URGENT - this is important - URGENT

The Buck Stops With QuinnTell Governor Quinn: "Reform Tamms Supermax OR Cut Its Funding"

This is very urgent at it will take ONE MINUTE of your time.

For the past 11 years, our tax money has been spent to keep men in permanent solitary confinement at Tamms. Prisoners there have no communal activity, no contact visits, and no phone calls. Men never leave their cell except to shower or go to solitary exercise in a concrete pen. Suicide attempts, self-mutilation, and psychotic breakdowns are common at Tamms. Some men sent to Tamms are mentally ill--others become mentally ill from being there.

Supermax isolation is considered a form of torture by international human rights groups, as well as a violation of the Geneva Conventions on the humane treatment of prisoners. In fact, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have singled out Tamms supermax prison for condemnation, and have called for the Illinois Department of Corrections to make immediate changes. But they have done nothing, and IDOC will get away with it without your action.

Please call Governor Quinn on May 13 or May 14 and tell him to either: "Reform Tamms Supermax or Cut Its Funding."

--Taxpayer money should not be spent on torture or on policies that violate international human rights standards.

--Long-term isolation induces or worsens mental illness, and increases recidivism. Mental health treatment works, Tamms doesn't.

--Prisoners do not have to be kept in long-term solitary confinement to be kept secure. Isolation is not a solution!

--Tamms is the most expensive prison per capita in the state of Illinois--between $60,000 and $90,000 per year. That is 3-5 times the cost at other prisons. Ask Governor Quinn what he thinks Illinois taxpayers are getting for our money.

Finally, ask Governor Quinn to sponsor HB 2633, sponsored by Rep. Julie Hamos, which will prohibit seriously mentally ill men from being housed in Tamms, and will establish clear criteria for transfers to and from the supermax.

One-third of the prisoners at Tamms have been held in cold storage for the past 11 years. This torture must end.

Tie up the phones! Please contact the Governor on Wednesday, May 13 or Thursday, May 14 and tell him: "Reform Tamms Supermax or Cut Its Funding." Make sure you leave your name and address so they write it down and see that calls are coming from all over the state. Ask for a call-back.

Office of the Governor in Springfield: 217-782-0244

Office of the Governor in Chicago: 312-814-2121

ALSO: We also need 1000 more signatures on the online petition before we hand it to the Governor next week. Sign your name!

www.juliehamos.org/tamms

Please contact your friends, listservs, churches and other organizations immediately and forward this again widely on Tuesday and Weds morning.

NOTE: This call-in campaign was initiated by the Quakers and Mennonite Peace and Justice Initiative of Champaign-Urbana.

Isn't it time we listened to them?