BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Lisa (Beal) Buhs ’94, work is a prison, and she would have it no other way.
Buhs is a clinical psychologist at Racine Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in Wisconsin, where she works with developmentally disabled and mentally ill inmates. “It’s a very fulfilling job and I know I am helping people,” she said of the 30 offenders she assists at the prison, that houses 1,600 men.
Graduating Illinois Wesleyan with a degree in psychology, Buhs originally planned for a career working with children. After she earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of South Dakota, she decided to join a student loan repayment program, which sent her to work in the Wisconsin prison system. “I found it more challenging and rewarding than I could have imagined,” she said. “I’ve been here for 11 years.”
According to Buhs, the demand for those who can work with special needs inmates has grown over the last few decades. “In the past these inmates would have been placed in some type of a group home setting. They never would have been in the criminal justice system,” said Buhs, “but now the expense has forced states to close many of those facilities, so a lot of the men end up with us.”