NO KIDS IN PRISON! Tell Gov. Pritzker NO on LDC!

Tell Gov. Pritzker: NO new youth prisons in Illinois

“Illinois Youth Center (IYC)” is the name given by the administration to youth prisons.

These IYCs are notorious for inhumane conditions and violence perpetrated by staff who are supposed to protect and care for vulnerable youth. Let's be clear. There is nothing “youthful” about these “youth centers”; they are prisons through and through.

Illinois is spending over $21 million to renovate Lincoln Development Center (LDC) and build the facility which will operate as IYC Lincoln and incarcerate up to 30 kids. That amounts to roughly $700,000 per incarcerated youth will be spent on the construction of a new prison miles away from home. Consider that Illinois spends just over 15,000 per child for education. And while the administration believes this will be an economic benefit to the surrounding community, we are clear that no one should benefit from the caging of children. No one should profit from incarceration, and specifically from prisons for kids.

Investing in Illinois kids means telling Gov. Pritzker Illinois no kids in prison, no new prison, and a stop on the construction of IYC Lincoln Youth Prison.

No youth prisons

Join us and sign on NOW!

Dear Governor J.B. Pritzker,

Youth incarcerations harm kids, break up families, and too often, youth prison facilities perpetuate the most abusive elements of incarceration: solitary confinement, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. The Illinois Youth Center at Lincoln (IYC-Lincoln) would be one of six fully functioning youth prisons in Illinois for a current population of just 130 youth. Continuing to waste taxpayer dollars into incarcerating kids is archaic, ineffective, and not cost effective.

IYC-Lincoln is scheduled to be constructed at a state facility called Lincoln Development Center (LDC) - a facility that closed in 2002 after abuse and neglect, including preventable deaths, were reported. Despite the appalling history, advocates of its construction insist that it will be a "restorative" and "community-based" facility, and would benefit the surrounding community. Let’s be clear, no one should benefit from the incarceration of children and to claim that this prison would be community-based is misleading and appropriative of real community-based solutions. With so few youth currently incarcerated, we have an opportunity to build something uniquely transformative.

Additionally Illinois is spending over $21 million to renovate LDC and build the facility which will operate as IYC Lincoln. The facility is slated to incarcerate no more than 30 youth, which is almost identical to the number of youth who are currently incarcerated at the abusive youth prison in St. Charles, Illinois. That amounts to roughly $700,000 per incarcerated youth will be spent on the construction of a new prison miles away from home. Consider that Illinois spends just over 15,000 per child for education.

There are alternatives, and studies show that when young people involved in the juvenile justice system avoid incarceration and engage in alternatives [including but not limited to home confinement, treatment, therapy, and youth centric intensive supervision programs,] the rate of conviction and rearrest is dramatically reduced.

Imagine if instead this $21 million was used to provide comprehensive mental health resources for Illinois youth who have suffered the loss of a family member due to gun violence or to build shelters for youth without houses in the winter throughout the state. Imagine if the state invested this money into organizations doing restorative justice, harm reduction, and reentry or invested in high school student groups doing similar work within their schools. Imagine if those taxpayer dollars were invested in public schools in low-income neighborhoods to ensure that youth in these communities have access to comprehensive extracurricular programs.

This is all possible, and we need you to take action to stop the construction of the IYC Lincoln youth prison. Instead of building more cages to separate more youth from their families. Let’s invest in the power of Illinois kids.

Signed,

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