Lewis, a former warden at the Pontiac (Illinois) Correctional Center, assumed the position of acting director[71] until Doris Whitney of Detroit, MI, was appointed in July 1950.
[72] Eight months into her superintendence, at the end of March 1951, a state senate committee launched an investigation of conditions at the reformatory after hearing an increasing number of complaints and after the beating of a guard by an inmate known to be dangerous.
[89] After a visit to the reformatory a year later, Governor William G. Stratton applauded the progress, noting improved and more economical housekeeping practices and food service, as well as a reduction in the per capita cost of inmates by nearly 40%.
[122] When in fall 1966 DCC celebrated its 35th anniversary, officials announced a plan for a $1 million centralized building for dining, recreation, storage, a 40-bed living area, and some administrative offices.
[133] The Society also noted that the women were unable to pass the state licensing exam for beauty school even after 1500 hours of training, and inmates had inadequate medical, legal, and drug recovery services.
[138] In the meantime, responding to the John Howard report, Algood stated that inmate complaints were either invalid or beyond his ability to solve, citing lack of funds as one reason certain grievances had not been addressed.
On April 23 a civil rights action lawsuit was filed to block the transfer until the county institution had services and facilities equal to those at the DCC, including exercise areas indoors and outdoors, a library, educational programs, and privileges such as women being allowed to wear their own clothing.
[194] An audit by the state found problems with pharmacy and telephone records and weekly headcounts and notified the administration that if they weren't resolved their budget for the next fiscal year could be affected.
[196] Huch had trained as a teacher, attended college in New York, worked at Head Start in Harlem, and taught in St. Louis, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois, prior to her service at DCC.
[202] Church Women United of Illinois, with the help of appropriations by the General Assembly, responded to Huch's vision of a multi-purpose chapel with a capacity of 200 by raising some of the $600,000 cost.
[216] The following year the IDOC announced a plan to transfer 75 women to the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, IL, where they would share public space with male inmates already there.
[222] By March 1990 the IDOC doubled the number of staff at DCC,[223] but additional actions of double-celling women at both Logan and Dixon co-ed correctional centers, seeking or building a facility which could provide an additional 200–250 beds,[224] and urging legislation expanding "good time" provisions for the early release of inmates convicted of armed robbery[225] could not alleviate the consequences of the "explosive" growth of females in the penal system [226] or the limits of the sewage system at DCC.
Funds were frozen by Governor Jim Edgar, however, for road rehabilitation and parking expansion, removal of underground storage tanks, and expanding the medical facility.
The John Howard Association and Lutheran Social Services reported that 4% of all inmates in Illinois had either the disease or its precursor HIV and that "in-jail transmission of AIDS was tantamount to handing 'unadjudicated death sentences to some prisoners.'"
[250] Nonetheless, Legal Aid to Incarcerated Mothers continued to urge state corrections officials to provide a place were non-violent inmates could live with younger children.
[256] They stated that inmate claims of sexual misconduct generally were not treated seriously, even when evidence pointed to their veracity, and that complainants were given unreliable polygraph tests and sometimes sent to isolation as retribution.
[259] On February 1, 1997, a bill was introduced in the state legislature to make sexual contact with inmates a felony resulting in a prison sentence of 4–15 years and loss of pension benefits, regardless of whether "consent" had been obtained.
[262] On June 6, 1997, Guinevere Garcia, a death row inmate whose sentence was commuted to life just 14 hours before her execution several months before, attempted suicide by cutting a 2-inch long, 1⁄2 inch deep gash in her wrist with a broken light bulb.
[275] During her one-year term of service the IDOC announced the end of the "experiment in sociology" that allowed women in Illinois prisons to wear street clothes and issued in their place uniforms—white shirts and blue pants.
[280] Linda Dillon, Assistant Deputy Director of the IDOC, stated that the Decatur facility would be "heavily programmed to try to reconnect women with their children before they return home".
Fearing malfunction of electronic security devices and the administrative distraction, officials moved high-risk inmates to unfamiliar settings in other prisons, went on lockdown for the whole weekend, and took the precaution of having extra food and water on hand.
[290] The director of the IDOC, Donald Snyder, stated that the program was designed not only to provide inmates with marketable skills, but to reinforce, also, "a commitment of responsibility, the work ethic and compassion for others."
[292] In August 2000 Representative Dan Rutherford considered a bill to increase funding for the DCC, but stated that he wanted first to know why 248 officers worked 7,245 hours of overtime (or 990 shifts) in July—the first month of Illinois' fiscal year.
[294] A temporary solution was to transfer guards from Pontiac, effectively shifting the overtime issues to that prison, but retirements and resignations at DCC would soon make the arrangement a break-even.
[299] In 2003, as part of his plan to address the state's $4.8 billion deficit, Governor Rod Blagojevich decided to "streamline bureaucracy" in the IDOC by terminating the employment of middle-management.
[305] In 2008 allegations of repeated instances of sexual misconduct and rape by male guards with the knowledge of administrators at DCC resulted in two lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
[329] A study by Northern Illinois University reported that closure of the facility would result in a ripple effect loss of 629 jobs and $53.7 million (or 5%) of the gross regional product in Grundy, Kankakee, LaSalle, and Livingston counties.
[335] At the end of August an arbitrator ruled that Quinn was violating terms of a legal agreement with the union to resolve concerns about employees' safety prior to closing, and a court placed a restraining order on the closure.
The John Howard Association asked the state not to close DCC because of its historical commitment to creating a rehabilitative environment to meet unique female needs, many of which result from trauma and sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
[357] On September 1, 2015, the State of Illinois began a five-year contract with the Dwight Fire Protection District to allow use of several cottages, the infirmary, and adjacent buildings for training in advance firefighting beginning in 2016.