The Gateway to Change

Beyond the Sentence is more than a literacy program; it is a collaborative effort to dismantle the communication barriers that hold individuals back. By pairing DePaul University’s clinical expertise with SPELL-Links speech-to-print literacy approach, we provide evidence-based intervention that transforms how incarcerated individuals in Cook County Department of Corrections read, speak, and advocate for themselves. We believe that a sentence shouldn't be the end of someone's story—it should be the beginning of a new chapter.