Inmates at the Kendall County Adult Detention Center are free to attend the Christian Journey Courses’ Prepped for Life Program.
Rather than focusing on the faults of the program attendees, the instructors center on each inmate’s strengths and go into detail about their childhood – right up to the events that led to their incarceration.
Founded by Lynn Heckler, who found herself a battered wife in her late 20s, the Prepped for Life Program is a deep-dive into the all-too-common abuse typical among the detention center classmates. In fact, an astonishing 70% of inmates believed alcohol and drug abuse is normal within a typical household.
Courtney Moore, a female inmate at the KCDC, said the program was one of the most liberating programs she has been a part of, even though she came into the first class with skepticism.
After hearing other female inmates openly discuss their traumas and childhood, she said she no longer felt alone in her journey. She found it became easier, with each passing class, to open up and believe that God had a better plan for her.
Male inmate Cody Mills would agree.
Struggling for most of his life with anger issues, Mills found instructor Monay Boring’s no-nonsense approach refreshing. He came to accept responsibility for the actions that led him to be incarcerated. And with Boring’s help, he was able to identify which life-skills he needed to work on to avoid further trouble in the future.
Boring and Heckler, along with the encouragement of KCDC administrator Robert Green -- who had just attended a conference for correctional officers about working with inmates who endured childhood abuse -- introduced this curriculum with the belief that this would afford the inmates more opportunities in their future.
Already, they have seen success in one former inmate, Billy Day Jr., who will be speaking at their upcoming fundraiser.
Heckler’s firm conviction in founding the program is that no one is meant to be alone, that each person desires to be social -- which is why her program provides insights on social norms, parenting, life goals, and even money management.
The curriculum also covers generational programming, handling health and guilt in a healthy manner, setting boundaries, and building character.
One of the first classes requires inmates to discuss how they foresee their own future so that a foundation is built for refocusing their outlook.
The five-week faithbased, life- skills and behavior transformation program are held twice a week at the detention center. Inmates are only permitted to miss one course – any more and they must start the program over. No high school diploma is required and there is no cost associated with attendance. Each class is held in-person for two hours, and upon completion of the program, a certificate of training is issued.
Programs repeat approximately every seven weeks.
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