Illinois, Livingston Co. Staff To Tour Closed Prison

State officials are set to visit the closed Dwight Correctional Center next week as the Livingston County sheriff tries to get permission to use a portion of the facility to house hundreds of inmates.

Sheriff Martin Meredith tells The (Kankakee) Daily Journal that the July 18 meeting will also include county officials.

Meredith wants Livingston County to take over a cell house in the prison that was once the only maximum-security lockup for women. Under his plan, the county would house up to 300 prisoners from the federal prison system, Cook County and elsewhere.

The roughly 950-prisoner facility was one of several that closed earlier this year as part of the state's cost-cutting moves.