•August 14, 2019•
By Jim Nowlan
Capital News Service

I left the prison on a recent Wednesday with a better understanding of what foments urban violence, after talking with the real experts — inmates who grew up in major Illinois cities.
The Life Skills Re-entry Center at Kewanee, in central Illinois, is like a small college campus, albeit with razor-wire rather than ivied walls. The place is for longtime inmates of the 30-plus Illinois correctional facilities, who write essays as to why finishing their final years at this intensive career education and counseling facility would benefit them. The goal is to reduce recidivism by giving inmates a career such as restaurant management — they run the café and cafeteria — welding, and more, plus counseling on how to live productively on the outside.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.