CHESTER, Ill. (AP) - A Chicago-based prison watchdog group says a maximum-security prison in southwestern Illinois is getting increasingly dangerous. A report Tuesday by the John Howard Association says the Menard Correctional Center has too many inmates and too few guards. That makes for the state's worst inmate-to-staff ratio of all Illinois maximum-security lockups. The group says there have been 14 staff assaults since January 1st at Menard near Chester, southeast of St. Louis. The 133-year-old prison is designed to hold less than 3,100 prisoners, but it has 3,621. Its population of more than 2,000 convicted killers is more than any other Illinois prison. The Illinois Department of Corrections disputed the report, saying the size of Menard's inmate population must be taken into consideration when comparing it with other prisons. - http://goo.gl/sDQny
