Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) offers programs and services for incarcerated persons at 23 Illinois prisons and jails, and their families. It also provides services for previously incarcerated persons who are returning to Illinois communities. The programs include:

• Building Homes: Rebuilding Lives enables incarcerated adults and youth to learn construction skills as they create housing components for homes for low-income families. More…



• Connections works with incarcerated mothers, women who are re-entering the community, their children and the children’s caregivers. More…



• Justice Education provides LSSI staff members who teach classes entitled “Restorative Justice and Ministry to Those Incarcerated and Their Families” at Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.



• Storybook Project works with volunteers who enable incarcerated parents to read a book on to an audiotape, which is then sent – along with the book – to their children. More…



• Thursday Ministry works with churches to provide a devotion and craft day for prisoners at the Dixon Correctional Center and the Pekin Federal Prison Camp for Women. Pastoral Care is also provided at the Pekin facility.

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