Stateville Correctional Center

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

1 History
2 Current use
3 Further information
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] 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.^[1]

[edit] 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.

Stateville is located three 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. While located in nearby Joliet, The former Joliet Prison is much older and smaller. It is located about 2.5 miles south of Stateville, and across the river.

[edit] Further information

In the 1940's the US government tested malaria vaccines on the prisoners.^[2]

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 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.