Being behind bars is a learning experience for professor

EUREKA, Ill. (AP) - Sitting on a top bunk, legs dangling over the side, an inmate in a Woodford County Jail cell had to remind himself who he was.

“Your name is Bill Lally,” the jumpsuit-clad prisoner told himself shortly after waking up. “You’re a Ph.D. professor.”

But for one weekend in February, Lally wasn’t Lally the Eureka College assistant professor of criminal justice - at least not to fellow inmates and most of the jail staff.

For three days and two nights, he was “Billy Quiggens,” an inmate charged with felony drug possession.

Lally worked for two decades in law enforcement before becoming a college professor.

When teaching a class, “I can talk about what it was like when I was a cop,” he said. “We talk about what’s in the textbook and how that coincided with real life.”

But he couldn’t share such first-hand, real-world knowledge about jails and prisons “because I have no experience in corrections,” Lally said. “I felt I was shortchanging my students somehow.”

Becoming a jail guard wasn’t a realistic option because of the training and time commitment involved. So Lally chose a different option: becoming an inmate.

Initially, Woodford County Sheriff Matt Smith said he was concerned about potential legal liability and what the state’s attorney would think about the idea, but “everything fell into place.”

Denny Wertz, deputy jail superintendent, said, “I was pretty excited about it” and was happy to “get a new perspective . and see what goes on inside the pod.”

Lally grew a goatee, shaved his head and came up with “this whole elaborate story.”

But none of the other inmates asked about his background.

“I was kind of disappointed,” he said.

What the other inmates lacked in curiosity, they made up for in helping Lally settle into jail life. They showed him how to use the electronic system for the commissary and how to use his towels to wrap around his spare set of clothes to create a pillow.

“They really helped me navigate the whole experience,” he said.

His biggest surprise? “When somebody sneezes, nobody says, ’God bless you,’” Lally recalled. “There’s a distinct culture.”

Before his weekend in jail, Lally thought inmates were “spoiled” with meals, television and other entertainment to pass the time.

But his experience showed him that having one’s freedom taken away and someone else in control of when you eat and sleep is punishment, he said.

“It was very depressing,” Lally said. “Three days seemed like three years to me.”

He said, “Both mornings that I woke up, I had to remind myself who I was.”

Breakfast was a 6-ounce cup of cereal and a 6-ounce cup of Kool-Aid, yet meals were a highlight of the day, he said.

Lally paced a catwalk on the second tier, 30 feet from one end to the other, doing 100 laps before taking a break. He imagined he was his alter ego, thinking, “How much is this going to cost me? How long will I be here? Will I have a job when I get out? How is my wife going to take care of the kids?”

He also passed the time by using a learning tablet available to any inmate. For every minute of movies or other entertainment inmates want to watch on the tablet, they first have to spend an equal amount of minutes watching educational videos, such as how to apply for a drivers license.

Lally intends to do more research about the use of the tablet and about a video conferencing visitation system Woodford County recently put in place.

Lally said the guards were respectful and, when he asked other inmates if they always acted that way, they said, “yes.”

“I was really glad to hear that,” said Wertz. “We hope we are running a very tight ship here and it’s nice to have that reassurance.”

Smith said originally he wasn’t looking for anything other than to help Lally with his research.

“But when he called back and said, ’Your staff is professional, your facilities are clean’ . I was happy that I had that feedback,” said the sheriff.

Lally said, “The only complaint I had was the bed was just miserable” - to which Smith replied, “If the worse thing you have to say is my mattresses are uncomfortable, that’s a pretty good win for me.”

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Source: The (Bloomington) Pantagraph, https://bit.ly/2mZQ0dl

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Information from: The Pantagraph, https://www.pantagraph.com