Cook County Jail program aims to free inmates' minds, to make freedom possible

A Cook County program aims to help prison inmates transition back into the community so they don't end up there again. Its mission has not changed since it started ten years ago.

Corey Barbee says he has seen the inside jail "maybe three or four times, and every time, I blamed it on something else."

This time, he's enrolled in a class at Cook County Jail that aims to break that pattern and make freedom feel possible.

"I used to have a real messed up way of thinking," Barbee said.

Barbee is working on change, and so is Elkin Castillo.

"I've been doing wrong all my life that wrong became a normal thing to do. Now, this program has allowed me to challenge my way of thinking that what I was doing was wrong," Castillo said. "I'm ready for change. This is for myself. I deserve it. I have done hard time, away from my family and my kids. My kids basically were raised by their mother."

About 80 inmates go to the jail's Mental Health Transition Center five days a week. There are no cells there, just group circles.

"We help the men change their core beliefs and cognitive thinking through therapy, one-on-ones, and intensive psychotherapy groups," said the center's project manager, Bo Cook.

The Sheriff's Office says more than 2,700 people have completed the program. About 480 former inmates participate in the alumni program  and reconnect with staff regularly.

Sheriff Tom Dart launched the program in 2014, recognizing many inmates had mental health issues.

"Let's give them the treatment they would get as if they were on the outside," Dart said. "For me, it's just that hope that that person finally got the diagnosis they never got. They now have treatment that they've given – in some cases, medication. And they have this path now that is in front of them – for many, they will tell me for the first time ever, and they can see it."

For these men, it's a chance to change.

"The past is always going to be the past, but I got a chance to change the future, and that's the biggest blessing of the day," Barbee said.