By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

Governor Bruce Rauner and Illinois Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin discussed on Wednesday efforts to transform the IDOC and department of justice with several reforms.

The first one is that nearly 13,000 DOC staff have participated in mental health training with 100% participation.

Baldwin explained many of the ways this is a benefit.

“People said ‘you couldn’t train that many people in a year,’ and the answer is, yes we can., because mental health is a huge issue facing every correction system in America. It is the source of a lot of issues between staff and offenders. We need to make sure our staff are fully trained,” Baldwin said.

The governor’s office said prior to January 2016, staff had not received any training on how to work with offenders who are mentally ill.