Friday, May 30, 2008
News / Clout City Tamms reforms on the way?
Posted by Mick Dumke on Fri, May 30, 2008 at 2:04 PM
Momentum appears to be building for a reexamination of policies at the most restrictive prison in Illinois.
In April Jeffrey Felshman wrote about Reginald Berry, a former inmate at the Tamms supermax prison. No one is supposed to stay longer than a year at Tamms, where prisoners are kept in permanent solitary confinement, yet dozens have been there since it opened in 1998. While corrections officials stress that only "the worst of the worst" criminals are sent to Tamms, a group of advocates known as Tamms Year Ten has called for reforms, saying treatment of prisoners there is cruel, illegal, and counterproductive. According to Felshman, "Advocates say the prison has been used not only to punish bad behavior but to retaliate for a range of other activities. A pending suit . . . alleges that some of the plaintiffs had organized or participated in hunger strikes or filed legal complaints about their treatment in the system."
The group and Felshman's story caught the attention of state representative Julie Hamos, an Evanston Democrat who sits on the house's new prison reform committee. She was easily persuaded that policies at Tamms go well beyond being tough on crime. "When we explain its prisoners are in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, when we explain it's not just a supermax prison but a home of psychological torture, people start to get it," she said during a break in state budget negotiations Thursday. "At this point I think the burden is on the department [of corrections] to prove that it's necessary."
On April 28 members of the prison reform committee gathered at the Thompson Center to hear testimony about Tamms from attorneys, ex-prisoners, prisoners' family members, and others; on May 22, Hamos introduced HB 6651, which would clarify rules for transferring prisoners to Tamms and require hearings for anyone held at the facility longer than a year. The bill quickly picked up 13 additional sponsors, mostly members of the prison reform committee and Democrats from Chicago. Last weekend Hamos held a press conference to push the legislation, which she hopes will be discussed seriously this summer so something can come up for a vote by fall.
First, though, she wants the Department of Corrections to provide the committee with its current policies spelled out in writing.
Hamos said she doesn't expect Tamms to help her get re-elected from her North Shore district. "I'm not sure anybody from Winnetka is in the supermax prison," she said. "But I think this is a very serious problem and we have to deal with it."
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It's as though the government lost track of Tamms. Someone needs to be held accountable for how long men are kept there in solitary confinement. No matter what their crime is, keeping them in solitary confinement for years is going to make them lose their minds and their social faculties. That serves no one's interests.
How great that a Leader in the Vice Lord Street Gang can testify and be given so much credibility by Chicagoans. Did Mr. Berry state that he actually was transferred out of Tamms once, but due to his actions as a Vice Lord leader was sent back for a second time? How about what all he did to get in prison, and then as a leader of a Street Gang while in prison, in order to get sent to Tamms not once, but twice. Its great to know that the people of Chicago and your elected representatives put so much credibility in Street Gangs. No wonder they run your city, and have so much influence. Keep giving them credibility, while they continue their reign of terror in your streets.
If Hamos is successful, she will have undone what other states in the Union had failed to do to control gang violence in their prison systems and in their neighborhoods amongst the populace. These measures were instilled to keep individuals like and including Mr. Berry from communicating and coordinating with his gang that has saved countless of lives of innocent citizens, other inmates and correctional staff. To undo the current policies regarding Tamms would be giving the Illinois Correctional centers back to the control of gangs and gang leaders such as and Including Mr. Berry. The majority of these individuals are serving life without parole and are far too Dangerous to be treated otherwise! This Politician has no experience in the area of Corrections and should leave the decision making to more qualified individuals!
if we allow the state to just lock people up in solitary and throw away the key, then we are allowing tyranny. as far as I can tell, the bill just requires a fixed term of solitary and some legal safeguards. didn't we fight a bunch of wars to maintain laws and rights?
I agree we should have summary executions for the obviously guilty. People convicted on circumstanancial evidence would be exempt. Put prosecutors in jail that Manufacture evidence,and are in involved in malicious illegal prosecutions. Only excute the truely guilty.
Tyranny is what we have on the streets now, thanks to the do gooder politicians and judges who don't care about us being victims of crime, except when it happens to one of them (i.e. Judge Lefko).
Strap up, boys and girls, it's gonna be a long, hot summer in the city.
Read and learn: http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/
as the wife of a prison guard at tamms i hear a lot and this place is more of a country club for these inmates. Does anyone know why these people are in there? For assaulting our loved ones in one way shape or form.
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