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Menard Correctional Center is a state prison located in Randolph County, Illinois. Rated capacity: 3,881. Reported population: 2,213. Security level: Maximum. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.
Background
Menard Correctional Center, known prior to 1970 as Southern Illinois Penitentiary, is an Illinois state prison located in the town of Chester in Randolph County, Illinois. It houses maximum-security and high-medium-security adult males. The average daily population as of 2007 was 3,410.
Menard Correctional Center opened in March 1878; it is the second oldest operating prison in Illinois, and, by a large margin, the state's largest prison. Menard once housed death row; however, on January 10, 2003, the Condemned Unit closed when then Governor George Ryan granted clemency to all Illinois death row inmates.
Milton Johnson (May 15, 1950 â May 16, 2025), known as The Weekend Murderer, was an American serial killer and mass murderer who was believed to have committed up to 14 murders that occurred in Will County, Illinois during the summer of 1983.
Andre Crawford (March 20, 1962 â March 18, 2017) was an American serial killer, rapist and necrophile who killed 11 women between 1993 and 1999 in Chicago.
Michael Alfonso (born Michael Johnson; June 26, 1969) is an American former fugitive who was convicted of multiple felonies, including two counts of murder, in the state of Illinois.
tives from those who work and live in the criminal justice system. Sign up to receive “Life Inside” emailed to you every week. Related Stories I served 20 of those years at Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois. It’s a maximum security prison right on the banks of the Mississippi River near the Missouri border. One of the things about being in prison is that you’re constantly seeing new
Inside News & Awards Impact People Supporters Jobs Contact Us Investigate This! Newsletters Events Donate Feedback? [email protected] A double cell at Menard Correctional Center Uptown People's Law Center Filed 7:00 a.m. EDT 03.24.2016 Justice Talk The Best Reporting on Solitary Confinement Brush up for our March 30th chat on solitary confinement by reading some of the most crucia
rd Simmons. Sesson put his hands through the food slot to have his handcuffs removed. Both men were in "disciplinary segregation," a bureaucratic term for solitary confinement, at Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois. Reported and published in collaboration with NPR . Listen to the piece here . But unlike many in solitary, Sesson and Simmons wouldn’t have a moment alone. The
