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The Tamms Correctional Center is a Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) prison for men located in Tamms, Illinois. The prison has two sections, a 200-bed minimum security facility opened in 1995, and a 500-bed maximum security facility known as the Closed Maximum Security Unit (CMAX) opened in 1998. The CMAX facility houses the most disruptive and violent inmates, deemed unsafe to house with the general prison population.

The CMAX section of the prison houses the State of Illinois execution chamber, used for administering lethal injections. Andrew Kokoraleis was executed at Tamms in 1999. Prior to the January 11, 2003 commutation of death row sentences, male death row inmates were housed in Tamms, Pontiac, and Menard correctional centers. After the commutations, only Pontiac continued to hold death row prisoners.

The prison has operated with prisoners filling about 50% of its cells. The state said that the occupancy rate reflects the officials being selective about who is imprisoned in Tamms. Critics of the facility stated that it was built too large and that it is too costly.

Development of Tamms
The 1990s saw trends of overcrowding in prisons and increased violence in prisons. In 1992, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar created a task force to address some issues facing prisons, including overcrowding. The task force advised the creation of an extremely secure prison unit. The first few years after the opening of Tamms Closed Maximum Security facility (Tamms CMAX) do coincide with a drop in violence. However, in an article from January of 2010, the public affairs director of the guards' union, Anders Lindall, indicated a belief that violence against guards was increasing.

The Mission of Tamms Closed Maximum Security facility
The Tamms Closed Maximum Security facility has a stated mission "to improve the quality of life, safety, and day to day operation of other Illinois Department of Corrections facilities and to enhance the safety of staff, offenders, and the public".

Tamms Minimum Security Work Camp
The presence of a minimum security unit (MSU) at the Tamms Correctional Center helps provide labor for groundskeeping, maintenance, and housekeeping. Local municipalities may also make use of the work crews. The MSU at Tamms appears not to differ substantially from other facilities of the same security designation, as numerous articles criticizing the Tamms facilities do not address the minimum security unit.

Maximum Security Prison Conditions
The conditions at the Tamms Closed Maximum Security facility have been the subject of much protestation. Reforms began in May 2009. Inmates stay in single cells for at least 23 hours a day. Punishments at Tamms can include reducing the offender's shower access to as little as one shower a week, subsituting an all-in-one 'meat loaf' for the regular food the offender recieves, or as a Chicago Tribune article describes it, "Inmates can be stripped of their property and left continuously in their cells".

Being Sent to Tamms
No one proceeds directly from sentencing in a courthouse to the Tamms supermax facility. Repeated disrupted or violent behaviors while in other prison facilities, or involvement in a gang has theoretically been the criteria for being sent to the Tamms CMAX. The uniform application of this policy in the past has been contested. One step of the recent reform plan for Tamms is establishing a process in which a prisoner scheduled for transfer to Tamms has the opportunity to review and refute evidence leading to the decision, and appeal the decision.

Exiting Tamms
Under the recent reforms, inmates of Tamms CMAX are informed of an estimated duration of stay soon after their arrival, and given a review hearing at least every 90 days to discuss the possibility of returning them to other correctional facilities.

Guard Safety Measures
Prisoners in CMAX are handcuffed and wear leg shackles while moving about Tamms. The color of inmate clothing indicates what types of security risks are posed by the offender.

Mental Health
One pod of the CMAX facilities is designated for inmates with severe mental health problems. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and the John Howard Association have protested the severe isolation and extreme sensory deprivation of the Tamms CMAX, along with similar facilities. These groups cite research that linking continual solitary confinement and sensory deprivation with worsening of existing mental health conditions, and perhaps the emergence of new disorders. The website of the organization Tamms Year Ten states that it is a "grassroots all-volunteer coalition which came together to protest the isguided and inhumane policies at Tamms on the ten-year anniversary of its opening". The ten point reform plan addresses this aspect as well, and the IDOC endeavors to have the mental health staff make a full evaluation of each inmate within 30 days of transferring to Tamms, and to check each prisoners' condition every week. Tamms is among the first Illinois prisons to adopt online video call visitations.

Protests and Reforms
Prison officials initially claimed that the longest stay at Tamms for most prisoners would be no longer than 18 months. However, as of September 2009, 70 of the 243 prisoners then at Tamms CMAX had been there at least 10 years of the 11 it has been open, and an additional 124 residents had been there for over 5 years. 543 separate individuals have been placed in Tamms CMAX between its opening and June 30, 2009.

Illinois House Bill 2633
This bill was introduced February 2009, and would change the penal code to establish certain limited conditions under which a prisoner can be transferred to a supermaximum security facility, and to create a regulation so that an inmate with serious mental illness cannot be sent to such a facility.

The Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn made prison reforms a high priority for Michael Randle, director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, upon his appointment in May 2009, with specific mention of Tamms CMAX. As part of the process of considering what steps were possible at Tamms CMAX, IDOC officials including Director Randle had a day long visit to Ohio State Penitentiary, a facility which operates under a similar mission and opened the same year as Tamms CMAX. A ten point plan for reforms at Tamms CMAX was established in a report submitted to Governor Pat Quinn on September 3, 2009.

Ten Point Reform Plan (2009)
The ten point reform plan proposed by IDOC director Michael Randle:
 * 1) Allow each inmate placed at Tamms CMAX to have a Transfer Review Hearing
 * 2) Each inmate will be informed of an estimated length of stay and how privileges can be earned to provide for eventual transfer from Tamms CMAX
 * 3) Promote the medical and mental health evaluation process conducted prior to and after placement, for each inmate sent to Tamms CMAX.
 * 4) Increase inmate privileges throughout the Behavioral Level System to incentivize positive behavior at Tamms CMAX.
 * 5) Begin offering General Educational Development (GED) testing at Tamms CMAX
 * 6) Implement congregate religious services for inmates at Tamms CMAX.
 * 7) Rescind some of the printed materials restrictions for inmates at Tamms CMAX.
 * 8) Develop a plan for beginning a Reassignment Unit at Tamms CMAX to compliment the Administrative Detention Re-entry Managment Program (ADRMP) operated at other step-down sites.
 * 9) Plan a media, legislative and public outreach strategy that includes hosting a day-long visit to Tamms CC.
 * 10) Reexamine the cohort of inmates having served extensive time at Tamms CMAX for transfer eligibility.