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Illinois

Promising Resources, Policies, and Practices

Goal 3: Educated in Community

Goal 5: Quality Education in Facilities

Program Helps Kane County Juvenile Inmates Earn College Credits

This news article in the Chicago Tribune highlights a program in Kane County Juvenile Justice Center School that provides the opportunity for incarcerated youth to advance their studies, higher education aspiration, and career interested while in the facility. Author, Rafael Guerrero, writes that “Since the first dual credit sessions held last summer at the St. Charles juvenile facility, the program has provided more than two dozen juvenile inmates the option to take three courses that count in both earning a high school or GED diploma and earn college credit.”

Online Educational Enhancement Program

The online educational enhancement program is a collaborative effort between the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice and the Crime Lab and Education Lab that seeks to test the effectiveness of an innovative online instructional model in fostering skills and motivation among youth detained in an Illinois correctional facility. The program seeks to increase positive youth outcomes in the areas of credit accrual and achievement in the facility, re-engagement in school post release and recidivism.

Detention Alternatives Initiative, State of Illinois Circuit Court of Cook County

Cook County, Illinois (Chicago) uses community-based programming to allow youth to remain in their home and attend their community school. Instead of removing youth from their homes, community-based reporting centers exist where the youth are required to report in the afternoon or early evenings.  The centers focus on improving social skills, and providing vocational support and educational support. The centers also make referrals to other programs. This program has allowed youth to stay in their home school and has saved the county more than $2 million a year. 

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