A day in St. Charles

A day in St. Charles
Inside and Out goes to the St. Charles youth facility. WBEZ/Carlos Javier Ortiz
A day in St. Charles
Inside and Out goes to the St. Charles youth facility. WBEZ/Carlos Javier Ortiz

A day in St. Charles

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Illinois has eight youth prisons.

Thousands of young people are sent every year to be rehabilitated, educated, equipped with skills and to be turned away from crime before it becomes a lifestyle.

Earlier this year, WBEZ’s Robert Wildeboer took us to the sprawling St. Charles prison campus 40 miles west of Chicago.

Behind the multiple layers of fencing and barbed wire in a cluster of buildings on a gently sloping hill is Owens cottage, where the story began.