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Illinois Prison System Proposes Mental Health Improvements

Flickr user miss_millions / " Prison cells" (CC v 2.0)

Illinois' prison system has a new proposal to help improve conditions for mentally ill inmates.

The Corrections Department wants to create four treatment units, more than a thousand available beds and add 350 clinical staff. The plan includes renovating facilities at the Dixon, Pontiac and Logan correctional centers.

The department would also reopen a former Joliet youth home as a mental health campus. The filing comes after a hearing where inmates' lawyers ask for accounts of progress in improving mental health treatment.