State lawmakers questioned the head of the Illinois Department of Corrections on Monday after guards removed scores of books available to inmates from the Danville Correctional Center earlier this year.
Acting Department of Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys told lawmakers at a hearing in Chicago that the books had been returned and said the real issue is the need for modern job education behind bars.
In January, guards removed books – many about racial history regarding slavery but also books about career development – from the library at the Danville Correctional Center, according to media reports.
Rebecca Ginsberg from the University of Illinois’ Education Justice Project, a college-in-prison program, said Illinois is an outlier in terms of allowing reading material into its prisons.
“No state that I’m aware of or that has responded to our query has a process that’s as onerous as that by Illinois,” she said.
Jeffreys said education makes Illinois’ prisons safer.
“If you keep folks busy, keep them [in] program, you challenge their thinking to change their behavior, that makes for a better-ran facility,” he said.
Jeffreys said most of the books taken from the Danville prison have been returned.
The state’s correctional facilities, Jeffries said, need to give inmates access to modern job skills to reduce recidivism rates
“We need to be looking at what’s needed for the job market today,” he said, adding that inmates should be trained on skills like coding and large vehicle operation instead of skills to become barbers.
State law requires a certain level of education be made available in correctional centers.
A study released in 2018 found 43 percent of people released from prison each year were arrested again within three years of release.
[This story is from Illinois Radio Network News.]
