Corrections Programs
Reducing recidivism, maintaining public safety, and restoring citizenship requires science-based clinical reentry management that offers continuity while linking individuals to services and tools that reduce relapse potential and move former prisoners toward self-sufficiency.
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. Screening 27,702 convicted individuals in fiscal year 2004, TASC identifies and refers inmates to appropriate substance abuse treatment programs within IDOC.
Clinical Reentry Case Management
Offered statewide
Funded by Illinois Department of Corrections
For the Illinois Department of Corrections, TASC’s clinical reentry case management provides a full range of supportive services necessary to assist ex-offenders in their transition back into their communities, from prerelease substance abuse assessments and drug education to post-release clinical case management.
TASC provides linkages to community-based substance abuse treatment, mental health services support, housing support, education, job training, emergency shelter, emergency food, primary healthcare, and transportation. Post-release 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 Sheridan Correctional Center, Southwestern Illinois Correctional Center (SWICC), and Graham Correctional Center; for women returning from the Decatur Correctional Center; and for juveniles returning from Illinois Youth Corrections (IYC) Centers in St. Charles, Warrenville, and Harrisburg.
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.
Additional Clinical Reentry Case Management Programs
TASC partners with IDOC to offer additional post-release services to juvenile offenders returning to Cook and Will counties through the Young Offender Reentry Program (YORP); and to adults returning to those counties through the community-based treatment Westside Reentry Adult Program (WRAP).
Through the Faith in Transitions Program, TASC works with IDOC to provide additional pre- and post-release services to women in the Decatur Correctional Center.
Offered in Rockford, IL
Funded by: Illinois Department of Corrections through Behavioral Intervention
TASC provides assessments, case management, and education groups for parolees who have been referred by their parole officers to the Spotlight Reentry Center.
TASC is also involved in weekly staffings with the spotlight reentry case mangers and participates in interventions with clients, case mangers, parole officers, and family members. When appropriate, TASC refers clients to residential treatment.
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.
