John Howard Association of Illinois

Summary: No vocational and little educational opportunity for many inmates, but prison management is attempting to improve opportunities for other prisoners.

On Feb. 16 a group of six John Howard Association personnel and volunteers conducted a monitoring tour of Pontiac Correctional Center. Pontiac consists primarily of a maximum security unit which includes prisoners in disciplinary-related segregation or protective custody and Death Row. There is an adjoining medium security unit.

Pontiac’s maximum security segregation inmates, most serving long or life-term sentences, include some of the most disruptive individuals in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Among them are inmates believed to present a serious threat to staff and other inmates. They typically come from other prisons where they committed serious offenses and are held for months or years in segregation at Pontiac.

Of the approximately 1,200 maximum security inmates, 580 are held in disciplinary- related segregation status. They receive virtually nothing in the way of education, vocational training or other rehabilitative programs. Most of the remaining maximum security inmates are in Protective Custody and they, like the approximately 490 medium security inmates, have some access to education and other programs but no vocational training.

Read the full report here (PDF).