Bill Text: IL HR0160 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges 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. Urges 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.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-03-04 - Referred to Rules Committee [HR0160 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-HR0160-Introduced.html

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HR0160 LRB104 12445 MST 22768 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

HR0160 - 2 - LRB104 12445 MST 22768 r
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 FOURTH 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

HR0160 - 3 - LRB104 12445 MST 22768 r
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.