Illinois to improve conditions at youth prisons

WKMS | By The Associated Press

Published September 12, 2012 at 8:10 AM CDT

Illinoisis promising to improve safety at its youth prisons and offer inmates better educational and mental health services. The Department of Juvenile Justice agreed to the improvements after the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois threatened to sue. The two sides plan to ask a federal judge today to approve their plan, which calls for investigators to study youth prisons for six months and then recommend changes. The Department of Juvenile Justice houses about 1,000 children and teenagers. Watchdog groups say many don't get a decent education or proper treatment for mental illnesses. They also report frequent fights, children being put in solitary confinement for weeks and inmates staying behind bars after they're supposed to be released because the state has nowhere to send them.

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Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

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