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United States · Illinois · Pontiac

Pontiac Correctional Center

State prisonMaximumUnder capacity (26%)LowHigh
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

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Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit

Pontiac Correctional Center is a state prison located in Livingston County, Illinois. Rated capacity: 2,947. Reported population: 780. Security level: Maximum. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.

Capacity

2,947

Current population

780

Occupancy

26%

Year opened

1871

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1871

Region

Illinois

Security level

Maximum

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

A Marshall Project report highlights that an inmate with a history of serious mental illness has been held in solitary confinement at Pontiac Correctional Center since 1995, describing the isolation as lasting decades rather than hours.

Contact & address

700 West Lincoln Street, Pontiac 61764
(815) 842-2816
Official site

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

5/100
Low concern5/100
Overcrowding
0/30
Oversight reports
0/30
Structural flags
5/15
Death signals
0/15
Conditions text
0/10

What the score is responding to:

  • · Substantial documented known-issues record

This facility scores 5. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 3 points above national average.

Related facilities

All in United States →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in United States

7436 peers
Occupancythis: 26% · peers avg: 93% (71%)
Capacity (beds)this: 2947 · peers avg: 547 (+439%)

Reports

  • marshall-project31 Mar 2016

    or others to danger. But that isolation should be measured in hours, not decades. – Alan Mills, UPLC As I have been on this chat, I was handed a letter from a man in solitary in Pontiac Correctional Center here in Illinois. He had been treated for a serious mental illness as a kid. In prison, he was sent to solitary in 1995, at the age of 19. He has been in solitary ever since. He is currently

    source

  • marshall-project24 Mar 2016

    nd robbery. He landed in solitary at Menard after testing positive for crack cocaine. Fox, then 28, was serving a life sentence for murder. He had been in single-cell solitary at Pontiac Correctional Center for attacking a former cellmate and telling a social worker he fantasized about dismembering him. He was then transferred to Menard — and double celled. After Fox and Daczewitz were placed

    source

Data completeness

74%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Pontiac Correctional Center. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/pontiac-correctional-center
Chicago
"Pontiac Correctional Center." World Prisons. Accessed October 23, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/pontiac-correctional-center.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-pontiac-correctional-center,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Pontiac Correctional Center},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/pontiac-correctional-center},
  urldate = {2026-10-23}
}