IDOC explains plans to treat mentally ill inmates

BLOOMINGTON - A report says Illinois' prison system is ready to create four treatment units and add 350 clinical staff to help improve conditions for mentally ill inmates.

The document was filed recently by the Illinois Department of Corrections as part of civil litigation working its way through federal court in Peoria.

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph says the report addresses plans to renovate facilities at the Dixon, Pontiac and Logan correctional centers. Those changes would offer beds for 900 inmates with serious mentally illness.

The department would also reopen a former Joliet youth home as a mental health campus. That could bring the total number of available beds to 1,235.

The filing comes after a hearing where inmates' lawyers ask for accounts of its progress in improving treatment for mentally ill inmates.