Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: ST. LOUIS, May 3 (UPI) _ Overcrowding is reportedly worse in Illinois' juvenile facilities than in its prisons for adults. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today said the state's youth correctional system is running at 70 percent above capacity, with six of the seven facilities holding too many offenders. The centers are designed to hold a combined total of 1,264 young people. On April 24 the system's population was 2,161. The medium-security Harrisburg facility in southern Illinois held 511 offenders on April 29. It was only designed to accommodate 276 boys. Superintendent Monty Field told the Post-Dispatch the situation was bad enough that the center had to set up a dozen cots in a reception area. He said, ``We really felt like we would bust.'' Field and others are concerned the problem of overcrowding is hurting the juvenile system's ability to rehabilitate young people who haven't yet developed into hardened criminals. At Harrisburg the crowding problem has meant limiting classes to half-day shifts for older youths and jamming two or even three people into a single-sized room. The Illinois Department of Corrections is in the process of adding 48 beds to the new ``boot camp'' facility in Murphysboro and another 100 beds at Joliet. But Juvenile Division Director Joanne Perkins says much more expansion is needed. She said, ``At some point you just get too crowded so that your safety and security is compromised.'' -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
