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Illinois Experiments With Treatment and Assistance for Offenders

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun Jun 26, 2005 at 07:49:50 AM EST
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by TChris

Drug offenders who pay their societal debt by finishing a prison term return to a society that often continues to punish them by denying them employment. Out of despair or necessity, many return to the world of drugs, and then to prison.

Illinois is experimenting with a program to end that cycle. Its Sheridan Correctional Center will soon be the country's largest drug treatment prison. Unlike many drug treatment prisons, Sheridan focuses on repeat offenders.

Illinois recognized that, with 40,000 inmates coming out of its prisons this year, and with 80 percent likely to return to crime within three years, the simple-minded "lock 'em up" strategy has failed. It also recognized that treatment alone won't prevent recidivism. Inmates at Sheridan participate in educational or job training programs. Critically, support for offenders continues after their release into society.

The state has added 100 parole agents, for a total of 440, to allow agents to work more closely with former felons, and has also assigned drug treatment counselors to all Sheridan parolees, to help them find jobs and housing, and to obtain ID like a driver's license - services often not available to former felons. Illinois has opened seven re-entry centers across the state where some parolees check in daily for drug testing and others come for job and treatment support.

Early results have been promising.

Among the first 150 graduates of Sheridan, said David E. Olson, a professor at Loyola University Chicago who has tracked the program, 27 percent were arrested within nine months of release, compared with 46 percent of a group of inmates of other institutions with similar backgrounds and drug use. Ten percent of the Sheridan graduates returned to prison within that time, compared with 27 percent of the other sample.

States that have been on a prison building binge for the last 25 years are starting to realize they can't afford to lock up every offender forever. Yet states that offer no help to ex-cons who can't find jobs face the certainty that most will return to prison. That cycle must stop, and Illinois(in particular, Gov. Blagojevich, who campaigned on a promise to reduce recidivism) should be commended for taking even these modest steps to confront the problem.

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    Illinois Experiments With Treatment and Assistance for Offenders | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: Illinois Experiments With Treatment and Assist (none / 0) (#1)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:34 PM EST
    I love this idea, I think it won't work because that so called society is a punishment in it's self, the fact is many of the guys you are writing about are in a third world mind set and it won't work, but do it and see what will happen, but you are right about the simple minded government thing, and the fact is you can't stop the political and cultural collapse to say nothing about the economic collapse of this brainwashed non nation. one more thing, if i was a third world person making $500,000.00 a year in drug money, why would i want to go to work and make $20,000.00 a year? and pay tax? many of the people you write about like prison and have family inside many prisons inside the empire so its kind of funny to think many of the people who deal and use drugs will stop.

    Re: Illinois Experiments With Treatment and Assist (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:35 PM EST
    I live in Illinois and I hope this program does make a difference, but if more services aren't put in place for these guys, as they try to make it, this will not last. Just an example; I am trying to help an ex-felon find work and have spoken with his probation officer on several occassions. All the probation officer does is make sure he is where he says he'll be and to tell him he needs to get his fines and fees paid. There is no public transportation in the rural area where he lives and there are no funds to get this gentleman to and from work (even if an employer were to give him a chance, which so far seems very unlikely as it is a fairly small community and jobs are few and far between at the moment). So even though our Governor should be applauded for the effort, this is just one example of the barriers that exist when it comes to ex-offenders being able to make it in the community. And Fred, there aren't many that want to go back to prison, but when they aren't given an opportunity to make it legitimately on the outside they resort to what worked for them in the past. It all comes down to support, or in many cases, lack of support.

    New ways of treatment. (none / 0) (#3)
    by xss500 on Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 08:26:07 AM EST
    There are a lot of new ways have been develop to treat addicted patients.Illinois Drug Treatment

    Illinois Experiments With Treatment and Assistance for Offenders | 3 comments (3 topical)