SPRINGFIELD — Governor Bruce Rauner has nominated John R. Baldwin to become the next Director of the Illinois Department

of Corrections. Baldwin is the former Director of the Iowa Department of Corrections and brings more than 35 years of overall experience to the position.

Baldwin led the Iowa Department of Corrections from January 2007 until his retirement in January of this year. He will move from overseeing a system with about 8,000 inmates to one that has about 47,000 inmates packed into space built for 32,000 prisoners.

The Illinois department’s budget of $1.3 billion dwarfs Iowa’s prison budget of about $375 million.

Baldwin’s tenure in Iowa was not without criticism. In the waning days of his job in Iowa, problems arose in the construction of an 800-bed new state prison in Fort Madison.

In addition to a lengthy delay in its opening, the cost of the prison also mushroomed over time, from $132 million to $166 million, according to reports.

AFSCME, the union representing prison employees in Illinois has voiced some concerns over Baldwin’s hiring, saying he had “poor relations” with Iowa prison workers and had advocated in favor of privatizing some prison programs.

Baldwin, whose appointment will have to be approved by the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate, is the second out-of-state director of the corrections department since Rauner took office in January.

His first choice, Donald Stolworthy, quit after just two months on the job.