Quinn: Close super-max downstate Tamms prison

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Tamms Correctional Center

Updated: April 22, 2012 1:15AM

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ super-max prison at downstate Tamms that has been criticized by prison-rights advocates would be mothballed under a money-saving move by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The governor will outline the plan today, Feb. 22, when he delivers his budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly, according to a source briefed on the prison closure.

The $173 million, 500-bed prison opened in 1998 under former Gov. Jim Edgar’s administration and was designed to house the worst-of-the-worst among Illinois’ prison inmates. It was the place executions were to be carried out when the state had a death penalty and wound up hosting only one: DuPage County serial killer Andrew Kokoraleis.

Under Quinn’s plan, the prison would be targeted for closure in August, potentially saving taxpayers $21.6 million in the upcoming fiscal year and $26.6 million annually thereafter.

The cost of housing inmates at Tamms — 388 inmates are there now — is dramatically higher than at other prisons. The annual state expenditure on a Tamms inmate is $64,805, compared to $21,405 spent on inmates in Illinois’ 26 other prison facilities, state records show.

Of Tamm’s current prison population, 192 inmates are maximum-security prisoners. Under the governor’s plan, they would be transferred to the maximum-security wing at Pontiac Correctional Center.

The prison’s other 196 minimum-security inmates could be transferred to two other state prisons within 40 miles of Tamms: the Shawnee Correctional Center and the Vienna Correctional Center.

Told of Quinn’s proposal, the head of the John Howard Association expressed support but urged the administration to use caution with moving highly violent inmates into the general prison population.

“I think despite the best intentions, Tamms went too far,” said John Maki, executive director of the prison-advocacy group. “Over the years, there have been attempts to reform Tamms, but history has shown those attempts have not worked as well as hoped. I think is a real victory for Illinois and for fairness.”

Tamms has been the frequent target of human-rights and prisoner-advocacy groups and even a federal judge because of the harsh conditions that exist there.

Most Tamms inmates spend 23 hours a day alone, where their “universe of gray” is only interrupted by a sliver of the blue sky visible from a small window above, the group said.

Prisoners aren’t permitted to work or mingle too much with fellow prisoners and had access to only one computer to communicate with loved ones.