SPRINGFIELD - Illinois' most notorious criminals will soon have a new home if state prison officials carry out their plan to close Pontiac Correctional Center.

Fifteen inmates on Illinois' death row will be shipped west to the state's mostly unused prison in Thomson in January, marking the first time the state's condemned unit has not been in Pontiac in decades.

The prison in Thomson, which was built in 2002 but never fully opened because of budget constraints, is ready to accept the prisoners, said Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith.

"No special modifications will need to be made," she wrote in an e-mail response to questions.

The change is just one part of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to shutter the 137-year-old prison in Pontiac on Dec. 31.

Although death row is moving, the state's death chamber will remain at the Tamms Correctional Center in Southern Illinois.

No executions have taken place in Illinois since March 1999, when serial killer Andrew Kokoraleis died of lethal injection.

In January 2003, former Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of 137 condemned prisoners, saying the death penalty process is immoral.

Since taking office, Blagojevich has continued the moratorium on executions imposed by Ryan.

kurt.erickson@lee.net|789-0865