Reforms Come to an Illinois Supermax

The new director of the Illinois Department of Corrections visited the state's notorious Tamms Supermax facility last week and announced long overdue reforms at the prison - including an increase in mental health evaluations and the potential for some prisoners to get out of long term solitary confinement.

DOC director Michael Randle called for changes at Tamms and said the goal of his new tenure is to reduce the the state's prison population and its recidivism rate. Gov. Pat Quinn helped him along by signing off on a plan Friday for the early release this fall of 1,000 nonviolent prisoners.

I wrote about Tamms in April as it marked its tenth anniversary. An activist group called Tamms Year Ten, which advocates for reforms at the state's only supermax, welcomed the move but said they don't go far enough.

"It sounds like the Illinois Department of Corrections is really moving into a new direction at Tamms," said Laurie Jo Reynolds, a spokeswoman for Tamms Year Ten. "But ... there must be some mental health oversight, independently, to prevent well-documented abuse and neglect of mentally ill prisoners."

The Tamms reforms and the early releases are a sign that Illinois is finally figuring out that long term lockups don't work. Nothing like budget cuts to move along these reforms.

Via Real Cost and Prison Movement.