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Story and Editorial: Trapped in Tamms: In Illinois' only supermax facility, inmates are in cells 23 hours a day

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Opinion: Why Tamms Matters to All Sunday, Aug. 02, 2009 Many people who read today's front-page story about the Tamms supermax prison probably won't have much empathy for Faygie Fields, Chris Marcum and the other inmates discussed. So what if murderers and violent criminals are kept in solitary confinement for years on end? But Illinois residents should care -- if not for the inmates, then for themselves. We're a nation that disavows cruel and unusual punishment of criminals, and most reasonable people would agree that keeping someone in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for 10 years or more -- the fate of 54 of the Tamms inmates -- is cruel and unusual. They don't get any phone calls, or education or religious services; just walls. The people who created Tamms never envisioned such extended stays; they thought inmates would be sent there for a year at most...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on August 02, 2009 (boomark / email).