North Lawndale Custody Status
North Lawndale Adult Transition Center is a transitional-security male facility in Chicago. It is part of the Illinois Department of Corrections system and is operated for IDOC by Safer Foundation. The center prepares residents for a later return to the community, but the placement itself remains state custody. A resident may take part in approved community activity without having reached parole or mandatory supervised release. Mandatory supervised release, often shortened to MSR, is the supervision period that can follow physical release from state custody.
This distinction is the central fact in any North Lawndale release check. The Cook County Jail roster and discharge tracker do not cover the center. CCDOC is a county pretrial jail system. North Lawndale is an IDOC facility for people serving state sentences. A person who moved from Cook County Jail to North Lawndale did not leave custody at that point. The Cook County court record may explain the state commitment, but the IDOC record controls the later state-custody status.
Search North Lawndale Release Records
Open the official IDOC Individual in Custody Search. The linked application accepts a last name, IDOC number, or birth date. An IDOC number is the strongest starting key when it is known. A full or partial surname can return several people, so never select a record by name alone. Match the IDOC number, date of birth, physical descriptors, sentencing county, and court case details before relying on the profile.
The result includes Offender Status, Location, identification information, photographs, admission and release fields, and sentence rows. A location at North Lawndale Adult Transition Center paired with an in-custody status means the person is still held by IDOC. It is not a release result. Save the exact field labels and the date the profile was checked. IDOC warns that information changes quickly and that maintenance may make the application unavailable for a time.
Does an ATC address prove release? No. North Lawndale is a state correctional placement. The positive release milestone appears later when the matching IDOC profile shows PAROLE, a parole-district location, and a Parole Date.
North Lawndale Parole Evidence
For someone still at North Lawndale, the profile may show a Projected Parole Date. That is an estimate for the anticipated move from physical custody into parole or MSR. It is not a promise. Credits, court orders, sentence structure, detainers, revocation issues, and other lawful changes can alter the calculation. The exact profile should be checked again near the expected date rather than treating an older screenshot as final.
After physical release, the IDOC profile can show Offender Status: PAROLE, Location: PAROLE DISTRICT, and a Parole Date. Read those fields together. The Parole Date documents the start of release into state supervision. A parole-district location means IDOC no longer lists the person at North Lawndale, but the sentence has not necessarily ended. Illinois often calls the modern supervision term MSR even though the public IDOC application uses PAROLE in its status and location labels.
The Cook County parole and probation resource explains the roles of the IDOC Parole Division and Illinois Prisoner Review Board after physical release. Probation is different. It is a court-ordered form of supervision and does not prove that someone served a term at North Lawndale or left IDOC custody.
North Lawndale Discharge Dates
Projected Discharge Date is not the expected day a resident walks out of North Lawndale. It anticipates the later end of the sentence and supervision. A person can therefore have a Parole Date and remain under IDOC supervision until a later Projected Discharge Date. The two fields answer different questions. Use Parole Date for physical release into supervision. Use Projected Discharge Date only as the current estimate for full sentence completion.
Sentence rows need the same care. An IDOC profile can list a mittimus or case number, offense, sentence, county, and SENTENCE DISCHARGED?: YES/NO. A mittimus is the court commitment that sends a person into state custody. One row marked discharged does not prove all custody ended. Another count may remain active, or a later case may control the status. Confirm the overall Offender Status and every relevant sentence row.
The distinction also prevents a common date error. Projected Parole Date is forward-looking while the person remains confined. Parole Date records an event that occurred. Projected Discharge Date is a later estimate. Last Paroled Date may appear where applicable. Copy each label exactly instead of converting all four into a generic “release date.”
North Lawndale Archived Records
The live IDOC search is not a permanent list of everyone who completed an Illinois sentence. IDOC FAQ 14 says it displays people who are currently incarcerated or on parole. Once the sentence is complete, the person no longer appears in the public live results. A no-result response can therefore mean full completion, a mismatch, a temporary system issue, or that the person was never in this live subset. It does not independently prove an old discharge.
For an old North Lawndale record, use IDOC’s Contact Us form and choose General Subject Record Search. Give the full name, date of birth, IDOC number when known, approximate reception year, North Lawndale as the facility, Cook County or other sentencing county, case number, and approximate custody dates. Ask for the archived custody and discharge information. A positive Record Search response provides firmer support than an empty current-search screen.
For copies, use the IDOC Freedom of Information Act page. A focused request can seek admission, release, and discharge dates, status or release type, facility history, sentencing or mittimus entries, and releasable photographs. Ask for electronic records and segregable nonexempt portions. “Segregable” means the agency can redact protected parts while releasing portions that may lawfully be disclosed.
North Lawndale Records Contacts
IDOC provides public custody information at 217-558-2200. The IDOC FOIA Officer is at 1301 Concordia Court, P.O. Box 19277, Springfield, IL 62794-9277. The records contact is 217-558-2200 extension 4166, fax 217-558-5612, and DOC.FOIARequest@illinois.gov. Include enough identifiers to separate the correct person from common-name matches, but do not ask for unrelated protected material.
IDOC states that an ordinary FOIA response is due within five working days, with written notice of a permitted five-working-day extension. The first 50 black-and-white letter or legal pages are free, then the posted rate is $0.15 per page. The posted 8.5-by-11 color rate is $0.59 per page, while other media or reproduction may be charged at actual cost. Confirm current terms on the agency page before filing because operational details can change.
When a profile has a factual problem, IDOC FAQ 7 directs correction matters involving reversed or remanded verdicts, pardons, or commutations to its Public Information Office with proper court documents. An unsupported request to erase a result is not the correction process. Certified committing-court paperwork and a clear cover letter let IDOC evaluate the claimed error.
North Lawndale Facility Facts
The official North Lawndale facility page identifies the center and its current state role.
The source is important because it distinguishes this transition center from a county jail or independent community program. North Lawndale remains an IDOC placement until the state record shows the later custody change.
North Lawndale Adult Transition Center is at 2839 W. Fillmore Street, Chicago, IL 60612. The main phone is 773-638-8480, and the fax is 773-638-8498. IDOC says the facility opened in June 2000. These details identify the correct center and records trail. They should not be read as proof that a resident was paroled.
IDOC’s operational data lists capacity as 208 and population as 164 as of June 30, 2024. Its facility narrative separately refers to 200 beds. Those are distinct official descriptions, so both should keep their labels rather than being blended into one number. Capacity and population describe the institution at a given point. They do not predict any individual release.
North Lawndale Custody Trap
Cook County’s adult transition centers create an easy but serious misunderstanding. A North Lawndale resident can have approved community movement while remaining in state custody. The setting is meant to aid transition, yet the legal custody does not change merely because activity occurs outside a conventional prison wall. Only the later IDOC status and date fields establish the next stage.
This means a family member should preserve the IDOC number, check the matching profile, and note the exact location and status. If it still shows North Lawndale or another IDOC facility, the person remains in custody. If it shows PAROLE and a parole district with a Parole Date, physical release into supervision has occurred. If the person has vanished after full completion, request the archive result. The live profile, archived response, and court commitment form a much stronger chain than an assumption based on community access.
After North Lawndale Release
Once the profile shows parole, use release paperwork and the assigned officer for reporting duties. The Illinois Department of Corrections Parole Division supervises the released person, while the Illinois Prisoner Review Board has roles in conditions, hearings, revocation, and discharge. A later Projected Discharge Date remains subject to the official sentence record and lawful changes. Do not call it final until the responsible agency confirms completion.
If a person once shown on parole later appears in custody, both records can be accurate. The earlier Parole Date may still document a real release. A new custody event or alleged violation may have produced a return. Check the current IDOC status and the appropriate Prisoner Review Board record rather than deleting the older milestone or assuming a database error.
The Cook County release search overview helps distinguish a Cook County Jail discharge from an IDOC parole event. For North Lawndale, the decisive channel remains IDOC. The Sheriff’s adult county tracker cannot verify an ATC parole, and a current-profile disappearance cannot replace the archived state record.