Old Youth Center Could House Mentally Ill Prison Inmates: Official

The shuttered Illinois Youth Facility-Joliet could be transformed into a facility to house mentally ill prisoners.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer told the Joliet Herald News that the McDonough Road site, which had housed juvenile offenders until being closed earlier this year, was "definitely under consideration" as a possible location for the facility. It is one of several being examined, he said.

State Sen. Pat McGuire (D-Joliet) broached topic last week when he told the Joliet City Council that IDOC Director Salvador Godinez had expressed an interest in using the Joliet site for a new purpose.

Another option could be using it for 17-year-old who have been convicted as adults, the newspaper story said.

“It could be both. It could be one. It could be neither,” McGuire told t.