IDOC DIRECTOR 3/16/20 EMAILS TO ALL PRISONERS

03/16/2020 - A message from the Director

We continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 public health situation. We are committed to trying to minimize your risk by limiting movement into and out of the IDOC facilities. You should know that as of today, March 16th, everybody who enters an IDOC facility is completing a medical screening. People who have any flu-like symptoms are being turned away.

While circumstances are subject to change, we expect to continue the prisons on a modified-secure status. Dayroom time, recreation, and commissary will continue as normal for the time being. We are also planning to reopen work release opportunities in cases where the companies have detailed plans to protect your health and safety. If you go out to work, you will be required to do medical screening when you leave and when you return to the facility.

We also recognize that having visitation closed is hard on you and your friends and family. In the interest of protecting you and our staff, we made the difficult decision to suspend visiting and volunteer services until April 1st. Im not going to pretend that decision wont cause hardships, but were committed to doing everything we can to help you maintain those connections important to you. We've worked with CenturyLink and they will be providing everyone with two free 15-minute calls per week, beginning today. The calls will be loaded by midnight March 16 and each week threafter they will be loaded on Sunday. Additional information about the calls will come soon, and were working with our other partners to see what other ways we can ease the difficulty during this health situation.

Please take care of yourself! Wash your hands, keep your areas clean, and do everything you can to protect yourself and those who are more vulnerable to this illness. Well keep you posted as the situation develops.

Thanks-
Josh
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03/16/2020 - Memo to Inmates
Re: Free phone calls

The IDOC and CenturyLink are committed to helping you keep in touch with loved ones during this trying time. To help facilitate such contact, beginning March 16, 2020, CenturyLink will provide two free 15 minutes calls per inmate per week until the further notice.

Details:

Two 15-minute free calls will be loaded on 3/16/2020. Each week thereafter, free calls will be loaded on Sunday and available Sunday through Saturday
Free calls are not cumulative and cannot be rolled week to week (use it or lose it).

When placing a call please listen to the prompts to select the option to use your free call. These free calls will temporarily take the place of the 2 monthly indigent free calls.

Stay safe, stay well.