NCJ Number
176902
Date Published
1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report summarizes a 5-month evaluation of Illinois' Taylorville Correctional Center (TCC), which embodies a plan, initiated in 1996, to establish a gang-free environment as an alternative for inmates without gang affiliation.
Abstract
TCC's mission is to establish a gang-free environment; provide safe, secure, and humane living and working conditions for inmates and staff; and assist these offenders in making lifestyle changes. In achieving this mission, TCC attempts to control the internal sources of gang power by eliminating gang structures and gang activity, control the external sources of gang power by controlling contraband, and control gang affiliation by effecting changes in the individual inmate's decision-making process. The evaluation conducted an in-depth study of the TCC environment, a comparison of TCC with three other minimum-security facilities, and the collection of staff and inmate opinions and system-level data. The evaluation found that TCC successfully implemented a program that parallels its institutional mission. Some programming changes are being considered, including an expansion of the Lifestyle Redirection program and the initiation of a "Flag Droppers" program. The latter program would provide an opportunity for inmates who want to renounce their gang affiliation to do so without fear of retaliation by being housed in the gang-free environment; inmates with past gang history but no current involvement could also be housed at TCC. The evaluators made several recommendations for the implementation of these efforts; these are outlined in this paper. 2 figures