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JOLIET – The Illinois Department of Corrections plans to open a residential treatment facility for inmates with serious mental illnesses in Joliet by the end of the year, a spokeswoman said Friday.
The Joliet Treatment Center has been in the works since late 2014 as the state has tried to resolve litigation over services provided to inmates with mental illnesses.
The facility will be located on McDonough Street at the former site of Illinois Youth Center-Joliet.
IDOC spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said in an emailed statement that the department “intends to open the facility by the end of this year.”
The Joliet Treatment Center is expected to employ 430 people.
The state has spent about $17 million on construction in retrofitting the former youth prison for the new use.
State Sen. Pat McGuire, D-Joliet, raised questions about the future of the Joliet Treatment Center after a committee hearing this week on the IDOC budget.
On Friday, McGuire said he had received mixed messages from IDOC officials as to whether funds would be available to open the Joliet Treatment Center without a budget in place.
Funds have been made available to open some treatment centers, McGuire said.
“I feel that the available state funds are going to run out before the Joliet Treatment Center is opened,” he said. “We need a state budget to make sure that the Joliet Treatment Center is operable.”
Wilson said IDOC is required to open the Joliet Treatment Center within 15 months of the Legislature passing a full budget, but plans to open it by the end of the year.
Two other residential treatment units for inmates with mental illnesses were opened at Logan Correctional Center in October and at Dixon Correctional Center in 2015.
The Joliet facility would treat 460 inmates, according to a news release from McGuire’s office.
The reconstruction of the McDonough Street facility started in mid-2015.
A class-action lawsuit seeking change in the treatment of mentally ill prisoners was filed in 2007. A federal court ruled last year that the state must improve services.
The Joliet Treatment Center at one time was expected to open in early 2016, although local legislators cautioned then that it was not likely to happen without a state budget in place.
The facility had been a youth prison from 1959 until its closing in February 2013, as the state opted for alternative programs for juvenile offenders.
When it closed, IYC-Joliet employed 220 workers.