The Sheridan Correctional Center reopened in January, 2004 as a unique national model institution aimed at reducing drug crime and drug-related crime by serving as a substance abuse treatment facility with reintegrated reentry services for inmates. The Sheridan program is unique in that the entire medium-security prison is a dedicated therapeutic community substance abuse treatment program.
Although offenders at Sheridan are considered a “serious” population in terms of their criminal records and history of substance abuse, preliminary outcomes comparing the first 721 Sheridan releasees with a matched comparison group of 1,412 offenders released at the same time indicated the following as of 12/31/05:
The process and initial impact evaluation, conducted by Dr. David Olson of Loyola University Chicago and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (with guidance provided by Dr. Kevin Knight of TCU), indicated that:
These preliminary findings support past research findings that document the fact the “treatment works.” As the Sheridan program reaches capacity and as participants are released in larger numbers to the community, the challenges are the coordination and balance of participant needs, reintegration into the community, and public safety concerns. The estimated savings to the State of Illinois based on Sheridan’s lower reincarceration rate was $2.1 million.*
