[Peace] Fwd: Closure of Tamms - still need your support

Fri Nov 23 14:11:36 UTC 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: LJ Reynolds <lauriejoreynolds at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 1:16 AM
Subject: send this on to the good people of C-U?
To: barbara kessel <barkes at gmail.com>, James Kilgore <jjincu at gmail.com>,
Ryan Griffis <ryan.griffis at gmail.com>, Rob Scott <rob.scott.is at gmail.com>,
Belden Fields <a-fields at illinois.edu>

Hi everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving!

As most of you know, we have an emergency situation with the Tamms closure.
*
AFSCME and downstate legislators are attempting to put funding for Tamms
and all the prisons back into the state budget via an override of the
governor's veto. One of the senators in the coalition to do this is Senator
Frerichs. Most of you probably know that too!
*
*

*
*
 We have heard from legislators and the gov's office that AFSCME, the
guards union,  has been pressuring the Dems extremely hard on this and that
they do have the votes to override, or very close to it.
*
*

We have this link and are trying to do a quick mini-campaign to make sure
legislators know that their constituents are watching this issue.
We only have Friday (today) and Monday to reach them.
**

*
*
http://tinyurl.com/dontfundTamms<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=qfTjN%2F6KPh%2FRLCZSVTIPcoHBwrovnNzO>

We had about 100 emails sent on Weds, but none were to Frerichs. I wondered
if you all could spread the word down there so he gets some feedback about
this!

Any thoughts welcome! Much more info below.

Laurie Jo Reynolds
773-505-3896
*

_______________________________________________
*HERE'S THE SITUATION*
*
*
*
AFSCME and downstate legislators are attempting to put funding for Tamms back
into the state budget via an override of the governor's veto. They probably
have the votes to do it.

We only have Friday and Monday to reach them. We need an outpouring of
support to maintain Governor Quinn's veto.

*

    *1) Contact your legislators today, ask them to VOTE NO and let us know
what they say.*
It just takes 2 minutes with this link!
http://tinyurl.com/**dontfundTamms<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=qfTjN%2F6KPh%2FRLCZSVTIPcoHBwrovnNzO>
 We really, really need you. We are counting to see if we have enough votes
against it.
             *
2) Come to our Lobby Day to Close Prisons on Wednesday, November 28.*
    Details below.

We give thanks to each of you for giving your time, labor, resources and
love to help people in isolation who you don't even know.  Please read
below for excerpts from mail from Tamms. These letters remind us why we are
doing this.

Tamms Year Ten

ACT NOW: http://tinyurl.com/**dontfundTamms<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1TMS8dAeKwd4KoPow%2FKMtIHBwrovnNzO>
JOIN FOR UPDATES: http://www.facebook.com/tammsyearten
VOLUNTEER: tammsyearten at gmail.com

______________________________**____
*TY10 NEWSLETTER*
*1. CALLING YOUR LEGISLATORS*
*2. PLEASE COME TO LOBBY DAY ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28*
*3. TIMELINE FOR NOT FUNDING TAMMS*
*4. PHOTO REQUESTS FROM SOLITARY +*
*5. RECENT LETTERS FROM TAMMS*
______________________________**____
*1. CALLING YOUR LEGISLATORS*
Please CONTACT your legislators and ask them to *VOTE NO on any veto
override. *
*
*

    *Take care of it now! This link makes it so easy!*
        !<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=SCaN%2FEIoo9mWTo6dRP8EuoHBwrovnNzO>
http://tinyurl.com/**dontfundTamms
<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=iyHwypcnneg9pvQIB5C9PoHBwrovnNzO><http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3JPz01%2F4wMy1anQ6lHFmOYHBwrovnNzO>

    If you call, ask the staff person for a call back. Tell us what they
say! We are counting votes.
______________________________**____
*2. PLEASE COME TO LOBBY DAY ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28*
        Depending on how many people are coming, we will rent a coach bus
or caravan in cars.

         *PICK-UP TIMES:*
5:45 am West Side pick-up: 3212 W. Harrison Avenue (Target Area Corporation)
        6:00 am South Side pick-up: 7859 S. Ashland Avenue (AFC Center)
        *PARKING: *
There is parking for the day in both places. If you need help getting to
these locations, we will try to help you arrange a ride!

             *DETAILS:*
We will return at least by 7:30pm. Probably much earlier. We will have food
and snacks. For those who have means, we invite you to contribute $30
toward the price of the bus. But don't worry, we just need you to be there,
and appreciate the sacrifice of time and labor you are making!
RSVP to tammsyearten at gmail.com OR to Megan at (812)
391-0491<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Kw0cyXpUMib75JITJlsyfYHBwrovnNzO>
.

If you can't come, make a donation to help someone else! And, thanks so
much to everyone who has contributed already. You have made this campaign
possible. http://www.yearten.o**rg/category/act-now/donate/<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Q793709CnneX5CullhHAK%2F4KbTtrAeu8>

______________________________
*3. TIMELINE FOR NOT FUNDING TAMMS*

             For those who want to understand this complicated funding
tale, here's a short timeline:

     *February 2012* — Governor Quinn announced his plan to close Tamms,
Dwight, and youth prisons IYC Joliet and IYC Murphysboro.
         *May 2012* — House and Senate leadership chose to fully fund Tamms
and all the other prisons in the budget bill (SB 2474).
         *June 2012 *— Governor Quinn vetoed the funding for Tamms and the
other prisons (SB2474). This was a line-item reduction veto.
         *November 2012* — During the veto session, downstate legislators
and the guards' union (AFSCME) will attempt to override Quinn's veto of the
funding. In other words, they want to restore money for these prisons. We
will lobby to convince our legislators to stop this nonsense.

    ______________________________**____
*4. PHOTO REQUESTS FROM SOLITARY +*
*
*
Thanks to everyone who came out to this moving event, including the
speakers, the performers and each person who has taken or is taking a
photograph for a man in solitary confinement. The photos are still up. Come
visit!

 See this media about the project:
WBEZ "Photographers give IL prisoners a glimpse of outside
world.<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tQBR%2BWaTXHWQoajyXSP2bYHBwrovnNzO>
"
Prison Photograhpy "Views from
Solitary<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZsN1rncbkgEqKgBV3yG8fYHBwrovnNzO>
"
Greg Ruffling "Requests from
Solitary<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=YhUHZyjWtp9ixOgYFl86R4HBwrovnNzO>
"

In other news...
• The *Chicago Tribune *supports Tamms
closure<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=LRZPTEvSO3ouH0%2BDRNVUX4HBwrovnNzO>.
They
categorize it as a half-empty obsolete facility.

<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=EN9TpkCy9JFAMk480xYlOoHBwrovnNzO>

• This is hard evidence<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=QvMqdFGPOx7LC%2FVvH4zOhIHBwrovnNzO>that
the culture has shifted since 2008.

<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=HO5C50r9boF0sCVOsHup8oHBwrovnNzO>

• The state of Illinois and AFSCME are still embroiled in a legal
fight<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=XOt0UXN3s4gAlW2k4UMxaIHBwrovnNzO>about
whether the governor can close prisons.  An arbitrator has now found
that the state should be able to close these prisons. But the appellate
court just upheld the judge's injunction against closures. It now goes to
the state Supreme Court.

• Here's an action where Tamms Year Ten members called-out AFSCME Deputy
Director<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=h87JZchHdHj8fKOUXMqyEoHBwrovnNzO>for
proudly supporting a prison that violates international standards for
humane treatment.

 ______________________________ *
5. WHY WE MUST CLOSE TAMMS*

*I AND MANY OTHERS* here in Tamms are so grateful for your support. We are
blessed to have people like you on our side. I and many others here are
anticipating our eventual transfer to Pontiac....On a side note. I would
like to bring to your attention the number of food superiors that
are employed here in Tamms. There are 16 currently assigned that title. Why
so many? No wonder the state of Illinois is in debt.*
—JUAN*

*IN MY CURRENT SITUATION: *I have been in hunger strike since October 14,
2012 and I've yet to be seen by medical staff. I can be dying due to Helath
complications cause by starvation, but no one seems to give a care. Today
on October 23, 2012 I was retaliated against for filing grievances and
exercising my rights to partake in a hunger strike. I was moved to a unit
where mentally ill inmates are housed. I was placed on a wing where every
inmate on the wing have boxes and shields on their doors. Where the entire
wing reeks of feces and uring. Inmates bang and yell all day and night. I
have done absolutely nothing to warrant my placement on a wing like this...
The wing I am currently housed on (B5) is extremely disturbing. At this
moment there's an inmate who's smearing feces all over himself and cell
door. He's yelling, banging and swearing at the Lt. Starkweather and
another unknown c/o whose bringing me back in from the law library, it is
now 10:29am.

Thank you very much for your time and hard work in helping the so-called
helpless in our times of need. May God continue blessing your wonderful and
caring heart.
*—FABIAN*
*
I HOPE WHEN THIS* letter reaches you that you are in the best of
health....I came here on 8-9-2000 and I had insanity but been in Tamms made
me insane....this not contact with another prisoner mess my mind up, cause
since I been in solitude in Tamms, I had a lot of bizarre self-mitilation,
multiple incidents requiring the use of therapeutic restraints. I take 5
time a day psychotropic medication and I see a mental health professional
on a treatment plan every 2 weeks. I been on suicide watch a lot. When I
got here on 8-9-2000 they had me on "Elevated Security Negative Unit" [this
unit has more deprivation] for 5 years and been on elevated security made
me start cutting myself cause I was not use to been real hard isolated like
that, it made my mind snap....Over the years, I been to the outside
hospital a few times cause I cut artery and the nurses could not stop the
bleeding. I have the scars on my arms...

Everyday I am fighting with myself cause my mind keep telling me to cut
myself and my mind tell me that's the right thing to do. I been having a
mental behavioral problem in Tamms for 12 years and when the mental health
professionals do their evaluation on me, they say I do not fit the
qualities to be on psychiatric unit cause I do not have a mental ill
problem, I have a behavioral problem. The mental health professionals try
to help me with my mental problem but I am way out there with this mental
behavioral problem cause this cutting myself became a mental habit and when
I see my own blood, I got a mental rush. This Tamms torture did my mind
like this. When I was in a regular prison, I never cut myself....Right now
I'm on the edge of the cliff and if the Governor Pat Quinn do not close
this facility, I think I am going to fall off the cliff. Hope you will try
to understand what Tamms did to me as a person.
*—TERRANCE*
*
*
*

*
http://tinyurl.com/**dontfundTamms<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1TMS8dAeKwd4KoPow%2FKMtIHBwrovnNzO>
http://www.facebook.com/tammsyearten
tammsyearten at gmail.com

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