Du Quoin Impact Program expected to reopen, with a few tweaks
Legislation that calls on the Du Quoin boot camp to reopen has passed the Illinois House and Senate unanimously and will be sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his signature.
The Du Quoin Impact Program was closed in April 2020 and its 25 inmates relocated primarily to Dixon Springs Impact Incarceration Program in Golconda. Two were taken to the Pinckneyville Correctional Center.
At the time, the media administrator for the Illinois Department of Corrections, Lindsey Hess, said the shutdown was temporary and would allow IDOC to provide more efficient care for inmates during the pandemic.
In February 2021, state Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) sponsored legislation to expand and reform the Du Quoin Impact Program. One co-sponsor was Sen. Dale Fowler of Harrisburg. In the House, the bill was sponsored by state Rep. Patrick Windhorst of Metropolis.
Senate Bill 1861 called for expanding the existing impact program to include community service activities, cognitive behavioral programming, life skills, and re-entry planning. The proposal also increases the length of the program from 120-180 days to a range of 365 days to 18 months.
"The Du Quoin Impact Incarceration Program was effectively shut down almost a year ago with inmates being moved to other facilities under the pretext of COVID-19 and inmate safety," Bryant said in a news release.
"To this day, that facility remains unnecessarily shuttered and underutilized. This legislation is about utilizing these facilities and expanding the program to help participants develop the skills needed to become productive members of society."
The legislation keeps the existing structure foundation of the program, but replaces some of the more outdated military boot camp requirements with re-entry training and programs.
Hess, meanwhile, sent the Du Quoin Call an emailed statement, thanking the sponsors of the legislation, "for backing our plan to reform the Impact Incarceration Program ... we are pleased the bill passed with bipartisan support."
In the email, Hess did not give a date from when the facility is expected to reopen. She said IDOC is currently looking at candidates for Du Quoin IIP superintendent and other key positions, and that once fully staffed, the facility will reopen.
The Du Quoin boot camp opened in 1994, as a satellite facility of the Pinckneyville Correctional Center, according to the IDOC website.
It was built on state land just east of the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, which has nothing to do with running it.
Inmates are all male and no older than 35. Offenders who meet the requirements can get their sentences significantly reduced if they successfully complete the program; and are able to return home in about six months, instead of whatever their sentences were.
During their stay in the military-style camp, inmates go out into the community in work groups.
Du Quoin Mayor Guy Alongi said he's thrilled the program is coming back, and thanked Bryant for all her hard work to make it happen.
"She's shown a real interest in bringing it back," Alongi said. "The program was good for Du Quoin. He'd (former Impact Program Superintendent Jason Henton) give us work crews for the Holiday Lights Fair and for snow removal too - they would come uptown and shovel sidewalks for businesses."
Having the boot camp open means jobs, he added, people who will shop in Du Quoin stores.
Alongi remembers that in the heyday of the boot camp, there would be anywhere from 75 to 90 inmates in Du Quoin. At the fairgrounds, groups of supervised young men would clean out ditches and pick up trash, or do similar tasks. In 2019, work groups from the Du Quoin facility helped fill sandbags along the Mississippi River in Randolph County.