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Prisoners at Tamms supermax prison are held in permanent solitary confinement. There is 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 severe mental illness are common at Tamms—this is an expected consequence of the harsh punishment of long-term isolation.

Incarceration at the supermax was approved by the Illinois legislature as a short-term “shock-treatment” program for men already in prison who cause harm to guards or other inmates. Instead, Tamms has become a warehouse and a human rights disaster:

• - One-third of the population has lived in this extreme solitary confinement since the prison opened almost 11 years ago.
• - There are no clear procedures for being transferred to Tamms and there is no way to earn your way out.
• - Most prisoners in Tamms do not deserve to be there for this lengthy period. Many were not placed in Tamms for acts of violence, and have not had disciplinary problems at Tamms.
• - Long-term isolation creates barriers for successful reentry to society, or to other prisons, where these prisoners will return.
• - There is no correctional justification for placing seriously mentally ill men in a supermax for extra punishment.

Identical treatment at Guantanamo Bay has been judged by Attorney General Eric Holder to be too isolating for prisoner safety. All prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are now provided social interaction and phone calls, in compliance with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Convention.