Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority Summer 2002 WEBSITE 3 RESEARCH 4 GRANTS 6 TECHNOLOGY 7 One day at a time Ex-offenders help each other overcome obstacles to reentry By Cristin Monti Evans he hardship doesn’t often end at Jerome Collins, of TASC, at a Winners’ Circle meeting. He started the prison door for newly re- the first group in 1997 and there will soon be 10 around the state. Tleased men and women trying to reintegrate into society. Ex-offenders who have done their time find them- selves joining a society that seems The challenge of reentry: unwilling to embrace them and help ease their way toward a lifestyle that is free of crime. keeping ex-offenders free Recently released individuals often By Daniel Dighton find themselves without the many re- sources they need to successfully n a recent evening in a spacious basement room at the offices of rebuild their lives. Many have a sub- Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC), some 30 men and stance abuse history that fueled much Owomen sat on folding chairs in a large circle and shared their stories. They of their criminal behavior. Many also laughed and they cried, and when they spoke they introduced themselves as an lack the social and family foundations alcoholic or addict. they need to get back on their feet. They talked about their common day-to-day struggles — difficult family situa- Help and hope tions, getting and holding jobs, feeling alone or isolated — and how they cope In her effort to remain law-abiding and with the stress while staying clean. They offered each other encouragement and drug free, Janice Coleman finds gave support. Another thing they have in common is that they have all been in strength in helping others who are prison or jail. They are part of the Winners’ Circle, a peer-led recovery support group for ex-offenders. Continued on page 7 Continued on page 2 Illinois Continued from page 1 Criminal Justice Information Authority TASC Project Manager Jerome Collins and helped modernize the way they started the first Winners’ Circle in 1997 work. with two ex-offenders. He modeled it George H. Ryan Candice M. Kane The Illinois Criminal Justice Informa- Governor Executive Director on a similar program in Texas, and he tion Authority identified offender Members also asked inmates what kind of a pro- gram would help them when they left services as a priority in its 2001 Crimi- nal Justice Plan for the State of Illinois. Peter B. Bensinger, chairman prison. Today there are Winners’ Circle President, Bensinger, DuPont meetings at seven locations in Illinois, To that end, several initiatives by the & Associates Governor’s Office and millions of dol- Albert A. Apa with three more sites expected to be Former director, Illinois Police going by fall. lars in federal grants, many Training Board administered by the Authority, are sup- Dorothy Brown The men and women in the Winners’ porting programs geared toward the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Circle have taken steps to change their successful reentry of ex-offenders into Timothy F. Bukowski lives. They are working hard to beat the the community. Sheriff, Kankakee County odds. But for every ex-offender at the Richard A. Devine Winners’ Circle, there are hundreds Burgeoning business State’s Attorney, Cook County “Get tough” crime legislation of the Barbara Engel more falling back to a life of drugs and Victim Advocate crime and a return trip to prison. 1980s and 1990s led to longer prison Norbert Goetten stays and more drug offenders going to Director, Office of the State’s Attorney’s An estimated 38,000 inmates will leave prison. Add in high recidivism rates and Appellate Prosecutor Illinois prisons this year, about the Theodore A. Gottfried you have the recipe for a corrections Director, Office of the State same number that left the year before, budget in Illinois that jumped from $115 Appellate Defender and the year before that. If current million in 1978 to about $1.3 billion Terry G. Hillard trends continue, more than 40 percent Superintendent, Chicago today, and a system that grew from 10 Police Department of these ex-offenders will return to institutions in 1978 to 28 in 2002. Maureen A. Josh prison within three years of their re- Clerk of the Circuit Court of DeKalb County lease, and most of those within the first But economic conditions today have Thomas J. Jurkanin two years of release. made it difficult for states to keep build- Executive Director, Illinois Law Enforcement ing more prisons to lock up more Training and Standards Board Stopping the cycle offenders for longer periods of time. John J. Millner Chief, Elmhurst Police Department The cycle of offender imprisonment, That, and declines in violent crime in Sam Nolen release, and return to prison has long recent years, may help explain a level- Director, Illinois State Police been a driving force behind the bur- ing off in state prison populations John C. Piland geoning U.S. prison population. In across the nation. State’s Attorney, Champaign County Illinois, Gov. George Ryan has focused Jim Ryan The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics Attorney General of Illinois on breaking that cycle of recidivism by Michael Sheahan making prisoner reentry a priority is- recently reported that the nation’s Sheriff, Cook County sue. Among the governor’s initiatives prison population grew by only 1 per- Donald N. Snyder Jr. cent in 2001, the smallest annual Director, Illinois Department targeting ex-offenders is the Illinois of Corrections Workforce Advantage program, which increase since 1972. In the second half John Z. Toscas provides an infusion of state and local of 2001, the federal prison population Attorney resources to improve the overall envi- was up 2.8 percent, but the state prison Michael Waller population actually declined by 0.3 per- State’s Attorney, Lake County ronment in distressed communities, which tend to be home for many ex- cent, according to the BJS bulletin, offenders. The governor also doubled “Prisoners in 2001,” released in July. the number of parole agents in the state In Illinois, the crime rate in 2001 fell 2.9 Created in 1983, the Illinois Criminal Justice Infor- percent over the previous year, the sev- mation Authority is a state agency dedicated to improving the administration of criminal justice. Most of the work of the Authority falls into three major divisions: Research and Analysis; Information Systems and Technology: and Federal and State Grants Administration. The Compiler, Summer 2002 Vol. 21, No. 2 The Authority is governed by a 20-member board comprised of state and local leaders from the crimi- nal justice system and members of the public. Produced quarterly by the Office of Public Information Copyright © 2002 Illinois Criminal Justice Informa- Editor Assistant Editor tion Authority. All rights reserved. Intended for free Daniel Dighton Cristin Monti Evans distribution only. Permission to copy and redistrib- ute parts or all of this publication can be obtained E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] from the Office of Public Information. Visit the Authority online at: www.icjia.state.il.us Printed by authority of the State of Illinois, August 2002. Printing order number 03–051; 6,500 copies. Write to: The Compiler, ICJIA, 120 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1016, Chicago, IL 60606. Telephone: 312-793-8550, TDD: 312-793-4170, Fax: 312-793-8422 Page 2 Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority tively. But recently, the economic and social Website costs of incarceration have brought such pres- improvements sure on the system that Recently, the Authority revamped its the needs and experi- website. The redesigned site — ences of ex-offenders www.icjia.state.il.us — continues to be have suddenly come to a tremendous tool for Internet users in the forefront of criminal search of community crime statistics, justice planning and criminal justice research of a state and policymaking. national scope, or news about state and federal grants. Studying the issue The Authority’s upgraded website now To gain a better under- conforms to federal and statewide ac- standing of the factors cessibility guidelines. These guidelines that most affect ex-of- specify how web content should be fenders’ reentry into the made available to people with physi- A recent Winners’ Circle meeting in Chicago. community, the Urban In- cal, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. stitute, a public policy Emphasis is now placed on providing enth straight year that crimes reported research organization in Washington, text-equivalents for non-text images D.C., recently began a comprehensive and streamlining the overall site layout to police decreased. At the Illinois De- so that users using electronic screen partment of Corrections, after years of study of ex-offenders in a handful of readers or speech synthesizers can suc- steady growth and a peak of more than states, including Illinois. The study will cessfully navigate through the entire 45,600 inmates in 2001, the population analyze reentry from four perspectives: website. seems to have plateaued, with 43,101 the individual, the family, the commu- inmates as of June 30, 2002, and a nity, and the state — to include state DataNet forecasted population in 2003 of 43,201 programs and policies and the social A popular feature of the Authority’s inmates, according to IDOC officials. and economic climate. The researchers website is the Criminal Justice DataNet, hope that the knowledge gleaned from a web-based database application One sure thing about prisoners is that the three-year study will help states and which allows website users to research nearly all of them are eventually going communities improve prisoner reinte- broad issues facing the criminal justice to leave prison, and most will go back gration and enhance public safety.