LDC site last year.
“I think more than any governor since Jim Thompson, I’ve been focused on economic development for the state, and indeed, we’ve attracted thousands and thousands of jobs across the state—and new business, new investment. Lincoln [Developmental Center] now will be a place where there’s a facility that has all the utilities that are necessary. That’s a big deal for incoming companies.”
Pritzker said he looks forward to working with county and local government to attract “the best businesses and the most jobs we can.”
Braden Fogerson and Lizzie Seils contributed to this report.
