NCJ Number
74795
Date Published
1980
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Findings and recommendations are reported from an assessment of the programs and conditions of Illinois' Joliet Correctional Center.
Abstract
The Joliet Correctioanl Center (JCC) is plagued with the problem common to all Illinois prisons: trying to serve an ever-increasing inmate population in a deteriorating physical plant, which is the product of years of social apathy and legislative neglect. The suggestions for institutional and/or departmental change may alleviate some of the problems cited in the report. There should be a re-evaluation of the circumstances under which an inmate of work release is returned to the prison. Returned inmates as well as staff report that community centers are too quick to revoke work release for minor rules infractions. Parolees arrested for technical violation of parole should be placed in a community correctional center pending a hearing rather than in JCC, in order to minimize the disruption for those whose parole will ultimately be resumed. The use of the JCC 'Annex' for a Reception and Classification Center should be based upon a rapid movement of offenders to the institutions where they will serve their sentences. The Center should not be expected to hold offenders for inordinately long periods. An expanded industrial program with coordinated vocational training is endorsed. Departmental regulations for disciplinary proceedings must be revised to provide for more due process safeguards, especially for alleged offenses involving loss of good time. Furthermore, the severe overcrowding in Illinois prisons and the enormous cost of incarceration mandate that the judiciary and the community be willing to make greater use of alternatives to imprisonment.