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Long term prisoner policy project

In Illinois, there are nearly 5,000 prisoners serving actual or de facto life sentences. With new sentencing laws, this number is growing every day. Generally, these inmates, regardless of their behavior,

  • have no access to education, jobs or job training,
  • are housed in maximum security institutions, and cannot transfer to a facility where such programs are available, and
  • can do nothing to reduce the length of their sentences.

All of these “lifers” are treated alike. Illinois makes no distinction between those who want to change their lives from those who continue to pose a threat and need to be incarcerated to serve the dual goals of protecting the public and punishing the offender. This results in a group of prisoners who are permanently “warehoused.”

The Long Term Prisoner Policy Project is dedicated to the principle that all prisoners should be treated humanely throughout the term of their confinement, and that good behavior and rehabilitation should be encouraged and rewarded by earned good conduct credit and early release.

Through policy changes, public education and litigation, our mission is to (1) create humane living conditions, including improving access to quality medical care for inmates, encouraging programming that serves the dual goals of punishment and rehabilitation, (2) use policy, public education and litigation to reduce the harmful effects of recent sentencing laws which eliminate the possibility of early release where an inmate has earned it.

Read the August 2010 Newsletter for C# Lawyers