America's Problem Prisons
    NOW
    t r u t h o u t | Programming Note

    PBS Airtime: Friday, June 1, 2007 at 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html).

Can an innovative program keep convicts from going back? Next time on NOW.

    The number of inmates in American prisons is outpacing the system's ability to hold them all. In one startling example, California prisons hold 70,000 more inmates than they're designed for, even though the state has built a dozen new prisons in the last 15 years. One of the biggest reasons is rampant recidivism.

    "Right now, 7 out of every 10 inmates who leave this prison come back," California Warden Mike Poulos tells NOW. "We need to stop that revolving door."

    On Friday, June 1, at 8:30 p.m. (check local listings), NOW goes inside an Illinois prison that may have the answer to California's problems. With its innovative plan to keep released inmates from coming back, the Sheridan Correctional Center is trying to redefine "tough on crime" by being the largest fully dedicated drug prison in the country. The approach involves aggressive counseling, job training ... and following the convicts after they get out. Can this novel approach keep convicts out of jail for good? NOW looks at the lives of three different men - all in different stages of the system - to find out.

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    The NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will provide additional coverage starting Friday morning, June 1. Features include facts and figures on US prisons and prisoners, and revealing poetry from one former inmate.