Tamms News

A federal judge says he'll decide within weeks whether Illinois prison inmates should get formal hearings before being transferred to the state's only supermax lockup.

The new chief of Illinois' prison system says there's a place for the super maximum-security prison in deep southern Illinois' Alexander County.

Reporters could see but couldn't talk to Tamms Correctional Center inmate Faygie Fields as he bounced on his toes, smiled and waved wildly from behind a perforated steel door Thursday.

The state's only supermax prison has been called into question in recent months over inmate-isolation practices that human-rights advocates consider inhumane.

The facility sits on a 37-acre site, with 32 acres being enclosed by fencing. Pontiac Correctional Center houses the following offenders: segregation, condemned protective custody, mental health, administrative detention reintegration management and medium security.

After a 90-minute tour on Thursday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin emerged from the Tamms Correctional Center, the state's only supermax prison, praising its treatment of the mentally ill as the best in the country.

Twenty-four hours after receiving a life sentence, James Degorski's daily routine remains pretty much the same as it was 24 hours before he learned of his sentence.

News-Democrat reporters George Pawlaczyk and Beth Hundsdorfer were awarded the John Rowley Excellence in Journalism Award Saturday for their recent series, "Trapped In Tamms." The award was presented by the Illinois chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness during their annual educational conference in this Chicago suburb.

Once reputed to be a leader of one of the most violent Chicago gangs, The Two-Sixers, David Ayala now gathers insects to feed the spiders that spin their webs at the edges of his concrete exercise yard at the Tamms supermax prison.

Once reputed to be a leader of one of the most violent Chicago gangs, The Two-Sixers, David Ayala now gathers insects to feed the spiders that spin their webs at the edges of his concrete exercise yard at the Tamms supermax prison.

At Tamms supermax prison at the southern tip of Illinois, over 250 men are being held in permanent solitary confinement, year after year, with no communal activity or human contact of any kind.

In this Feb. 13, 2009, file photo inmate Damien Terry, right, has his shackles removed before being placed in his cell at the Tamms Correctional Center in Tamms, Ill.

A state department of corrections is getting a makeover designed to reduce crime in your neighborhood all while saving the money you pay to Uncle Sam.

This is a picture of Aleshia Glastetter, Micah Boyd and Cidney Keller with Steve Hornbeak after the concert on September 19th 2009.

Illinois is planning some desperately needed reforms at the Tamms Correctional Center supermax prison, and it's a good start, but more change is needed.

DIXON – Although he suffers from a psychotic disorder, there is no evidence to suggest that John Spires was insane when he held a prison psychologist hostage in May 2006, according to a forensic psychiatrist in the former Dixon inmate's rape trial.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn says he supports calls for reform at Tamms prison. On Thursday, new corrections director Michael Randle recommended ten reforms, including hearings for prisoners being sent to the supermax prison.

Federal court jurors have ruled in favor of a former Tamms Correctional Center psychiatrist who was sued in federal court by an inmate.

Gov. Quinn's new Department of Corrections Director, Michael Randle, announced Thursday new initiatives to divert more non-violent offenders from state prisons, better rehabilitate the ones that are there, and to reform the Downstate Tamms Correctional Center.

During a civil trial Tuesday in federal court, Tamms supermax prison inmate Anthony Gay was described by the day's only witness as a "manipulator" who routinely cut or threatened to cut himself to get what he wanted from prison staff.