Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Building emotional intelligence, one cellblock at a time

wbez.org · 15dShare

There’s something unusual happening at the Illinois River Correctional Center. For a prison, there’s a lot of talk of community, emotional intelligence, nurturing, support — and it’s not just talk. It’s focused in one wing in the prison — 3-A — but the zeitgeist seems to be spreading. The latest episode of Prisoncast! profiles the Building Block program at the prison, which was started up by several guys who'd transferred in from a maximum security prison. These men — some of whom have life sentences — used the college degrees they got in prison to start a program to help others who will have the chance to be released some day. "I was afforded the opportunity for education [and] it opened my eyes to my own life and how unhealthy I thought about things...which made me really start asking,'Why did I do the things that I did?'" said one of the program's founders, Yarmale Thomas. "Once people start getting to that then they can start addressing it and begin to heal. Once they heal, they ca

First report: Building emotional intelligence, one cellblock at a time — suntimes.com, 16d