Dwight Correctional Center

Dwight Correctional Center (DCC), also known as Oakdale Reformatory for Women, and Illinois Penitentiary for Women at Dwight, was a women's prison in Livingston County, Illinois, United States, outside the village of Dwight, Illinois. It operated from 1930 to 2013. It was established in 1930 as the Oakdale Reformatory for Women. Over the course of its 83 years the reformatory maintained a commitment to the concept of rehabilitating felons and misdemeanants for positive and productive re-entry into society. Adaptations were made and experiments conducted as inmate populations and changing conditions required. The facility was closed in 2013 as the State of Illinois sought to balance its budget. At that time it was the only maximum security prison for adult females in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), inclusive of women on death row until the death penalty was abolished in Illinois in 2011. The name "Oakdale Reformatory for Women" fell out of common usage in the early 1970s when the IDOC's co-ed experiment began. The DCC was also occasionally referred to by other names, including Dwight Reformatory and Illinois Penitentiary for Women at Dwight. The facility is located at 23813 E. 3200 North Road in Nevada Township, unincorporated Livingston County, Illinois. Interest in a reformed penal system for women arose as early as 1914 among women's service and advocacy groups in Illinois. In 1919 legislation was passed by the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives that would establish "a State sanitarium for females above the age eighteen," but no funding was provided at that time. Proponents of the women's reformatory attempted for several years following to obtain an appropriation, but failed. In 1925 twelve state women's organizations representing 300,000 women formed the Illinois Women's Joint Legislative Council and State Committee on an Illinois Reformatory for Women, which succeeded in securing $300,000 and begin building. At its founding the reformatory joined 22 other states in The United States which had separate reform facilities for women.