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SPRINGFIELD — Nearly 13,000 prison staff members in Illinois received training for dealing with mentally ill inmates in the past year, Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration said Wednesday.

The Republican governor described the effort as part of his administration's goal of fixing what he calls Illinois' broken criminal justice system — one of the few areas Rauner has been able to find agreement on with Democrats during an 18-month budget standoff.

Speaking to a class of employees who received the training, Rauner said the state's corrections system should be improved to "get at the core causes of criminal behavior so we can improve the quality of life for everybody."

"And focus not only on punishment, but also on rehabilitation," he added.

The governor's office said the Corrections Department partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to provide two-day training to help staff better understand conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to improve communication with inmates.

About a quarter of the state's 43,800 inmates suffer from a mental illness, according to information provided by the governor's office.