BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
DANVILLE — Illnesses have closed the doors temporarily for visitors at the Danville Correctional Center.
The Illinois Department of Corrections confirmed Friday morning the prison located on Danville’s far east side has been on lockdown since Wednesday.
Sharyn Elmen, chief public information officer for the IDOC, confirmed the prison was placed on lockdown. The cause, she said, was the flu.
Almost 30 prisoners as of Friday had become sick with the flu at the medium-high security prison that holds more than 1,000 prisoners.
“Whenever you see those numbers, you do everything you can to try and contain it,” Elmen said.
She indicated in each of the 29 cases, prisoners had developed symptoms such as a fever. She said the sickness was the common flu.
To try to prevent the spread of the flu, Elmen said prison officials are working to sanitize the entire facility. To do that, no visitors are being allowed inside for the time being.
How long the visitors will be kept out of Danville Correctional Center will be determined by the sickness itself. Elmen said officials will revisit the issue each day and reopen visitation “once we feel we’ve got it contained.”
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