Illegal drugs have been a significant contributing factor to the growing admissions, releases, and housed population of prisons in the State of Illinois. In order to safely and effectively manage these offenders while incarcerated and following their release back to their communities, the governor of Illinois reopened the Sheridan Correctional Center to serve as a national model for how to safely and effectively manage these offenders inside and outside of prison. The Sheridan Correctional Center Therapeutic Community (TC) opened in 2004. TC's are residential programs that use a hierarchical model with treatment strategies that reflect increased levels of personal and social responsibility. The Sheridan Correctional Center TC is serving a population with extensive substance abuse and criminal histories, as well as educational and vocational deficits. Preliminarily, it appears that many of the pieces of an effective TC program are in place and becoming routine at the Center. This summary report describes the impetus for or motivation behind the Sheridan Correctional Center TC, the planned design and operation of the program, and the characteristics of the almost 900 participants of the TC on June 30, 2004. References