* John Howard Association…
Today, we are sharing a joint monitoring report for Big Muddy River and Taylorville Correctional Centers, IDOC’s only two male prisons that offered voluntary sex offender treatment programming (VSOTP) in 2025. The report includes input from our 2025 surveys and visits.
VSOTP has traditionally been difficult for IDOC to provide, and when available has not provided enough spots for those who want to participate. During our visits, we were informed that availability of the VSOTP program continued to fail to meet high demand.
Per agency policy, completion of the program is mandatory for people who have been convicted of sex offenses to access earned sentence credits. However, long waitlists and IDOC’s practice of prioritization by outdate has resulted in people being too near release upon program completion to take advantage of months’ or years’ worth of earned credits.
Staffing vacancies had contributed to IDOC’s inability to consistently run the program at its intended capacity – exacerbating the long waitlists – despite some progress to lessen delays, such as offering remote assessments for treatment need.
In 2025, IDOC reported more than 1,500 individuals were waitlisted for VSOTP, and JHA consistently heard from people throughout IDOC that this was a programming need. IDOC reported a maximum capacity of 200 treatment spaces; programming rarely operated near this capacity, with only 70 participants at one point in 2025.
In draft review, IDOC shared there had been some improvements to existing treatment utilization, and that VSOTP had been expanded to Centralia with the aim of adding 100 treatment spaces. While this is good news, it still falls short of meeting demand. Nearly one in five people in IDOC custody is there for a sex offense. Not all these individuals are assessed as needing treatment, however.
The full report is here.
- DuPage Saint - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 12:51 pm:
They should just drop the Correction part of their name. Most people get out sometime might be a good idea to give them some help
- Kelly Cassidy - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 12:57 pm:
Years ago, in a hearing of the Public Safety Appropriations Committee, the then Director commented on a bill that would require that everyone in IDOC who is eligible receive access to GED classes and testing. His reaction to this incredibly basic idea was along the lines of: You can pass whatever you want. I don’t have to do it if it’s not in the best interest of the department and its needs.
This attitude has been consistent across every administration I’ve been here for.
- Timber Cove Chillin - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 12:59 pm:
To push back on Rep Cassidy, I have spoken to someone who tested for a GED while in custody. DHS is the agency that needs to be encouraging folks to get their GEDs, IDOC is doing their part in this regard.
- Sue - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 1:03 pm:
“Might be helpful” - I get that you’re using that rhetorically but in fact (at least based on a quick online search) this sex offender treatment program is only marginally effective, and the high demand isn’t because people want to “cure themselves” but, according to the report itself, it’s a prerequisite for other benefits, programs, or credits.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 1:10 pm:
===is only marginally effective===
You’d rather nothing at all?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 1:11 pm:
===I have spoken to someone who tested for a GED while in custody===
lol
Oh, well, then. One person. Game over.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 1:13 pm:
Also, I don’t think waiting until near the end of a person’s term to start the treatment is the worst idea in the world. But the treatment should be far more available.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 1:38 pm:
It may lack the authority of a Google search, but this paper published at NIH says “voluntary treatment produces significant effects regardless of treatment setting,” i.e. prison.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8249288/
– MrJM
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 1:55 pm:
Depending on which study you look at, voluntary sex offender programs reduce recidivism rates (both for re-arrest and reconviction) in other states anywhere from 30% to 50%. That is pretty darn significant, according to the US Dept. of Justice:
https://smart.ojp.gov/somapi/chapter-7-effectiveness-treatment-adult-sex-offenders
Rich, I understand what you mean about waiting to the end. I would counter that the tools of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are useful not only in combating sexual predation but also violence and other issues, so the sooner we put these tools in people’s hands the better.
Also, the voluntary sex offender program takes a year to complete, so if they are going to complete it and if its going to offer them a sentence reduction, waiting until they are about to get out makes no sense.
Finally, as I have said about community-based drug treatment programs, the best time to get people help is as soon as they are ready to accept it. We should not tell drug addicts “It’s great you want to quit, come back in a year” nor sexual predators “we’re glad you want to change, can you just keep being the person you are for another 3-5 years.”
It’s common sense.
- SouthSide Markie - Monday, Aug 17, 26 @ 4:03 pm:
== voluntary sex offender programs reduce recidivism rates ==
…Which not only provides us with healthier, safer communities, but tangible economic benefits. According to the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, each recidivism event costs Illinois about $151,000, for a 5 year total of about $13 billion. https://spac.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/spac/documents/reports/2015-2019/2018-illinois-result-first-the-high-cost-of-recidivism.pdf