My hometown could have had a reputation for its limestone, from which buildings around the country were constructed; or the nation’s first junior college; or big names like George Mikan and Mercedes McCambridge. But Joliet became best known for the Joliet and Stateville Correctional Centers long before John Belushi’s fictional “Joliet Jake” was released from the former.
The Joliet Correctional Center — better known as the Old Joliet Prison — closed in 2002. Now the state has proposed demolishing maximum-security Stateville, which is actually in next-door Crest Hill, with a facility focusing on rehabilitation and reentry, and moving downstate Logan’s women’s prison alongside it.