Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jan 2005
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2005 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Carlos Sadovi

ADDICT-INMATES FIND HELP IN REHAB PROGRAM

The intensive therapy and job skills sessions that were mandated for 
Anthony Edwards and others with addictions incarcerated at Sheridan 
Correctional Center make them less likely to get into trouble again, state 
officials will report Monday.

Edwards, now 33 and out of prison, had been behind bars six times on 
charges of theft, drug possession and other crimes since he was 15. As he 
became one of 270 inmates to go through Sheridan, the state's only prison 
for those with addictions, in its first year, he made a promise to himself: 
It would be the last time he saw the inside of a jail cell.

He said the one-on-one and group therapy that is required in the jail was 
what he needed.

"It helped me just be able to identify who I was and identify the disease 
that I had," Edwards said. "I thought the street life was the way of life, 
gangs were the way of life and drugs were the way of life. My life was 
unmanageable."

Since leaving jail in September, the Joliet man has maintained a job as a 
warehouse worker, reunited with his two children, and is enrolled in 
community college.

"If the program wasn't offered, I would still be out on the street thinking 
that I could get different results from doing the same thing," said 
Edwards, who will speak Monday at the facility's one-year anniversary ceremony.

Sheridan officials teamed with outside organizations to give inmates with 
substance abuse problems the therapy and job skills they need to prevent 
reincarceration, said Deanne Benos, assistant director of the Illinois 
Department of Corrections.

On average, substance abusers are arrested between 9 and 16 times, Benos 
said. "We are targeting a tough crowd. We are targeting people who have 
significant histories."

According to a report on 150 inmates at Sheridan to be unveiled Monday, 12 
percent were arrested again compared with 27 percent who had served in 
other prisons. When inmates had at least seven months at Sheridan, none was 
rearrested compared with 20 percent from other prisons serving that same 
amount of time, said David Olson, professor of criminal justice at Loyola 
University. He conducted the research for the Illinois Criminal Justice 
Information Authority, a state agency that analyzes crime statistics and 
trends.

"It tells us clearly that it's working," Olson said.

Christy Visher, principal research associate at the Urban Institute, said 
though the latest numbers are promising, there is a need to make sure the 
community is involved. If offenders return to their homes without help from 
jobs or treatment, they may fall into their bad habits, Visher said.

"I think the project is really combining a lot of what we know works in one 
place," Visher said. "I see this as a model for the rest of the country."

The aim is to house 1,700 men sentenced to prison on drug-related crimes, 
said Michael Rothwell, Sheridan's warden. It would make the facility the 
largest prison dedicated exclusively to drug offenders in the country, 
state officials said.

The majority of offenders hail from Cook County, in particular Chicago. 
There are nearly 1,000 people incarcerated at Sheridan.

As part of their prison stint, they must attend nearly 50 hours of drug and 
alcohol counseling and other therapy sessions each week, Rothwell said.

A 33-year-old West Side inmate said the program helped him focus on his 
addiction. He has been in prison five separate times on drug charges since 
he was 18, and the last time he was drug-free before his recent stint at 
Sheridan was in 1997, he said.

"If I had the same thing the first time I was in jail I wouldn't have been 
back," said the man, who asked not to be identified.

He is taking classes to prepare him for job interviews, to work on his 
resume and to learn to use computers. And the drug therapy is intense, he said.

"They are teaching me about recovery, changing the way I think. I was crazy 
out there," he said. "I'm tired, I don't want to do this [come back to 
jail] no more."

A 23-year-old inmate said he almost wishes he had been sentenced for a 
longer term.

"It sounds crazy but sometimes I wish I could stay longer, just to get my 
GED," he said.

At a recent group therapy session inside the common area of a prison 
building on the sprawling compound in LaSalle County, about 16 men in 
prison uniforms sat in a circle on benches and chairs as guards looked on 
from a desk behind a Plexiglas partition.

A social worker mediated the discussion, which focused on how the men, many 
with gang tattoos on their thick arms and necks, could resolve conflicts 
with each other without violence. They sat under colorful signs like "Think 
B4 U Act" that reminded them to carefully consider their actions.

"Poor impulse, that's what got me here in the first place," said an inmate, 
who seemed a little older than the majority who were in their 20s.

Another inmate, who had quarreled with the first man during their time 
living on the same floor of the jail, said they needed to work out ways to 
deal with their problems.

"It could escalate to where it becomes detrimental," the second inmate 
said, adding: "Even like this program, we don't like it all but we know 
it's the best thing for us now."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman