Monitoring
Independent prison monitoring is the heart of JHA’s work.
Our staff and volunteers visit approximately 20 correctional facilities every year to evaluate conditions for incarcerated people and staff. During our observation visits, we focus on issues including medical and mental health care, disciplinary procedures, the physical condition of facilities, and educational and vocational programming. We point out concerns and problems and also highlight productive, innovative programs and initiatives that can serve as models for other facilities.
Special Reports
We publish periodic special reports highlighting case studies, stories and issues impacting our correctional system.
Reports and Surveys
Oversight, transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of correctional system reform.
JHA publishes regular reports on prison conditions in Illinois and special reports on issues impacting our correctional system.
Reports are based on our prison monitoring visits, observations, interviews with and written surveys from both staff and incarcerated people, interviews and information exchange with prison administrators, correspondence from those housed in correctional facilities, and information provided directly by the Illinois Department of Corrections.
We collect voluntary, anonymous surveys of both staff and incarcerated people during adult correctional center visits. Survey results enhance and amplify our monitoring work by incorporating the attitudes and opinions of incarcerated people and prison employees. Survey data provides useful comparisons among facilities and changes in perceptions over time, and is critical to amplifying the voices of incarcerated people and staff beyond prison walls. Find individual facility survey reports using the report finder or the buttons below.
Search facilities using the search bar below.
Browse facilities by criteria
Prison Communications Data & Reports
JHA serves as a critical resource and outlet for incarcerated people in Illinois. Incarcerated individuals often have limited access to information from reliable sources and little contact with the outside world. JHA provides a human connection as well as needed information.
JHA reads every letter and email sent to us, and listens to all voicemails; we track the information reported to us. This provides us with valuable quantitative information we use in our advocacy work - both when working with individual correctional facilities and when seeking system-wide reform. Unfortunately, as demand has outpaced supply, we are currently unable to respond to all communications sent to us.
Explore reports about and data from our prison communications program below or view ways to contact us.
IDOC Data & Analysis
Age at custody as of 6/30/22
Age at custody over time
Comparison at age of custody at Stateville vs. all other facilities
Data Visualization Tools for Illinois Prison Population
The data visualization tools below enable different presentations of data regarding the Illinois prison population – they can be limited by date and prison and have different tabs for looking at different variables. These were built from IDOC’s public datasets using the methodology described here. IDOC’s official admissions and recidivism rates are reported in fact sheets publicly available on IDOC’s website. Any errors found in these tools should be attributed to JHA.
Single deep dive: Allows you to look at different multi-level single variables (e.g., age, sex, race, offense type, etc.) of the IDOC prison population as of a particular date.
Compare facilities: Allows you to look at the population of a particular IDOC prison compared to the rest of the IDOC population over time.
Change over time: Allows you to look at the IDOC prison population’s change over time for various variables.
Additional data & analyses available:
Art & Writing from
People Incarcerated in Illinois
Cartoon by Arkee Chaney, a formerly incarcerated artist. www.arkeestudios.com
Each year, JHA receives hundreds of letters from people who are incarcerated. Some of those letters contain poems, cartoons, or other pieces of art that incarcerated people wish to share with us. Incarcerated people also share other publications with us, including articles and magazines created for their peers. While we can only showcase a sample on our website, we greatly appreciate receiving what people send to us. This section is generously sponsored by The Di Lullo Family.