On October 26, 2010, John Howard Association staff and volunteers conducted a monitoring visit of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (CCJTDC).

The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) is testing video visiting to make it easier for inmates to remain in touch with family and friends, a critical factor in an ex- inmates’s return to society.

For much of the past decade, Illinois has allowed its prison vocational and academic programs to wither away. While the prison population has grown, the opportunity for inmates to learn a skill or earn postsecondary academic certificates has shrunk.

This is the twenty-sixth in a series of reports by the John Howard Association of Illinois on inmate population, crowding and conditions at the Cook County Department of Corrections (CCDOC) as these factors relate to the provisions of the Consent Decree in this litigation

The data from this report is based on site visits made by staff, consultants and volunteers of the John Howard Association during calendar year 2009.