A view of the confinement/treatment unit and gymnasium at the Illinois Youth Center Friday, March 30, 2012, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
A view of dorm 5 (at left) and the confinement/treatment unit and gymnasium (at right) at the Illinois Youth Center Friday, March 30, 2012, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
Concertina wire is seen along the fence at the Illinois Youth Center Friday, March 30, 2012, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
The Illinois Youth Center in Joliet, Ill. | File photo
A bipartisan group of legislators called on Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday to cancel his plans to close four state prisons, including Illinois Youth Center-Joliet. | Sun-Times Media file photo
Portions of the health care unit (left), dining room (center) and school (right) are seen at the Illinois Youth Center Friday, March 30, 2012, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
JOLIET — Lester Brown remembers beating the brush with a baton in a hunt for a juvenile inmate who had escaped from Illinois Youth Center-Joliet one day in the early 1980s. The youth was waiting in the weeds with a gun he had stolen from …
