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"When I announced the launch of the
Sheridan project in my first State of the State address as governor
of the state of Illinois, I charged our team with making Illinois a
national model for drug crime prevention," the governor said. "The
message was clear: This will be a long-term challenge, but we are
ready. It is time to stop accepting the vicious cycle of crime and
drugs -- one that has resulted in record numbers of offenders
returning to Illinois communities without the skills and preparation
they need to live crime- and drug-free lives."
"Today, we are releasing early results
that show we are well on our way toward achieving our goal of
improving public safety by targeting drug-involved offenders -- a
population that traditionally cycles from prisons back to our
communities, only to commit new crimes, find new victims or violate
their parole requirements. This first round of participants has not
only shown a significant reduction in new offenses, but they have
also been more likely to gain honest employment -- another promising
factor in moving them away from a life of crime and toward
productive citizenship," the governor added. "Over the long term,
the success of this program will mean safer communities and reduced
costs to taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill for new prison
and incarceration costs."
 National experts on the issue of
crime and recidivism who have been tracking the Sheridan project and
other model programs echoed the governor's cautious optimism on the
early results of the program.
Dr. Christy Visher, principal
research associate of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and
the principal investigator for an ongoing study of Illinois parolees
in Chicago, said: "Governor Blagojevich is to be commended for his
national leadership on targeting recidivism by launching the
Sheridan project and statewide parole reform. In its first year of
operation, Sheridan has taken proven research and best re-entry
practices and incorporated them into a project that promises to be a
national model for reform. Because the governor has ensured that all
of the right pieces have been put into place for ongoing success, we
have every reason to believe that these early, but promising reports
of recidivism reduction will only continue to grow, thus improving
community safety."
Evaluation report provides early data showing promise for program
success
The evaluation report will be
formally presented at a commemorative event at Sheridan Correctional
Center today (Monday) by the project's chief evaluator, Dr. Dave
Olson, chairman and professor of the Criminal Justice Department at
Loyola University.
The report provides tracking
information that compares rearrest and reincarceration rates of the
first round of 150 inmates released from Sheridan with a group of
other parolees with similar histories. The research shows that 12
percent of Sheridan parolees were rearrested, compared with 27
percent of the other group (a roughly 55 percent reduction); and
that 2 percent of Sheridan parolees were reincarcerated, compared
with over 10 percent of the other group (a roughly 66 percent
reduction).
The research also shows that the
longer offenders stayed in the drug treatment program, the greater
their success. Of the Sheridan parolees who had at least seven
months of prison-based treatment, none had been rearrested, compared
with at least a 20 percent rearrest rate in the other group.
In addition, Diane Williams,
president of the SAFER Foundation, will provide information stating
that Sheridan participants have been more likely to secure honest
work than the average parolee and that they have been securing jobs
more quickly. Generally basing her comparisons on a different study
of Illinois parolees conducted by the Urban Institute, Williams said
that 46 percent of all eligible Sheridan parolees were working,
compared with 30 percent in the study. In addition, 44 percent of
Sheridan parolees found employment within 30 days of release,
compared with 31 percent in the study. (Williams noted that
mechanisms are not yet in place to track statewide employment using
consistent measures, but the Urban Institute study provided a
general benchmark.)
"While it is still early, the
preliminary findings on both recidivism and employment are
encouraging, and will likely continue as the program evolves and
matures," said Olson, the project evaluator. "What makes these
initial findings even more impressive is the fact that the
participants in the program have very extensive substance-abuse and
criminal histories."
Targeting
a leading factor in recidivism
The Sheridan program was launched on
Jan. 2, 2004, with the goal of becoming a national model drug prison
and re-entry program that targets drugs as a leading factor in
rising recidivism rates over the past decade. Drug and property
offenders -- which are largely considered to be drug-involved --
have among the highest recidivism rates in the state prison
population, and it is estimated that as many as 69 percent of all
adult prison admissions annually are for drug- or drug-involved
crimes.
"The Sheridan project is first and
foremost an issue of public safety," said Illinois Department of
Corrections Assistant Director Deanne Benos, whose office manages
the program. "As states across the nation grapple with recidivism
rates that have been rising to record levels for years, programs
like this will help target the root causes of crime, such as
substance abuse, and ultimately make communities safer."
Aiming to
become the largest program of its kind in the nation
Because of the magnitude of the
effect of drugs on crime in Illinois, Sheridan was designed to be
the largest fully dedicated state drug prison in the nation. At full
capacity, Sheridan will serve a total of 1,300 inmates at a time,
but as many as 1,700 are projected to be admitted to the program
each year. There are currently 1,100 beds at the facility, but
federally funded construction will be completed on the addition of a
new 200-bed unit by the end of 2005.
Offering
national best-practices prison-based drug treatment
The Sheridan program targets
offenders, with the exception of sex offenders and murderers,
designated by clinicians as having a substance-abuse problem that
affects their criminal behavior. Every inmate involved in the
program is immersed in a therapeutic community environment that
involves intensive drug treatment, cognitive skills development,
counseling and mental health services. The goal of these services is
to make the offender accountable for addressing both his drug
addiction as well as to change the fundamental values and attitudes
that have driven past criminal behavior. The prison-based drug
treatment is provided by the Gateway Foundation, which has been
recognized for successfully reducing crime and recidivism among
drug-involved offenders in the foundation's programs nationwide.
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Sheridan parolee
Anthony Edwards has been invited by his parole agent and Gateway
counselors to speak at Monday's anniversary event because of the
positive effect of the Sheridan program on his life. Edwards is a
33-year-old who has been incarcerated six times since 1988. Since
being released from Sheridan, he has reunited with his family,
enrolled at Joliet Junior College and is currently employed as a
general laborer. Edwards aspires to be a substance-abuse counselor
to help other offenders caught in the cycle of crime and drugs to
have the same opportunity to make life changes that he has.
Developing new vocational and job placement programs to help move
offenders toward honest work and personal accountability
The Sheridan program also demands
from inmates a level of personal accountability that goes beyond
overcoming drug addiction. For the first time in state history, all
offenders are required to participate in a SAFER Foundation
job-preparedness program that provides them with the skills to seek
honest work upon their return to their communities. A new
sector-based vocational education program was created specifically
for Sheridan to support this effort. This program provides
vocational training for jobs in a series of growing business sectors
with opportunities for hiring ex-offenders, including hospitality,
manufacturing, technology and construction.
In addition, a new cutting-edge
curriculum was developed to offer a "bridge" that integrates these
practical job training courses with adult basic education for
inmates with lower reading and math skills. In the past, it has been
standard IDOC policy to prohibit inmates from accessing certain
types of programming unless they first completed adult basic
education on a separate track -- sometimes leaving them without
practical job skills.
"The Sheridan project is all about
teamwork," said Department of Corrections Director Roger E. Walker
Jr. "The governor and I are committed to ensuring safer streets and
saving taxpayers' money by giving offenders the best opportunity to
become productive, law-abiding citizens in the state of Illinois."
Focusing
on a crime-free and drug-free re-entry from day one
One of the more unique components of
the Sheridan project is the consistent focus on preparing all
inmates for their crime-free and drug-free re-entry from the moment
they arrive at the facility through their completion of parole and
beyond. Different from other programs that often begin addressing
these issues within days of release, the Sheridan project
establishes community-based connections on an ongoing basis; service
contractors and agency staff work with offenders both in the prison
and the community. For example, the SAFER Foundation provides
job-preparedness services that begin in the prison and carry through
to actual job placement in the community. Treatment Alternatives for
Safe Communities begins working with offenders in prison to develop
their clinical re-entry plan for drug treatment, housing, mental
health and anger management services, and then continues to work
with them and manage the plan throughout their entire parole term.
"The Sheridan program is a true
national model for substance abuse treatment and successful
community reintegration," said TASC President Melody Heaps. "Its
comprehensive approach to recovery signifies a positive trend toward
integrating systems and services for the corrections population.
Sheridan represents a true investment in communities through a
balance of public safety and restoration of citizenship."
Strengthening community capacity and sustainability
At the governor's request, the
planning of the Sheridan project involved national, state and local
collaboration at a level that many community grass-roots
organizations have deemed to be historic in the state. Through these
meetings, stakeholders worked together to look beyond the limits of
law enforcement supervision to address the challenges of providing
high-impact communities with the tools they need to support a safe,
crime-free, drug-free and sustainable re-entry environment for
former offenders. As a result, the Sheridan project took on the goal
of supporting community-capacity building as part of its mission.
To address this challenge, pilot
Community Support & Advisory Councils have been launched in two of
the highest-impact regions of the state: the south side of Chicago
and the west side of Chicago. Members of these volunteer councils
have begun meeting with inmates from their communities while the
offenders are still at Sheridan, to help them establish community
and faith-based connections for their return. The councils continue
working with offenders upon release and provide ongoing feedback and
recommendations to the Department of Corrections on improving the
communities' ability to sustain successful re-entry.
"We attribute the early success of
Sheridan, in part, to the governor having the vision to engage
community leaders in a meaningful way in planning the original
program," said Rev. Patricia Watkins of the CSAC for Chicago's south
side and the convener of the Developing Justice Coalition. "It is
clear to us that the governor recognizes that re-entry is an issue
that begins and ends with communities. The level of involvement of
grass-roots leaders and the successful creation of the community
council pilots was historic, and we have faith that will continue to
help make our neighborhoods safer and stronger for our families."
Building
on ongoing efforts to aggressively target crime and recidivism
The Sheridan project is a part of
the governor's ongoing efforts to aggressively target recidivism in
Illinois. In addition, the governor recently announced the creation
of a 40-member Statewide Community Safety & Reentry Working Group
that will spend the next year developing a set of recommendations
for a statewide re-entry system, some of which will be based upon
what has been learned from the Sheridan project. Throughout the year
2005, this working group will hold hearings in the top 10 regions of
the state with the highest number of returning offenders to learn
about their unique challenges and to help gather ideas for ways the
final plan will support them.
The governor has also launched the
"Operation Spotlight" Parole Reform Initiative, a four-year plan to
double the number of parole agents, strengthen supervision for
high-risk offenders, and employ new case management and graduated
sanctions practices designed to reduce long-term re-offending
behavior.
[News release from the
governor's office] |
