Illinois Public Radio

Statewide: Prison education on the outside

NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Sean Crawford

Published December 1, 2022 at 11:41 AM CST

Flickr/Katerha /

When COVID-19 hit Illinois prisons, visitors were limited in the facilities. That meant teachers and professors couldn't get in for their classes. They were forced to turn to online learning.

But that also created a path for those leaving prison to stay enrolled. We'll hear about one woman's experience.

Listen to this episode of Statewide.

Also this week:

* Peter Medlin of WNIJ reports on a teaching method called "modeling." It involves hands-on experiments and classroom conversations.

* Zach Boblitt tells us about concerns over a pipeline planned for five states. It would transport CO2 to a site in Illinois.

* Dan Mihalopoulos stops by some World Cup watch parties in Chicago.

* JuanPablo Ramirez-Franco with the Mississippi River Basin Ag and Water Desk reports on contamination of drinking water along the Iowa-Illinois border. He finds residents and community leaders are trying to make sense of what comes next.

* Harvest Public Media's Jonathon Ahl delves into what the split control of congress could mean for the next farm bill.

* Dan Gorenstein with the podcast Tradeoffs has details on how states plan to spend billions in opioid settlement dollars.

* We talk about jazz legend Louis Armstrong. He arrived in Chicago 100 years ago. How did the city influence him and his music?

* Peter Medlin examines how school transfers impact students.

* Rich Egger takes us to the Midwest Bus Museum, the final home for the large vehicles that spent their best years working - helping students and others get to where they need to go.