RIGHTS OF MENTALLY ILL PRISONERS AT TAMMS
Update (July 2005)
MJC Improves Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners at Supermax Facility
Mentally ill inmates housed in one of Illinois' harshest prisons will receive access to better health treatment under a legal settlement that MacArthur Justice Center has reached with the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The agreement results from a lawsuit that the center brought against the state on behalf of mentally ill inmates confined at the Tamms Correctional Center in southern Illinois. Tamms is a maximum-security, or "Supermax," prison, a designation "synonymous with extreme isolation" according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At Tamms, prisoners with serious mental illness were denied access to adequate medical treatment, causing them severe psychological trauma, MacArthur Justice Center charged in its suit.
In settling the case, the Illinois Department of Corrections agreed to institute better screening of inmates to detect mental illness, to establish a special psychiatric unit to administer to afflicted prisoners and to heighten standards of confidentiality between inmates and mental health care providers.
Download settlement agreement (pdf)
Update (March 24, 2005)
Lawsuit Says Housing Mentally Ill Prisoners at Supermax is Illegal
The MacArthur Justice Center won the right for two seriously mentally ill inmates housed at Illinois' supermaximum prison, Tamms Correctional Center, to proceed to trial on their claims against prison mental health personnel. That was the ruling by Magistrate Judge Clifford Proud on January 25, 2005, when he denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment (while dismissing claims against some defendants not involved in providing mental health treatment). The inmates contend that the harsh, isolating conditions at Tamms supermax prison exacerbate their mental illnesses and that the mental health treatment provided to them is inadequate. Their lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent the defendants from continuing to violate their rights under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitutional and the federal Rehabilitation Act. The defendants have filed objections to the magistrate's decision with the trial judge in the Southern District of Illinois, where the case is pending.
Initially two other Tamms' inmates were plaintiffs in the Justice Center lawsuit. Those men withdraw as plaintiffs when they were transferred out of Tamms.
MacArthur Justice Center Sues Tamms Prison Officials on Behalf of Mentally Ill Prisoners
Four prisoners represented by the MacArthur Justice Center have sued prison officials for housing seriously mentally ill prisoners at Tamms Correctional Center, Illinois's supermaximum prison. The lawsuit, Rasho v. Snyder, pending in the Southern District of Illinois, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief based on the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the federal Rehabilitation Act. The lawsuit says that exposing mentally ill prisoners to the excessively harsh conditions at the prison amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and unlawful discrimination.
Download Tamms complaint (pdf)
