Corrections Programs
TASC works with drug-involved men and women in the Illinois prison system to help provide the treatment and other services needed to reduce recidivism, maintain public safety, and restore productive citizenship.
Offered Statewide
Funded by: Illinois Department of Corrections
TASC conducts substance abuse screenings in the reception and classification centers of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) of all adult males who enter the system. TASC identifies and refers inmates to appropriate substance abuse treatment programs within IDOC.
Clinical Reentry Case Management for Men, Women, and Youth
Offered Statewide
Funded by: Illinois Department of Corrections
Under the leadership of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), TASC provides reentry case management services across Illinois that help parolees successfully transition to their communities. TASC provides comprehensive assessments and linkages to community-based substance abuse treatment, mental health services, housing support, education, job training, emergency shelter, emergency food, primary healthcare, and transportation. These clinical case management services are designed to reduce recidivism, support recovery, and facilitate client movement toward self-sufficiency.
TASC's clinical reentry case management is provided for:
- Men returning to their communities from the Graham Correctional Center, Jessie “Ma” Houston Adult Transition Center (ATC)--through the Westside Reentry Adult Program (WRAP), Sheridan Correctional Center, and Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center (SWICC).
- Women returning from the Decatur Correctional Center--including those in the Females in Transition Program-- and Lincoln Correctional Center.
- Youth returning from Illinois Youth Corrections (IYC) Centers in Chicago--through the Halfway Back Program, Harrisburg, Joliet--through the Parole Readjustment Program, St. Charles, and Warrenville.
Services are also provided for juvenile offenders returning to Cook and Will counties through the Young Offender Reentry Program (YORP).
The Sheridan Correctional Center and SWICC are fully dedicated therapeutic communities for substance abuse recovery. Of particular note, the Sheridan model emphasizes an integrated, seamless continuum of care that extends through incarceration and parole.
Under the leadership of the Illinois Department of Corrections, TASC works with Sheridan clients to ensure that community reentry begins on the first day of incarceration, connecting clients to programs and services both within and outside the institution to help restore them to productive citizenship.
Offered Cook County
Funded by: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The Safer Return program addresses the transitional needs of both returning prisoners and their communities. It includes welcome home panels, case management, reentry planning & coordination, transitional employment, group mentoring/peer support, and community parole.
Restoring Citizenship Project: Inner Circle and Winners' Circle
What is Inner Circle?
Inner Circle is a peer-led support group for people who desire to stay crime free and drug free after their release from incarceration. This group meets weekly at various Illinois Department of Corrections facilities, including prisons and adult transition centers.
Inner Circle meetings provide opportunities for individuals to share concerns and offer support when transitioning back into the community. Professionals both in and outside the institutions view this groundbreaking program as an innovative tool for successful reentry.
Inner Circle members are encouraged to join the local Winners' Circle once they transition back into their communities.
What is Winners’ Circle?
Winners' Circle is a peer-led, peer-driven support group designed to address the special needs of formerly incarcerated men and women who are in recovery. Membership is open to formerly incarcerated individuals as well as their families, friends and allies. The only criterion is a desire to participate in one's own healing and recovery, and to aid in that of others by providing encouragement and support.
Winners' Circle events enable participants to interact in a positive, social setting. It is in this relaxed, nonjudgmental atmosphere that participants can feel free to investigate and develop their new life skills.
Winners' Circle events are open to the public and take place throughout Chicago and around Illinois.
Click here for locations of Winners' Circle meetings.
What is the Winners’ Circle Leadership Group?
Participants in each Winners’ Circle location vote their own peers into the Winners’ Circle Leadership Group. Leaders are committed to their own recovery and to helping others stay sober and crime free. They meet twice a month to schedule activities and develop strategies for the ongoing development of the project.
Many become actively involved in family, recreational, and community projects, serving as volunteers, mentors, recovery advocates, role models, and presenters to other support groups and community organizations. Through these activities, the community benefits and each member is strengthened.
What is the Restoring Citizenship Project's Relationship to TASC?
The Restoring Citizenship Project works in collaboration with other TASC programs to form a fiscal and service delivery management partnership. By combining two complimentary approaches to recovery — the inclusiveness of Winners’ Circle and the expanding concept of service delivery TASC incorporates — the project promotes healing and progress, not just for the formerly incarcerated individual, but for all the citizens of the recovery community.
The Restoring Citizenship Project's Vision:
To create something positive that is more powerful than negative criminal behavior by providing practical help in overcoming obstacles to citizenship. To also sustain this vision by fostering and empowering peer support, while letting the natural rewards of citizenship reinforce and sustain it.
The Restoring Citizenship Project's Mission:
To establish a stable infrastructure for ongoing services among recovering formerly incarcerated individuals in Illinois, including potential support for a freestanding recovery community services organization.
The Restoring Citizenship Project's Goals:
- Continue to develop a recovery support project that provides quality services to meet the needs of the recovery community with a particular focus on formerly incarcerated individuals.
- Establish a comprehensive agenda for Restoring Citizenship to move further toward a peer-led, peer-driven model of service.
- To promote recovery from criminal behavior and substance use disorders.
- Establish a stable infrastructure for the sustainability of Restoring Citizenship.
