Menard Correctional Center, known prior to 1970 as Southern Illinois Penitentiary, is located in the town of Chester

Chester, Illinois

Chester is a city located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River Valley in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,400 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Randolph County and is located south of St. Louis, Missouri.-History:...

 in Randolph County, Illinois

Randolph County, Illinois

Randolph County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 33,476, which is a decrease of 1.2% from 33,893 in 2000. Its county seat is Chester....

. It is a state prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 housing maximum-security and high medium-security adult males.The average daily population as of 2007 is 3,410. Menard Correctional Center opened in March 1878, and is the second oldest prison in Illinois. It also stands as Illinois’s largest maximum-security prison.