Jessica Baynes was not in a place she wanted to be in early 2019 — the Decatur Correctional Center for Women — but it turned out to be the right place and the right time for her after all.
Charged with aggravated battery and the discharge of a firearm in 2013 because the actual perpetrator fled to her home after committing the crime, Baynes said she was equally guilty under the law.
“I fell in love with the wrong man,” she said. “He was at my house. He was convicted of the actual crime.”
Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Baynes was first assigned to the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, where she spent 23 hours a day in her cell with an hour out to take care of personal needs like showering.
Reassigned to Decatur after several years, she was performing in a prison-produced production of William Shakespeare’s “Three Gentlemen of Verona.” Two of the people in the audience were the newly inaugurated Gov. JB Pritzker and his wife, MK.
After the performance, Baynes said she was told the Pritzkers wanted to meet with some of the cast members. She was one of them. During the meeting, she and the other inmates learned about the executive clemency program.
“He said we were amazing,” Baynes said. “He wanted to know why we were there. He wanted to know about the Truth-in-Sentencing law in Illinois. Only Illinois and Texas have laws like that.”
On Pritzker’s suggestion, Baynes said she filed a petition for clemency. She was summoned before prison officials on April 13, 2020, and told she was a free woman entitled to immediate release. She is now a grant writer for a private school in Waukegan.
Baynes was one of several people who told their stories of making unwise choices, receiving a second chance and making the most of it at Waukegan Township’s 21st-annual Coalition to Reduce Recidivism lunch Friday in Waukegan.
Waukegan Township Supervisor Marc Jones said as he opened the event, helping people make good on second chances they are given requires a community effort with counseling, workforce training, legal advice to get criminal records expunged, a strong personal network and more.
“A conviction should not be a life sentence,” he said. “A community like ours needs to give them the tools to become a proud member of society. This is a message of the need for collaboration.”
Shortly after Baynes returned to Waukegan and her children, the community collaboration began. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in May 2020, she met with Yvette Ewing, the co-founder of Community Works in Waukegan. A temporary job quickly turned into permanent full-time work.
“I’ve known her since she was a little girl,” Ewing said. “She wanted to be a mentor. We gave her a job working with kids here and she killed it. I worked with Workforce Development (of Lake County) and we got funding for a permanent full-time job for her.”
After two years in her initial position, Baynes said she went to work for Lions Math &
Science Christian Academy in Waukegan. She said she has helped the school receive more than $1.5 million in funding.
Along with listening to stories about people like Baynes, seven awards and an individual public recognition were announced for educators, employers, faith-based organizations, social service groups and more.
Among the award winners were Latasha Kennedy, the house manager at Staben House in Waukegan, as the Female Repatriate of the Year; and Eugene “Ace” Banks, who is both a machine operator for a company in North Chicago and a small business owner, was named Male Repatriate of the Year. Both rebuilt their lives after serving time in prison.
Lake County Court Judge Christy Bishop was honored as Justinian of the Year, the College of Lake County as the Employer of the Year, Waukegan Baptist Bible Church as the Faith-Based Organization of the Year, the Community Works as the Service Organization of the Year, and the Volunteers of the Year were Dr. Lori Moss and Gary Ottmans.
