This dashboard presents data on admissions to Illinois state prisons. People are generally admitted to prison in one of two ways: (1) as the result of being sentenced to prison following conviction for a felony offense (court admissions) or (2) because they violated the terms of Mandatory Supervised Release (MSR) (technical violation).

Any adult convicted of a felony offense can be sentenced to prison, and those convicted of specific offenses (e.g., First Degree Murder, Class X felonies, and other specific crimes) must be sentenced to prison. When a person is sentenced to prison, the judge sets the sentence length, which is within a range of time specified under Illinois law.

When someone violates the conditions of their MSR they can be readmitted to prison, and under certain circumstances (e.g., arrested for domestic battery while on MSR) they must be returned to prison as an MSR violator. Loyola’s Center for Criminal Justice has conducted extensive research on the types of MSR violations that result in return to prison.

Information on prison admissions comes from the Illinois Department of Corrections public data portal and is updated biannually.