Well it’s been a very eventful past few hours. Yesterday’s post about closing Illinois prisons generated pitched comments and “discussion” on my organizational facebook page. Several former and current staff members from one of the youth prisons recommended for closure decided that they wanted to make their voices heard. Here are some of their responses:

I work at iyc Joliet & I strongly disagree with the closing of these institutions, work there b4 u speak against a system that keeps violent people off our streets

You want to know a little about what we do at IYC Joliet (Illinois Youth Center). We help by providing Care and Custody. Many of our youth receive needed counseling, therapy, and appropriate academic services while with us because we provide a level of security custody and control that our school systems can’t. We house and care for violent individuals who have failed to comply with the rules while housed at lesser secure facilities. We are closer to the city of Chicago (where most of our youth come from) enabling parents, advocates, and legal teams, who aid in youth therapy to visit without extensive travel. WE house young men ranging from 16-21 who are locked up for crimes ranging from rape to capital murder. This is no day camp. Some of these guys are HABITUAL CRIMINALS and will be IN and OUT of the system for the REST OF THEIR LIVES! WE work with a population that America wish’s didn’t exist. WE work side by side with the rapist, the murderer, the molester….do you want these guys to roam YOUR neighborhood freely because some politician failed to comply with an established budget? We should keep IYC Joliet open because we’re effective at what we do

Before you think about closing these facilities see how these youth personally assault you just for doing your job. What makes you think they wont hurt you or your loved ones out on the streets when they are already murderers, rapist, etc. They dont care what you or anyone else has to say. They listen to the gangs they are in. The youth at IYC-Joliet are facing adult charges and the majority are young adults aging 18-20. Know the facts before you jump to a conclusion about putting them back on the streets.

Obviously this so called group does not care about the safety of the community!!! She like the havoc that these criminals reak on society! This group feels like the criminal should not pay for the crimes that they have committed. Please tell me how do you sleep when someone’s loved one is 6 ft under but you push for the MURDERER to go free!!!

Iyc-Joliet doesn’t house children!!!! These are mostly 18-21 year old men!!!!! Do you watch the news? All of the teens killing people and raping kids are at IYC-Joliet. This prison houses the worst 250 juvenile males in the state!! Go ahead and try and mentor the 18 year old who has killed three people or the 17 year old who beat his mom to death with a hammer or the 18 year old who raped a young girl in a basement at her friends birthday party (oh yeah and he was on parole… Where was NIA then…????) Maybe they can come and live at your house so you can mentor and love them.

1st of all, I absolutely agree. There are better ways to prevent young people from doing fucked up things. You can start with letting parents discipline their kids with out the fear of DCFS knocking in your door saying your abusing them. 2nd thing, their are places kids can go to get treated and the help they need. They all don’t just get thrown in jail. Understand this. The juveniles we have at IYC JOLIET need a lot more than you think. Over half these kids are looking at doing some serious time for some serious crime. Juveniles that do petty crimes don’t just come to IYC JOLIET. This is the LAST stop befor they go to an adult facility. If you close IYC JOLIET these “violant offenders” that you said project nia doesn’t want to go free will in fact, be set free into your community.

If you all do in house assessments be prepared to be there by yourself these youth are not going to be in their houses waiting for you. These youth will be out in the streets doing some of the same things that got them incarcerated. I laugh at the bleeding hearts it takes a special person to work with these youths and you all are not one of them. These youth will do unspeakable things to each other and staff. Go and visit just one facility and I pray that you go to IYC Joliet and I hope they take you on a tour of Dorm 4 or even Dorm 3 or maybe even better Dorm 7. Get a clue we protect you so you can sleep at night and know that your family is safe and sound, no one is going to come and rape, murder, or kill you and your family because we keep the worst of the worst at bay and under control behind these walls we call IYC Joliet.

we are Hard working people trying to make a living just like the rest of you. We do a job that many of you could not and would not do!!! Q: what do u do when someone comes in your house in the middle of the night? what do you do when you come home and someone has killed a family member? What do you do when you come home and your Child is being Raped? What do you do when you get robed on the street? do you call the police or do you talk and try to council them????

What comes across in these responses? What do you notice?

Fact: Less than 35% of youth in Illinois youth prisons are incarcerated for violent crimes. Less than 1% are incarcerated for murder.

Fact: The Governor has recommended closing IYC-Joliet and TRANSFERRING the youth currently incarcerated there to other youth prisons in the state.

Fact: It costs an average of $90,000 a year to incarcerate a young person in Illinois.

Then in the midst of all of those comments, I saw this one from an incredible young woman I know and I smiled because it reaffirmed why I do the work that I do:

“Wow, there’s a whole lot of ignorance going on around here…Project NIA is a fantastic organization that cares about the wellbeing and rehabilitation of young people, as opposed to their imprisonment. No adults take advantage of children and force them to make cards for terrible youth in jail…have you ever stopped to think that maybe if somebody actually showed these imprisoned youth that they CARE that maybe they wouldn’t act out in the ways that they do? I’m not saying that youth in prison haven’t done some horrendous things…I’m saying that they are still young people and we should be supporting them and helping them learn from their mistakes, not imprisoning them so that they never have a chance to change or find a better life. I happen to volunteer at a juvenile detention center and I make it my business to work with at-risk youth, as a former foster kid. I really don’t appreciate YOU adults who act like you know everything about what these children have been through. They are not lost causes. They are not inherently terrible. A lot of young people reoffend within hours of release because they don’t have homes to go to…did you ever think of that? Seriously, Project NIA provides articles and reports with statistics of imprisonment and strives to fight the racism, classism, and adultism that results in the imprisonment of our youth. Anyone that can read could see that, and anyone with even the smallest amount of compassion would believe in HELPING troubled youth rather than keeping them behind bars. People like you make me sick to my stomach, but you’re all the inspiration I need to continue to fight a corrupt system.”