[Peace] Fwd: CODE RED: Tamms Supermax: The Buck Stops with Gov. Quinn (call May 13+14)

Wed May 13 12:42:08 CDT 2009

Please call Governor Quinn today. A downstate call is worth much more
politically than a Chicago call. Barbara Kessel and Conrad Wetzel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: LJ Reynolds <lreyno at artic.edu>
Date: Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:22 AM
Subject: CODE RED: Tamms Supermax: The Buck Stops with Gov. Quinn (call May
13+14)
To: LJ Reynolds <lreyno at artic.edu>

NEWSFLASH: This just action went from code orange to code red in terms of
importance. Why? Because today the governor announced that he is appointing
a new IDOC Director<http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/05/quinns-new-state-corrections-chief-to-review-conditions-at-super-max-prison.html>
on
Thursday to investigate
Tamms<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tamms-review-13-may13,0,4630203.story>.
Thus, our timing is perfect. Quinn needs to hear a clear mandate from a huge
number of people that Tamms must be reformed. This will give him the
protection and motivation to do the right thing. Unfortunately, the Tribune
just printed a lame
editorial<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0513edit1may13,0,3337700.story>
against
the Tamms reform legislation. Here we are at a critical moment in this
fight. If you have ever thought of doing something, do it now! Make your
voice heard on behalf of someone who can't. It takes ONE MINUTE per person,
and together we can tie up the phones.

The Buck Stops With Quinn
Tell Governor Quinn: "Reform Tamms Supermax OR Cut Its Funding"

For the past 11 years, our tax money has been spent to keep men in permanent
solitary confinement at Tamms. Prisoners there have no communal activity, no
contact visits, and no phone calls. Men never leave their cell except to
shower or go to solitary exercise in a concrete pen. Suicide attempts,
self-mutilation, and psychotic breakdowns are common at Tamms. Some men sent
to Tamms are mentally ill--others become mentally ill from being there.

Supermax isolation is considered a form of torture by international human
rights groups, as well as a violation of the Geneva Conventions on the
humane treatment of prisoners. In fact, both Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch have singled out Tamms supermax prison for condemnation, and
have called for the Illinois Department of Corrections to make immediate
changes.  *But they have done nothing.*
*
*
Call Governor Quinn today on Weds, May 13 or Thurs, May 14 and tell him to
either: "Reform Tamms Supermax or Cut Its Funding."
*
*
--Taxpayer money should not be spent on torture or on policies that violate
international human rights standards.
--Long-term isolation induces or worsens mental illness, and increases
recidivism. Mental health treatment works, Tamms doesn't.
--Prisoners do not have to be kept in long-term solitary confinement to be
kept secure. Isolation is not a solution!
--Tamms is the most expensive prison per capita in the state of
Illinois--between $60,000 and $90,000 per year. That is 3-5 times the cost
at other prisons. Ask Governor Quinn what he thinks Illinois taxpayers are
getting for our money.

Finally, ask Governor Quinn to sponsor HB 2633, sponsored by Rep. Julie
Hamos, which will prohibit seriously mentally ill men from being housed in
Tamms, and will establish clear criteria for transfers to and from the
supermax.

*One-third of the prisoners at Tamms have been held in cold storage for the
past 11 years. This torture must end.*

*Tie up the phones!  Please contact the Governor on Wednesday, May 13 or
Thursday, May 14 and tell him:  "Reform Tamms Supermax or Cut Its
Funding." Make
sure you leave your name and address so they write it down and see that
calls are coming from all over the state. Ask for a call-back.*
*
*
Office of the Governor in Springfield: *217-782-0244*
*Office of the Governor in Chicago: 312-814-2121*

ALSO:  We also need 1000 more signatures on the online petition before we
hand it to the Governor next week. Sign your name!

*www.juliehamos.org/tamms* <http://www.juliehamos.org/tamms>

Please contact your friends, listservs, churches and other organizations
immediately and forward this again widely on Tuesday and Weds morning.

*This call-in campaign was initiated by the **Quakers and Mennonite Peace
and Justice Initiative of Champaign-Urbana. *

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Further Documentation of Abuses at Tamms:

Human Rights Watch statement
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/04/06/letter-illinois-representative-julie-hamos-reforming-supermax-confinement

Amnesty International statement:
*http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/042/2009/en*<http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/042/2009/en>

Tamms human rights petition
*www.juliehamos.org/tamms* <http://www.juliehamos.org/tamms>

New Yorker article: Hellhole: The United States holds tens of thousands of
inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?
*http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande*<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande>

For more information:
*www.YearTen.org* <http://www.yearten.org/>

_______________________________________________________________________________________
*Testimony from men at Tamms supermax*
*
*
Well I'm in J-POD the mental health pod. So I do have a serious mental
health problem. Since I've been in Tamms I've tried to kill my self twice by
slicing my arms wide open. But I've been doing good. No tickits in 3 1/2
years now. I really miss my family and sometimes I feel as if I cant go on
another day. I've only had one visit from my family because it cost too much
to come all this way.
—Robert Boyd (in Tamms since 2003)

The C-Max unit was said to have been designed to house the IDOC’s ‘worst of
the worst’ in an effort to help state authorities re-gain control of their
prison system. This couldn’t be further from the truth because most of us
have been sent here based merely on the fact that we have mental illnesses
or in retaliation for filing lawsuits, grievances, or past disciplinary
histories…This facility functions more as a mental institution than a prison
of rehabilitation and it serves no penalogical purpose other than to
warehouse prisoners. As the duration of our isolation drags on and the
degree of our conditions of confinement deteriorate you begin to see the
psychological effect that this place has on us. We know that we will spend
all day in these cells with absolutely nothing constructive to do with our
time and we do not know if we will ever leave here. This knowledge
overwhelms many of us and it leads many of us to insanity, causing attempted
suicide, suicide, body mutilation, hanging, eating and throwing feces, and
other extreme acts. **
*—Joe Louis Young (in Tamms since 2002)*

I was the 40th person to be housed at Tamms. This place steal a man will to
continue living. The isolation itself make a man do desperate act to get
some kind of physical attention, the conditions is inhumane and causing a
person to develop psychological problems (mental suffering.) ...Being at
Tamms, I have developed a psychological problem and is now living in a
psychiatric unit in Tamms that’s making it even worse...We are not being
protected by security abuses such as harass, fouling, encouraging inmates to
retaliation. Mental health staff are doing the same. I need some supporting
help in stopping these acts.  **
*—Rodney Dees (in Tamms since 1998)*

These people at Tamms have me on so much medication it's not funny. 900 mg
Lithium a day. and 0.5mg Risperadale a day. The Lithium I get 300mg 3 times
a day for 900, and the Risperdale only once, that's at night. Since I been
at Tamms I cut on myself, hung myself and bit on myself, but these people
say there's nothing wrong with me. They sent me to Dixon psych. in Nov. 05,
but they kept my property at Tamms and I came back to Tamms in Dec 05 even
though I caught an assault in Dixon psych, they said there was nothing wrong
with me. I would like to know would you know anyone I could write to, to get
some help that I need?....I owe the state over $400 and don't have nobody to
write to...God bless you all.  **
*—Robert (in Tamms since 2004)*

I have been here in Tamms for 10 years myself, it feel like I been a slave,
being in Tamms.... This place is not trying to rehabilitate you, it tries to
break you, the punishment practiced at Tamms is something called acute
sensory deprivation, many prisoners like myself spend 23 hours a day alone
in seven-by-12-foot cell. When it's times for your hour of solitary
"recreation" two guards cuff your hands behind your back before they open
the celldoor. Then they escort you to a small cage to walk in circles and
the wall is all concrete, we do everything else in are cell, not shower but
eat everything else, we never have direct physical contact with the guards
or other inmate as I will ask you, "Lock yourself in your bathroom for the
next 10 years and tell me how it will affect your mind."      **
*—Charles Freeman (in Tamms since 1998)*

Physically out of balance, no weights to exercise with, no gym or yard to
engage in sport activities. More headaches, from stress and high blood
pressure. I've been almost completely cut off from my family, and the strain
from miscommunication in little mail I do get is destroying the family bond.
I'm not able to be effectively influence my children lives. The weight of
stress, anger (from being treated as an animal), and anxiety on my mental
faculties is staggering. Not being able to touch (sensory deprivation)
another human, plus this perpetual cage, has the effect of depersonalizing
me. Don't know if one could be rehabilitated by locking one up in a cage,
isolated from human interaction, 24-7. There's no education here. Only
thoughts or plans for the future: to survive Tamms by not going insane.
**
*—PD (in Tamms since 2004)*
*
*
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