Each week, Sheridan officials work with outside organizations to give inmates nearly 50 hours of drug and alcohol counseling and other therapy sessions, education, job training, and additional skills to prevent recidivism.

According to a report on 150 inmates by David Olson, professor of criminal justice at Loyola University, 12 percent were re-arrested compared with 27 percent who had served in other prisons. When inmates spent at least seven months at Sheridan, none was rearrested compared with 20 percent from other prisons serving that same amount of time. Olson conducted the research for the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, a state agency that analyzes crime statistics and trends.

"It tells us clearly that it's working," he said.

While Christy Visher, principal research associate at the Urban Institute, cautions officials to involve communities to help with jobs or continuing treatment, she said "I think the project is really combining a lot of what we know works in one place. I see this as a model for the rest of the country."

Anthony Edwards, now 33 and out of prison, had been behind bars six times on charges of theft, drug possession and other crimes since he was 15. Since leaving jail in September, he has maintained a job as a warehouse worker, reunited with his two children, and is enrolled in community college.

"If the program wasn't offered, I would still be out on the street thinking that I could get different results from doing the same thing," said Edwards, who spoke Monday at the facility's one-year anniversary ceremony.

State officials hope to help 1,700 men sentenced to prison on drug-related crimes, which will make Sheridan Correctional Center the country's largest prison dedicated exclusively to drug offenders.

Take Action: Requiring effective treatment and continuing, supervised aftercare programs instead of incarceration for non-violent drug and alcohol offenders is among Join Together's 10 Drug and Alcohol Policies That Will Save Lives.

What You Can Do: Urge lawmakers in your state to support treatment instead of mandatory sentencing for non-violent drug and alcohol offenders.

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