and the Illinois Department of Corrections cannot close the prison because funding was provided in the 2008-09 budget, which was passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Blagojevich." On September 17, an independent commission of state lawmakers rejected closing the prison, despite the claims by the Department of Corrections that such action would save money in the next year's budget. Pat Quinn, lieutenant governor of Illinois since 2003, assumed the governorship in January 2009 after Blagojevich was impeached for corruption charges. (He was later convicted and imprisoned.) On March 12, 2009, Governor Quinn cancelled plans to close Pontiac Correctional Center. In 2020, Governor JB Pritzker proposed the closure of the prison. Plans were finalized in early 2022, allowing the prison to remain open, while permenantely closing the medium-secuirity unit. Units Medium-Security Unit This unit, commonly referred to as "the farm," was once a working farm that cultivated crops and raised livestock to produce much of the food consumed by the prison. This unit is classified as Level 3 and houses offenders that are medium- to minimum-security inmates. Unit population as of 1/1/2021 was 327. Maximum-Security Unit This unit is classified as Level 1. It contains offenders who need to be segregated and are limited in their privileges. The maximum security unit also houses maximum-security inmates in General Population status, and high-aggression protective-custody inmates. Population as of January 2021 was 738. North Condemned/Administrative Detention Until the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois in 2011, this unit housed death row inmates. This unit has been renamed as North Administrative Detention. It now houses inmates who are believed to be gang chiefs and too much of security risks to be housed in the general population. North Segregation This unit is the state's main Segregation housing unit for high-aggression inmates who have broken facility rules. Such violations include assaulting staff or inmates, possessing contraband, escape attempts, etc. East Cell House This unit holds many different classifications of inmates, including Segregation Release, and Protective Custody. South Protective Custody Unit The state's primary Protective Custody Unit. Some of these inmates are former death row offenders. The unit houses between 300-400 inmates. South Mental Health Unit This unit provides psychiatric and psychological mental health services for offenders who are sentenced to be within the correctional system for a longer period of time and have a segregated status. These offenders are diagnosed as