Illinois’ death row prisons
• Pontiac Correctional Center
Opened: June 1871
Capacity: 1,058
Level 1: Maximum-Security Adult Male
Level 3: High Medium-Security Male
Average daily population: 1,612
The facility consists of a total of 63 buildings, which comprise more than 744,000 square feet. The facility sits on a 37-acre site, with 32 acres being enclosed by fencing. Pontiac Correctional Center houses the following offenders: segregation, condemned protective custody, mental health, administrative detention reintegration management and medium security.
• Tamms Correctional Center
Opened: June 1995
Capacity: 700
Level 1: Maximum-Security Adult Male
Level 7: Low Minimum-Security Male
Average daily population: 432
Total average daily population: 432
Average age: 36
Average annual cost per inmate: $64,116.00
The mission of the Tamms Closed Maximum Security is to improve the quality of life, safety and day-to-day operation of other Illinois Department of Corrections facilities and to enhance the safety of staff, offenders and the public.
Tamms C-Max has been designated and designed to house the Illinois Department of Corrections' most disruptive, violent and problematic offenders. Offenders approved for placement at the Tamms C-Max have demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to conform to the requirements of a general population facility.
Tamms Correctional Center consists of a 500-bed C-Max security facility and a 200-bed minimum-security unit (MSU). The MSU provides offender work crews for a number of municipalities. MSU offenders also provide labor for maintenance, housekeeping and groundskeeping for the main facility. The facility is on 236 acres of land just north of Tamms on Route 127 in Alexander County. Twenty-four acres are occupied by the C-Max physical plant, which is surrounded by a 12-foot high double-barbed wire security fence.
— Illinois Department of Corrections Web site
