HR0907 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0907 LRB103 42704 MST 75940 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, From 1877 to 2002, the State of Illinois operated a large residential facility for developmentally disabled children and adults in the City of Lincoln, known first as The Illinois Asylum for Feeble Minded Children and later renamed the Lincoln State School and Colony, the Lincoln State School, and finally, the Lincoln Developmental Center; and

WHEREAS, The Lincoln Developmental Center was located on a sprawling campus, resembling a miniature city, and housed thousands of residents and contained its own power plant, kitchen, bakery, sewing rooms, laundry facility, hospital, nursing school, fire department, jail, and farm, as well as other industrial shops; and

WHEREAS, The Lincoln Developmental Center also contained a cemetery that housed the remains of deceased patients who had lived at the facility when their families could not be located or were indigent; and

WHEREAS, The State opened the Logan Correctional Center, a women's prison, adjacent to the Lincoln Developmental Center in 1978 and opened the Lincoln Correctional Center, a men's prison, on the same grounds in 1984; and

WHEREAS, After the closure of the Lincoln Developmental Center in 2002, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) became responsible for managing the Lincoln Developmental Center cemetery; and

WHEREAS, With the erection of correctional facilities near the cemetery and management of the cemetery becoming IDOC's responsibility, it became difficult for family members, relatives, and friends of those interred at the cemetery to visit their loved ones, care for their gravesites, and pay their respects; and

WHEREAS, No clear process exists for members of the public to visit their deceased loved ones interred at the Lincoln Developmental Center cemetery, including no public guidelines for families to follow and no public information on who is responsible for managing such visits at IDOC for families to contact; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the Illinois Department of Corrections to develop a standard policy/set of guidelines that are public for those who wish to visit gravesites of loved ones including, but not limited to, familial relations and researchers; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge the Illinois Department of Corrections to consider ease of access to the public for this cemetery during renovations or rebuilding of IDOC facilities at this site; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be delivered to the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections.