All of the 1 02 Illinois counties have recommended inmates to the IIP.
Cook County has sent most of the IIP candidates, having recommended
66.3% of the 30,456 candidates. The collar counties of DuPage, Kane,
Lake, McHenry, and Will supplied another 8.6%, and 25.1% have been sentenced
from the remaining Illinois counties. Statewide, 26.7% IIP candidates
have been denied, with the Cook County denial rate slightly higher than
the rest of the state.
The typical IIP inmate is 22 years of age, black, male, with an eleventh
grade education and a substance abuse history. He has been convicted
of a Class 1 or Class 2 property or drug offense with an average sentence
of 4.2 years. Table 3 compares the profiles of inmates selected for
the IIP and those eligible offenders who have been denied or refused
to participate.
The inmates who entered the program presented a demographic profile
similar to the eligible inmates who were denied or refused participation.
The principal differences were that participants were younger, and more
likely to have no prior incarcerations than inmates who were recommended
but did not take part in the program. Females have a higher denial rate
(36.3%), primarily due to medical reasons.
Participants were more likely to have committed a Class 1 crime and/or
a drug offense. Their average sentence was more than six months longer
than for those inmates who were denied IIP admission. Shorter sentences
for non-participants reflect that inmates with lower class offenses
who received 1- or 2-year sentences have refused to participate because
their time left to serve at admission is close to the time spent awaiting
transfer and partaking in the IIP. Finally, an equal percentage of candidates
who qualified under the expanded criteria were denied as participated
in the IIP.
Since the first graduation on February 12, 1991, there have been 15,863
inmates who successfully completed the IIP. Graduates represent 72.4%
of all inmates who have exited the IIP (see Figure 3).
The graduation rate remained higher for Hispanic (77.0%) and white
inmates (75.8%) than for black inmates (70.5%). Females had a much lower
graduation rate (65.7%) than males (72.7%). Graduation rates were highest,
exceeding 77%, for IIP participants with a high school diploma, GED
or advanced education. Graduates have been more educated and slightly
older than program failures. Inmates from Cook County had the lowest
graduation rates (71.4%) (see Table 3).
Among offense data, 75.2% of the participants sentenced for a drug
offense have graduated, while graduation rates were below 70% for the
other offense categories. The graduation rate was highest for the inmates
with a Class 1 offense, decreasing as the offenses become less serious.
Inmates with the shorter sentences had the lowest graduation rate; those
in the 6- to 8-year range had the highest rates of successfully completing
the program (82.7%). IIP participants who qualified under the expanded
criteria had a higher graduation rate than the inmates who were accepted
under the original criteria.
Other than graduating from the IIP, a participant may exit the program
due to a disciplinary infraction, a program review hearing, or by quitting
voluntarily (see Appendix A for an explanation of the disciplinary procedures).
There have been 6,061 (27.6%) inmates who have left the program before
completion. Voluntary dropouts have accounted for 63.5% of these cases
(see Figure 4). To date there have been 3,851 inmates who voluntarily
quit the IIP. This is 17.6% of the inmates who have exited the IIP (see
Figure 3). There has been no significant increase in the proportion
of inmates who voluntarily left after entering the program even though
the option for inmates to refuse participation during reception and
classification was eliminated.
As of June 30, 2003, there have been 2,210 cases that resulted in disciplinary
termination from the IIP. This represents 10.1% of all inmates who have
exited the IIP so far (see Figure 3). Of the failures, 1,077 (17.8%)
involved program reviews resulting from accumulated infractions, while
1,133 (18.7%) resulted from major rule violations (see Figure 4).
Inmates who failed the IIP were more likely to be convicted of a property
crime or a crime against a person than those inmates who graduated.
They were also less educated and more likely to be sentenced in Cook
County (see Table 3). Those inmates who have been involuntarily terminated
from the program have been younger, by nearly one year, than those who
voluntarily left the IIP or graduated; almost half were 17 to 19 years
of age. Inmates who quit the program had shorter sentences than those
who failed the program with a rule violation or program review, and
were committed for more of the lower class offenses.
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