Du Quoin boot camp temporarily closed
The Du Quoin boot camp facility near the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds has been closed temporarily and the 25 inmates removed to other facilities, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections confirmed Wednesday.
Twenty-three young men from the Du Quoin Impact Incarceration Program have been transferred to the Dixon Springs Impact Incarceration Program in Golconda and two were taken to the Pinckneyville Correctional Center, according to Lindsey Hess, media administrator for the IDOC.
Hess said in an email the consolidation will let the IDOC provide more efficient care for inmates during the COVID-10 pandemic.
"This action is in no way a facility closure," she added. "Once the COVID-19 pandemic is concluded, and it is deemed safe for normal IDOC operations to resume, staff will return to their original work locations and shifts."
Contrary to a rumor circulating in Du Quoin, Hess said there are currently no plans for the empty boot camp to house IDOC inmates who have contracted the novel coronavirus.
She added that no confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been discovered at either the Du Quoin or Dixon Springs boot camps, or the Pinckneyville Correctional Center.
The Du Quoin boot camp opened in 1994, as a satellite facility of the Pinckneyville Correctional Center, according to the IDOC website.
It was built on state land just east of the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, which has nothing to do with running it, confirmed state fair manager Josh Gross.
Inmates are all male and no older than 35. Offenders who meet the requirements can get their sentences significantly reduced if they successfully complete the program; and are able to return home in about six months, instead of whatever their sentences were.
During their stay in the military-style camp, inmates go out into the community in work groups. Gross said at the fairgrounds, groups of supervised young men would clean out ditches and pick up trash, or do similar tasks.
In 2019, work groups from the Du Quoin facility helped fill sandbags along the Mississippi River in Randolph County.