Tamms

Tamms is a supermax prison in Illinois where prisoners are held in long-term solitary confinement, often for a decade or longer. In 2010, an Illinois federal court found that "Tamms imposes drastic limitations on human contact, so much so as to inflict lasting psychological and emotional harm on inmates confined there for long periods." A number of states have dramatically reduced their use of solitary confinement, preserving prison and public safety and saving millions of dollars in the process. None of these states have experienced any adverse effect on prison or public safety as a result of reducing their use of solitary confinement. The ACLU calls on the state of Illinois to follow suit and close Tamms.

01/04/2013
Tamms Prison Closing

Refusing to Disappear: Prisoners at Tamms and their Families Conducted a Sustained Advocacy Campaign to Shut this "Supermax" Down

By Alan Mills, Legal Director, Uptown People’s Law Center at 3:58pm

Tamms was sold to the public as necessary to control the “worst of the worst” prisoners in Illinois. Yet when it opened in 1998, the majority of prisoners had virtually no disciplinary history at all.

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01/04/2013
Tamms Prison Closing

Tamms "Supermax" Prison, with its Inhumane and Ridiculously Expensive Solitary Confinement Practices, is Officially a Thing of the Past!

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 11:00am

Here’s to starting the New Year right. The notorious Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois, with its practice of housing human beings alone in cells for 22-24 hours per day with little or no human interaction or outside stimulus, officially shut its doors today.

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06/21/2012
Solitary Confinement

Closing Tamms Supermax: A Chance To Reevaluate Solitary Confinement

By Ed Yohnka, ACLU of Illinois at 5:43pm

This is a good week in Illinois. Yesterday, Gov. Pat Quinn announced that he would close the “supermax” facility at Tamms Correctional Facility, where prisoners are held in long-term solitary confinement.

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04/02/2012
Solitary Confinement

ACLU Calls for Tamms Closure

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 1:29pm

In a new podcast, former Tamms prisoner Brian Nelson talks about the 23 years he spent in solitary confinement.

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03/06/2012
Solitary Confinement

Solitary Confinement in Arizona: Cruel and Unusual

By David Fathi, National Prison Project at 1:09pm

A class action lawsuit filed today by the ACLU, along with the Prison Law Office, the Arizona Center for Disability Law, and the law firms Jones Day and Perkins Coie, alleges that the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) houses thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement conditions so harsh they violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. While other states also use solitary confinement, Arizona has added features that seem designed to gratuitously increase suffering. The cells in that state's supermax Special Management Units (SMUs) were deliberately constructed with no windows to the outside, so prisoners — many of whom have no means of telling the time — become disoriented and confused, not knowing the whether it is day or night. The cells are often illuminated 24 hours a day, making sleep difficult and further contributing to prisoners' disorientation and mental deterioration.

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02/23/2012
Solitary Confinement

Tightening Belts Means Loosening Restraints: Illinois to Close Supermax Prison

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 11:00am

One of the more positive things to result from deteriorating state budgets across the nation is that some state lawmakers are looking to smart criminal justice reform as a way to trim budgets. Whether motivated by cost savings or human rights, these changes are an important step toward a more humane justice system. One such change began yesterday in Illinois, where Gov. Patrick Quinn announced a budget plan that includes closing the state's Tamms Correctional Center — reportedly saving $21.6 million in the upcoming fiscal year and $26.6 million annually thereafter.

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09/30/2011
Solitary Confinement

97 Years in Prison for a Mentally Ill Man Who Threw Feces

By Amy Fettig, ACLU National Prison Project at 12:43pm

Anthony Gay was sentenced to an incredible 97 years in prison for throwing feces out his food slot, behavior experts characterize as symptomatic for severely mentally ill people held in solitary confinement. Yesterday the ACLU joined the National Disability Rights Network, Mental Health America and many others in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in Gay's appeal, calling the sentence "an unconscionable and shocking criminalization of his mental illness."

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