Petition on solitary confinement in Tamms Prison
At our Spring Sessions on April 3-5, 2009 we approved endorsing a petition to Illinois legislators regarding the inhumane use of solitary confinement in a Super Maximum Security prison in Tamms, a small town in Southern Illinois. The petition supports proposed state legislation, HB 2633, which calls for guidelines for the use of solitary confinement. This legislation has also been endorsed by AFSC Chicago and AFSC Michigan-Criminal Justice Program along with 26+ organizations. We encourage other individuals and Meetings to endorse as well at http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5596/t/4115/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=514. The petition reads as follows:

At Tamms supermax prison over 250 men are being held in permanent solitary confinement, year after year, with no communal activity or human contact of any kind. The Department of Corrections has refused to consider policies of due process safeguards. This form of extreme punishment is beyond the bounds of basic human decency.

We ask that you support HB 2633 to bring this prison back in line with its original intent. This legislation will prohibit seriously mentally ill prisoners from supermax incarceration, establish clear procedures for how men are transferred to one-year, unless doing so would pose a risk to guards or other inmates.

Learn more about the petition and the legislation at:
http://www.progressillinois.com/2009/3/10/hamos-revives-tamms-bill