Arts & Entertainment

Annual Dixon Brotherhood Reunion Helps Formerly Incarcerated Men Network, Build Connections

It was a hot afternoon when dozens of men recently gathered in Calumet Woods in south suburban Riverdale.

Some exchanged hugs, took selfies and asked for life updates, while others sat with their families in camping chairs and shared laughs over paper plates with corn on the cob and fried chicken.

There was a near-constant stream of music blasting from a car stereo system, and children giggled inside a bouncy house.

From a distance, the gathering looked like a class reunion, and in some ways, it was.

But some would argue it was more than that.

“It’s kind of like a support group for everybody,” said Des Plaines resident Patrick Matousek. “It’s nice to see everybody, make sure they’re OK, and just get together and talk about old times and new times.”

The “old times” Matousek is referring to is time spent inside Dixon Correctional Center, a medium security prison operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections in Dixon.

“Everybody here has been locked up for something,” Matousek said. “We get together and it’s like nothing ever happened. They put that part of their life behind them and it’s good for people to do that … to get rid of that mentality.”

Since 2018, the Dixon Brotherhood Reunion has brought together formerly incarcerated men who spent part of their sentences inside Dixon. The summer picnic, hosted sometime in July or August every year, is donations-based and offers food, games and music.

It was started by LaMarr “Julio” Hobdy, a Chicago native who spent 11 years in Dixon.

Hobdy, now a South Holland resident, said the event was born out of a need to network for jobs and housing and to build social connections that weren’t centered around funerals.

He said the bond among some of Dixon’s formerly incarcerated men is uniquely strong.

“Not to glorify it, but it was almost like a retirement home compared to the other (prisons),” said Hobdy. “Dixon was more so focused on rehabilitation.”

He said Dixon’s habitants were allowed to participate in programs like commercial cooking and custodial maintenance, or group activities like sports and music.

Hobdy said he was able to build his entrepreneurial skills during his time in Dixon. Now as a third-generation cobbler, he owns and manages Hobdy Shoe Repair on Chicago’s South Side.

Matousek, who spent 17 years in Dixon, said he learned to play the guitar and drums and helped manage a band inside the prison, where he helped put on shows for the other inmates.

“Sometimes two shows (a day) because so many people want to go,” Matousek said. “You’re not going to get famous, but at the same time, you’re living.”

Mokena resident Roberto Cardona said he learned to draw during his time in Dixon.

Though Cardona didn’t take those skills to his profession outside of prison (he’s now a maintenance supervisor at a meat distribution company), he said the friendships he made inside Dixon helped support him after 27 years of incarceration.

“We feel like kids again because we were kids when we started,” Cardona said. “When we see each other, we start going in on each other with the jokes. It’s just like old times.”

As the group gathered this past Saturday, Cardona recounted the first time the Dixon Brotherhood Reunion took place in 2018, saying everyone got lost trying to find Calumet Woods. But now six years in, he said “everybody knows exactly where to go.”

“There’s a trick turn, but once you catch that, you’re in,” he said.

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