Illinois State Penitentiary. Menard Branch.

The Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Chester (authorized 1877) was overseen by a three member Board of Commissioners, appointed by the Governor to advice the warden and investigate operations. In 1889, the Illinois Asylum for Insane Criminals was authorized to be built on the penitentiary grounds under the oversight of the penitentiary commissioners. Under the Civil Administrative Code of 1917, the Southern Illinois Penitentiary was placed under the Department of Public Welfare but maintained its previous governing structure. Individual penitentiary commissions were abolished and penitentiaries consolidated administratively as the Illinois State Penitentiary System (1933) with the Illinois Asylum for Insane Criminals becoming the system's Psychiatric Division. The Department of Public Safety was placed in charge of the prisons until the Dept. of Corrections was created in 1970 to include all state penal institutions.