DePaul Journal for Social Justice Volume 5 Issue 1 Fall 2011 Article 4 January 2016 Second Chance: Establishing a Reentry Program in the Northern District of Illinois Hon. Joan Gottschall Molly Armour Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jsj Recommended Citation Hon. Joan Gottschall & Molly Armour, Second Chance: Establishing a Reentry Program in the Northern District of Illinois, 5 DePaul J. for Soc. Just. 31 (2011) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jsj/vol5/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Journal for Social Justice by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Gottschall and Armour: Second Chance: Establishing a Reentry Program in the Northern Dis SECOND CHANCE: ESTABLISHING A REENTRY PROGRAM IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS By HON. JOAN GOT-TSCHALL AND MOLLY ARMOUR* After two years of planning, on April 1, 2010, the Northern District of Illinois launched its first reentry program-the James B. Moran Second Chance Program. This article is intended to shed light on the process of establishing this program, which has as its goals the effective integration of former federal prisoners into our communities and the reduction of recidivism. The rate of imprisonment in the United States is extremely high. Our nation's prisons and jails confine approximately 2.3 million people, or nearly one out of every 100 Americans.1 This substantial rate of incarceration affects not just individual pris- * Judge Joan Gottschall is a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois.