For Joseph, locked inside Menard Correctional Center, it sounds like “peace and quiet and not hearing keys jingle all day.”

For Carrie, in Logan women’s prison, it’s gratitude for “rain falling on my forehead and grass between my toes.”

But when we asked hundreds of people in Illinois prisons and jails how they define “rehabilitation” – which is supposed to be a core tenet of Illinois’ criminal justice system – many more responded like Stacy Erica, inside Illinois River Correctional Center.

“I do not believe it exists in [the Illinois Department of Corrections],” she wrote. “I see guys come in, go out, and come back repeatedly. … A few may get rehabilitation, thousands do not.”

On this episode of Prisoncast! , from WBEZ and Illinois Public Radio, men and women in prisons tell us about the obstacles to transforming themselves in state prisons – from a lack of education programming to poor living conditions and shoddy health care. We’ll also hear stories from people inside who did manage to transform themselves, despite their environment – whether through trauma-informed healing, music and writing, education, even yoga.

Listen live to Prisoncast! Sunday, March 30th from 2 to 4 p.m. on WBEZ, Illinois Public Radio stations statewide, or at wbez.org . Prisoncast! is a statewide radio show and engaged journalism project that shines a light on Illinois’ prison system, and the people affected by it. Everything on the show comes directly from a question, idea or request from someone currently or formerly incarcerated in Illinois, or their loved ones.

Here’s what’s on the March 30th episode of Prisoncast!

In the first hour of the show, we hear from incarcerated students inside Sheridan Correctional Center about education, self-transformation and the problem with the word “rehabilitation.” An incarcerated paralegal and historian shares what the Illinois constitution has to say about criminal penalties, and the state’s “objective of restoring the offender to useful citizenship.”

We hear how one man successfully fought his wrongful conviction in Illinois after decades behind bars, learn about a trauma-informed healing group started by men inside the Kewanee Life Skills Reentry Center, and look back at a music program that put on concerts inside the now-closed Stateville prison.

The second hour features a 2021 WBEZ investigation about Finland’s “open prison” system, which is designed entirely around rehabilitation, not punishment. We’ll hear about problems in implementing a state sentencing credit law that could mean people are stuck in prison longer than they should be, and get an update on legislative efforts to roll back Illinois’ truth-in-sentencing statute.