Students enrolled in the statemandated program that educates probationers in Cook County were locked out last week from the building that housed the program for the last 29 years and met with a sign on the door directing them to go to an adjacent building
The City Colleges of Chicago locked the doors June 20 to the building that is on the Olive-Harvey College campus that housed Probation Challenge Inc. “This is wicked and evil. How dare they tell young people to follow the law, but they break it? I’m going to fight back,” Rev. Harold Bailey, the program’s (former) administrator said.
Bailey said he told the late Judge R. Eugene Pincham, the program’s brainchild, the legal challenges Probation Challenge was facing, and Pincham told him to “fight back.” In February, Bailey was told the program had until April 30 to vacate the building it was housed in. Determined to stay, he filed for an injunction. On May 12, he was told he had until May 21 to leave and move into smaller accommodations on the campus.
Bailey said CCC “usurped” the law because it had no right to kick Probation Challenge off its campus and no legal ownership of the program, he does. According to the state’s The Probation Challenge Act of 1981, the program must be housed on CCC grounds. A spokesperson for the city colleges said Bailey was not the owner of the program, which will now be revamped and spread across the CCC system.
“Probation Challenge Inc. is a partnership between the State of Illinois and the City Colleges of Chicago. We are the oversight authority of Probation Challenge,” said Elsa Tullos, spokesperson for CCC and Olive-Harvey. She added,“Probationers will have the option to study several trade and career programs including multi-media, television broadcasting, culinary arts, construction trades and commercial driver training.”
The city colleges want someone else to do the same thing Bailey did: self-financed for the last 25 years, he said. “Bailey came out of his own pocket to make sure that his students had a chance to avoid violence and miss education in our city. The City Colleges did not fully compensate him for his services,” said Lester Barclay, Bailey’s attorney.
Joel Smith, 31, who was on probation for a drug offense, said Probation Challenge turned his life around. He graduated from the program about two years ago. He initially wanted to be a fireman, but once he got in the program, he wanted to go into broadcasting. “Security told me that I was no longer wanted here and that I had to leave.
They said that I would be arrested if I didn’t get off the campus,” Smith said after he arrived last week at Probation Challenge. When high school diploma-lacking offenders are considered for probation, electronic home monitoring or parole in Cook County, the court mandates they participate in Probation Challenge. At least 100,000 men and women have enrolled in Probation Challenge since it began in Pincham’s courtroom in 1979, according to Bailey.
Kathy Chaney can be reached via email at kchaney@chicagodefender.com.
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