UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST PRISON MINISTRY OF ILLINOIS
  • Home
  • Education
    • Prison Industrial Complex
    • Radical Hospitality
    • Self-led Learning >
      • In Prison - Learning
      • Justice Reform - Learning
      • Re-Entry - Learning
      • History - Learning
    • In the Media
  • Work we do
    • Advocacy >
      • COVID-19 Advocacy
      • Past-Advocacy
      • Pretrial Advocacy
      • Solitary - Learning
    • Congregations >
      • PenPals
      • Solidarity Circles
    • Prison Ministries >
      • Curricula
    • Calendar
  • Get involved
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Why We Exist
    • Partners & Allies
  • Donate

Educating ourselves

JHA Special Report: Kewanee

2/1/2019

0 Comments

 
JHA Special Report: Kewanee The Inaugural IDOC Life Skills Reentry Center Facility Report
John Howard Association of Illinois

The John Howard Association of Illinois (JHA) had our first official visit to the Kewanee Life Skills Reentry Center (LSRC) in April 2018, about a year after it opened in mid-February 2017 with the first 10 men housed within Kewanee LSRC (Kewanee) as an Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) facility.1 Population at Kewanee on the date of the April 2018 visit was 215, nearly double the population of 130 men housed at the facility a few months earlier at the beginning of 2018.2 The operational, or bed-space, capacity at Kewanee has been reported differently, from 538 to 648.3 Administrators stated that they expected to soon increase population to 280 when a third housing unit is opened. However, the facility capacity remains undecided, as increasing the population to the reported operational capacity is not yet considered feasible while maintaining program integrity.4 Kewanee’s population made up just about .5% of the approximately 41,060 people incarcerated within IDOC; nonetheless, the novel work of this facility merits review.

Kewanee had been an Illinois Youth Center run by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ) until the closure of that facility in June 2016. JHA had called for the closure of the facility for youth for several years due to chronic issues and the low population throughout IDJJ.5 However, JHA strongly supported repurposing the facility for adults, in part because it has a much newer and better physical plant than most adult facilities,6 and to provide specialized services sorely lacking throughout IDOC.7 Ultimately, with Kewanee, Illinois chose to try something that had been talked about for years and encouraged by many including JHA, to use the facility to provide intensive programming and reentry preparation for those who were at a higher risk to recidivate.8 As Kewanee administrators explained, they don’t want “the best of the best,” or people who are already at a low level of risk to reoffend, and who are not coming back anyway, because providing intensive reentry programming for that population will not make as much of a difference.

JHA also notes that providing more humane treatment and productive programming undoubtably will benefit both individuals and society.

Read More
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    What this is about

    Learning asks us to change – so that the world might be a place for all are free to thrive

    Categories

    All
    COVID19
    IP: Death Row
    IP: Education
    IP: Exploitation
    IP: Health Care
    IP In Prison
    IP: LGTBQ
    IP: Mental Health
    IP: Religion
    IP: Solitary Confinement
    IP: Women
    JR: History
    JR Justice Reform
    JR - Justice Reform
    JR: Mental Health
    JR: PIC Today
    JR: Reform
    JR: Strike
    Police
    Re Entry: Parole
    Re-entry: Parole
    Re Entry: Realities
    Re-entry: Realities
    Re Entry: Rights
    Re-entry: Rights

    Archives

    November 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017

    RSS Feed

UUPMI

We equip UU's in Illinois to ​transform institutions and support people harmed by the prison industrial complex.
Advocacy
Education
Inside Ministries
Congregational Work
© COPYRIGHT 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Education
    • Prison Industrial Complex
    • Radical Hospitality
    • Self-led Learning >
      • In Prison - Learning
      • Justice Reform - Learning
      • Re-Entry - Learning
      • History - Learning
    • In the Media
  • Work we do
    • Advocacy >
      • COVID-19 Advocacy
      • Past-Advocacy
      • Pretrial Advocacy
      • Solitary - Learning
    • Congregations >
      • PenPals
      • Solidarity Circles
    • Prison Ministries >
      • Curricula
    • Calendar
  • Get involved
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Why We Exist
    • Partners & Allies
  • Donate