Prairie State Wire

Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority Higher Education in Prison Task Force met May 19.

Here are the minutes provided by the task force:

Task Force Member Attendance	Present (VIDEO)		Telephone	Absent
Orlando Mayorga, Chair	X
Rep. Carol Ammons	X
Sen. Terri Bryant				X
Sen. Kimberly Lightford				X
Yaacov Delaney	X
Director Rob Jeffreys, IL Dept. of Corrections (IDOC)*				X
Dr. Lynne Mock, ICJIA				X
Dr. Eric Lichtenberger, IL Board of Higher Education				X
Nathan Wilson, IL Community College Board	X
Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana				X
Sarah Ross, Art Institute of Chicago	X
Dr. Quintin Williams, The Joyce Foundation	X
Rebecca Ginsburg, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana	X
Gwyneth Troyer, John Howard Association of Illinois	X
Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas				X

Also present were:

Miranda Gills (Proxy for Sen. Lightford), Senior Advisor and Communications Specialist

Emma Holzhauer (Proxy for Rep. Carol Ammons), Support Staff

Ashton Hoselton, Education Justice Project

Jaquelyn Gilbreath, ICJIA Research Analyst

Crystal Johnson, ICJIA, Office of the General Counsel

Blanca Dominguez, ICJIA Office of General Counsel

Doug Otta, ICJIA Research & Analysis

Sharon Varallo

Stephanie Schmitz-Bechteler

Susan Giberson

A. Call to Order and Roll Call

1. Chair Mayorga called the meeting to order at 12:03 PM

2. Crystal D. Johnson took roll

3. Quorum was established

B. Motion to Approve the Agenda for May 19, 2022 (Voice Vote)

• Moved by Rebecca Ginsburg

• Seconded by Sarah Ross

• All were in favor

• No oppositions

• No abstentions

• Motion passed

C. Motion to Approve Minutes for April 21, 2022 (Voice Vote)

• Rebecca Ginsburg moved to have the meeting minutes approved at the next meeting

D. New Business

a. Proposal for Task Force Meetings-Sarah Ross, Rebecca Ginsburg

1. Sarah Ross asked everyone to take a look at the agenda that was emailed to them on May 18, 2022.

2. Rebecca Ginsburg moved to amend the meeting agenda to adding an additional meeting, Thursday, July 21, 2022 from 12:00 p.m to 1:30 p.m.

3. Ms. Ross agreed to amend the agenda to add the additional meeting.

4. Motion to Approve the amended agenda for future task force meetings (Voice Vote)

• Moved by Rebecca Ginsburg

• Seconded by Gwyn Troyer

• All were in favor

• No oppositions

• No abstentions

• Motion passed

b. HEP Data Request-Gwyn Troyer

1. Gwen Troyer presented the Data Request excel document that was completed with the help of James Pagano from IDOC and Jaqueline Gilbreath from ICJIA.

2. Motion to Approve the Data Request excel document (Voice Vote)

• Moved by Sarah Ross

• Seconded by Rep. Carol Ammons

• All were in favor

• No oppositions

• No abstentions

• Motion passed

F. Members Updates

• Rebecca Ginsburg stated the group of people interested in data should meet with Doug. She stated, I hope the conversation will happen very soon.

• Quintin Williams stated data is one thing to then identify. What are the other themes? What are the other things that we're interested in? And then perhaps establishing some other groups, like the informal one that was created around the data to then sort of come back at subsequent meetings with the outcomes of of those targeted smaller means.

• Rep. Ammons stated she is interested in learning how the federal government is going to provide Pell Grant access. What is being spent currently in IDOC’s budget?

• Rebecca Ginsburg stated we might think about doing that to the task force charges. One group is funding and pell funding will not cover all costs and it is important for universities to understand that. Opportunity and barriers are other categories and another group around what data needs to be collected including IDOC policies that get in the way of programming.

G. Public Comments

• Flora Esquivel, Administrator Director for Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison, stated she is interested in the three year plan with strategic follow-ups. She stated ILCHEP would like to take part in follow-ups to address the quality of student education. She askded task force members to consider ILCHEP as a partner and as a support for quality education. She stated there is a conference on October 21-22nd and everyone is invited. She asked how can we leverage information with the 17 facilities that do not have a program right now?

H. Adjournment

• Moved by Rep. Carol Ammons

• Seconded by Rebecca Ginsburg

• All were in favor

• No oppositions

• No abstentions

• Meeting adjourned at 1:33 PM

https://icjia.illinois.gov/news/meetings/