Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

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It’s a common misconception that prisons are designed to rehabilitate people, and that we are getting educated, receiving therapy, and learning trades inside. People seem to think that recidivism occurs simply because people released from prison decide to throw all of that away and choose to commit new crimes. It’s just so far from the truth.

The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) doesn’t “correct” anything. There is no such thing as rehabilitation here. Prisons in Illinois are nothing more than a waste management system: society views people in prison as trash and throws us away. Society’s attitude toward prisoners has led to increasingly harsh conditions and dehumanization techniques. 

Prisons go out of their way to dehumanize people. It starts with stripping us of our names. Within IDOC I am not Anthony Ehlers; I am B-60794. Your name doesn’t matter. If you get mail, they ask for your prison number. To get medicine, they ask for your prison number. If you leave your cell for any reason, they ask for your prison number! Unconsciously, you begin to think of yourself in terms of a prison number as well: once they take away your name, who are you?

When a person endures year after year of being degraded, hated, used, assaulted, and dehumanized, told they are garbage by society, is it any wonder they become depressed, antisocial, and angry?

IDOC offers no educational opportunities and does next to nothing to educate prisoners. I have been told repeatedly that because I have a natural life sentence, I’m not worth being educated. Education should be a basic human right, particularly in prison; it should be a mandatory part of one’s prison sentence.

It’s only recently that Northwestern’s Prison Education Program (NPEP) has provided an option for people imprisoned in Illinois. It’s through this program alone that I’ve been able to get a formal education while incarcerated. Spots are coveted and hard to come by: in their third cohort of students, 20 people were chosen out of some 400 applicants. And from what I’ve heard, IDOC told NPEP not to accept anyone with long sentences, because in the prison administrators’ eyes, those people aren’t worthy of education, either.  

Think about that. People being released from prison have been deliberately denied any education, yet they are expected to be rehabilitated. When these people get out, they need an education and job skills, because the vast majority will return to the community they came from. Without even an education, what are they to do? How will they live? 

Society should have a vested interest in their education and programming. If rehabilitation is truly IDOC’s goal, then education and job training should be a priority.

When people don’t have something positive to focus on in prison, like education, they find other, more negative ways to fill their time. You get an education in prison one way or another: if IDOC won’t provide it, other prisoners will. In prison, you can learn from others’ mistakes, or how to get away with things, or how to do things you’ve never done before. You can learn to hate, and to let your anger fester against the system. You can learn to hate society, which you learn hates you in return. 

In prison, mental health issues are exacerbated, and you must learn to deal with them alone, because you don’t have help. The prison population is disproportionately made up of Black and Brown people who have been subjected to racist systems all their lives. Nearly all prisoners have experienced trauma and both physical and sexual violence; many have been through the foster care system; many suffer from mental illness; some dull their pain with substance use. Prison has a messed-up culture and is filled with broken people.

The medical care we get in prison is disastrously subpar, and COVID-19 hit prisoners particularly hard. Here in Stateville more than 25 men died of COVID-19, and many had family and friends on the outside who also died or were hospitalized. That kind of worry and pain is difficult for anyone, but especially in a place like this. Imagine being locked in a cage far from people who need you, trying to make it through the death of your family or friends all alone. It’s a wonder some guys were able to hold on to their sanity at all.

Prisoners are at a higher risk for heart disease and other stress-related ailments because in an environment like this one, you must maintain constant situational awareness. Being sentenced to prison is punishment, but we are often subject to additional, extrajudicial punishment, because some staff feel it’s their duty to make prisoners’ lives miserable. 

Our mental state is always stressed, always on alert, not just from the threat of assault from other prisoners, but also from the staff who put obstacles in your way at every turn. During “shakedowns,” they take property—including school work and legal work, and letters and pictures from loved ones—destroy it, or throw it away. Sometimes during shakedowns they break an imprisoned person’s TV, radio, or tablet, severing their connection to the outside. Sometimes they place you in a cell with someone who is hostile or dangerous, and you either have to fight or voluntarily go to segregation (solitary).

Most guards believe their word is law. After all, who can you complain to? They often fabricate rules to deny your rights, and if you challenge them in any way, they will write you a disciplinary report. This allows them to take away the few privileges you do retain, like phone calls to loved ones, digital messaging, and access to the commissary. Every positive accomplishment you achieve in prison is accompanied by an intense struggle to overcome, circumvent, or blatantly break the arbitrary rules made up by staff. 

All the while you have to convince yourself daily that your life has value, even when the rest of the world tells you it doesn’t.

The prison itself is in a shocking state of disrepair. The cell houses are crumbling. Cracks run from the foundation to the roof. The cells are full of peeling lead-based paint and black mold. Many cells have plumbing that doesn’t work. The entire prison has had no hot water for five months, and we’re forced to take showers and wash our clothes in cold water. The water here is poisonous. We have very high levels of both copper and lead in our water. Both metals will make you very sick, and can lead to fatal cancers and other ailments. We’ve had previous bouts of Legionella bacteria here. We have rats, roaches, and birds in our cell houses and chow halls. How many people have to deal with birds shitting inside their homes, or in the places that they eat? How many have woken up because cockroaches are crawling on their face? 

These are the deplorable conditions we live in. 

Most of the people here do not have an education or a skill that will help them get jobs after they’re released. Many who are released from prison will walk out with untreated mental health problems and trauma, many of their issues having been made worse by prison time. After spending years in conditions like those I’ve described, they will walk out with nothing more than when they came in. How does that help or benefit society? 

People in prison have been marginalized by society in many different ways. In prison, we are taught that there is no way out, and that our marginalization is state-sanctioned. Society can’t expect people getting out of prison to do better, if society won’t do better by them. We all have to be responsible for what the state does in our name.

It’s time to realize that punishment helps no one. It’s time we began recycling people instead of throwing them away.

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At 25 years old, The Lion King has been seen by more than 110 million people and played every continent but Antarctica. Between global warming and ticket demand, it’s probably just a matter of time. 

The latest U.S. tour to stop in Chicago feels significantly less lavish from earlier versions that blew audiences and critics away with its visually, aurally stunning Hamlet-but-with-lions tale of an African king, Mufasa (Gerald Ramsey), murdered by his evil brother Scar (Peter Hargrave). Mufasa’s cub Simba (Darian Sanders) flees the kingdom, and the journey of Simba from reckless cub to royal king is the nexus of Elton John’s soaring, percussive score (lyrics by Tim Rice).

The Lion KingThrough 1/14: Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 1 and 6:30 PM; also Tue 12/20, 12/27, and 1/10 7:30 PM, Fri 11/25 and 12/23 2 and 7:30 PM, Mon 12/26 7:30 PM, Fri 12/30 1 and 6:30 PM, Sun 11/27 1 PM only, Sat 12/24 2 PM only, Sat 1/7 7:30 PM only; Cadillac Palace, 151 W. Randolph, 800-775-2000, broadwayinchicago.com, $55-$195

The production at hand feels far too “Hakuna Matata,” as if the producers calculated that it didn’t matter if the savannah was a few creatures short of a “Circle of Life” because the show would sell regardless. 

John’s magnificent score is ever in the service of The Lion King’s glorious visual aesthetic, famously the costume/puppet creations designed by the show’s original director Julie Taymor (who became the first woman to win the Tony for director of a musical in 1998). But at the Cadillac Palace, the creatures are starting to look a little long in the tooth. The human cast is fine. Those puppets look tired. The iconic wildebeest stampede appears weirdly akin to an early Atari game. The flora inflatables look like they’re close kin with those inflatable men who live on used car lots. Rafiki (Gugwana Dlamini) looks vaguely like a neglected Christmas tree, all manner of bits and bobs sagging from her bulbous costume. 

The cast is competent and energetic and kids are apt to be delighted regardless. They probably won’t even notice how droopy the vultures are. 

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Theatre Above the Law’s sampler platter of four one-acts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries (most of them seldom produced) offers mixed results. The opening piece, A Dollar by Yiddish playwright David Pinski, feels like an extended acting exercise in which archetypes (the Comedian, the Villain, the Ingenue, etc.) fight over the titular object. But things improve quickly with Thornton Wilder’s The Wreck on the 525, an odd and haunting piece about Mr. Hawkins (Nick Barnes), a “family man” who seems to be having big doubts about his life. It’s a cunning taste of Wilder’s ability to find the mysterious in the quotidian (as in Our Town), with a scosh of Cheeverlike dark suburban angst woven in.

A Night of Classic and Unique One ActsThrough 12/18: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 12/5 7:30 PM (industry night); no performances Fri-Sun 11/25-11/27; Jarvis Square Theater, 1439 W. Jarvis, theatreatl.org, $25 (senior/student $20)

Alice Gerstenberg’s Fourteen is a madcap feminist comedy of manners, presented like a sitcom, applause track and all. A society woman (Jamie Redwood) attempts to achieve the perfect number at a dinner party, as represented in the title. As guests drop on and off the RSVP list, her frustration grows, and she also berates her shy daughter (Lena Valenti) about the need to entice the wealthy bachelor Mom’s chosen as her seatmate. (Gerstenberg was a pioneer of the “little theater” movement in Chicago, probably best known for her play Overtones.) Finally, Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal (perhaps most popular of the four) is a silly confection in which a neurotic and hypochondriacal young man attempts to win the hand of the farmer’s daughter next door—only to find that they cannot stop arguing over who owns a slice of meadowland, and whose hunting dog is superior. (Andrew Cawley as the suitor demonstrates excellent physical comedic skills.)

Under Tony Lawry’s direction, the cast generally finds the tonal shifts between the pieces. The Wilder and Chekhov selections are easily the standouts, but for anyone with an interest in theater history, the 90-minute show provides an opportunity to delve into lesser-known works.

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Like much that passes for entertainment during the holiday season, this 2010 musical, based on the 2003 movie, lives on the infinitely thin line between charm and utter stupidity. The characters are all derived from earlier entertainments and holiday advertising—jolly old Santa Claus, his myriad elf slaves, the sweet naif who believes in “the spirit of Christmas,” the sour workaholic/nonbeliever/misanthrope who doesn’t—and the happy endings they find themselves trapped in are no less well-worn and formulaic. The naif redeems, the skeptic learns to love Christmas, the orphan finds his father—and a family.

Elf Through 1/8: Wed 1:30 PM, Thu 1:30 and 8 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM; also Thu 11/24 3 PM only, Tue-Wed 12/20-12/21 1:30 and 7 PM, no performance Sat-Sun 12/24-12/25, Wed 12/28 1:30 and 8 PM, Sat 12/31 5 and 8:30 PM, Sun 1/1 2 PM only; Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace, 630-530-0111, drurylanetheatre.com, $75-$85

The true miracle is that director/choreographer Lynne Kurdziel Formato and her cast and crew are able to weave a pretty entertaining evening out of this insubstantial stuff. Part of the credit surely must go to book writers Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin and composer Matthew Sklar, who were inspired enough, and respectful enough of the original movie (which is not bad), not to ruin it. Chad Beguelin’s lyrics are even at times pretty witty (“to thine own elf be true”). But most of the credit for creating a holiday show that actually entertains must go to the folks at Drury Lane. The whole production is imbued with a happy, playful spirit that, like a clever TV commercial, makes every familiar trope and cliche feel shiny and new. The pace of the show is live and quick. And whenever things slow down, Formato speeds things up with her inventive choreography. Ben Dow is delightful as the show’s protagonist Buddy the Elf; God bless him for playing a character made famous by Will Ferrell and making it his own.

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It begins festively enough with a giant advent calendar revealing hints of the story to come. Some symbols are cheering, like wreaths and a violin. But others are mysterious—why a giant fish and a wheelbarrow? 

In The Steadfast Tin Soldier, created and directed by Mary Zimmerman (from the story by Hans Christian Andersen), we soon see all of these symbols appear in the plot through the ancient art form of pantomime. The immensely entertaining cast of five players and four very interactive musicians tells a big story (with the help of some astounding puppets from the Chicago Puppet Studio). The tale is fraught with devilish clowns, stern adults, and naughty bullies who try to thwart the imagination of one toddler (played by a giant puppet) during his playtime. More importantly, the action follows his favorite tin soldier, who is earnest, brave, and disabled. The soldier wishes only to be with his true love, a paper ballerina in the nearby dollhouse. 

The Steadfast Tin Soldier Through 1/8: Tue 1:30 and 7 PM, Wed 7 PM, Thu 1:30 and 7 PM, Fri 7 PM, Sat 1:30 and 7 PM, Sun 1 and 6 PM; Fri 11/25 1:30 and 7 PM, Wed 11/30 6:30 PM only, Tue 12/13 7 PM only, Sat 1/7 2 and 7 PM, no performances Thu 11/24, Tue 11/29, 12/6, and 1/3, and Sun 12/25; audio description and touch tour Sun 12/11 1 PM and Fri Jan 6 7 PM, sensory friendly performance Thu Jan 5 1:30 PM; Lookingglass Theatre, 821 N. Michigan, lookingglasstheatre.org, $65-$75

Like any great adventure/romance, the obstacles are many, and highly improbable, making space for hilarity. The cast is seasoned to perfection (standout performance by Adeoye playing the Tin Soldier), and the orchestra adds such a festive mood to the show that you might want to bring along multiple generations to wonder at this charming holiday-inspired gem.

As in most Andersen fairy tales, there is a glum little sliver of realism peeking through the magic, perhaps to prepare children for some of life’s crueler plot twists. This production did not shy away from that, but serves it up on such a pretty platter, going so far as to add a particularly moving musical number at the end, that the audience can find the courage to leave the warm world of candlelight, fairy tales, and orchestra pit for the bluster and freeze of winter, feeling all the stronger for it.

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