For Immediate Release: April 2, 2012
Contact: Samantha Friedman, office: (202) 265-3000 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NRCAT representative testifies in Illinois in efforts to close Tamms supermax facility

Ullin, Ill. – The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) today joins a diverse coalition to support the closure of Tamms Correctional Center.  The groups are gathered in Ullin as Illinois’ Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, a joint state Senate and House commission, convenes a hearing to discuss the potential closure of Tamms Correctional Center, Illinois’ supermax prison. The planned closure is part of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed 2013 budget and combined with the closure of other facilities operated by the Department of Corrections, would save Illinois taxpayers an estimated $60 million.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) has been outspoken in its efforts to end torture in prisons.  More than 200 men are currently housed at Tamms in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, an extreme form of punishment that is known to cause physiological and psychological harm.  Heather Rice, NRCAT’s Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program, is presenting testimony at the hearing today to support the prison’s closure, on moral grounds.

In her remarks, Rice shares the following:

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is a coalition of more than 300 religious organizations and 63,000 individual supporters representing most of the major faith groups in America, including evangelicals, Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Jews, and Muslims.  The religious organizations that belong to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture contend that prolonged isolation is inhumane in the way it destroys prisoners’ minds and violates human being’s inherent God-given dignity.  For people of faith across the country, ending prolonged solitary confinement is a moral imperative.

In light of the high financial cost of solitary confinement and its diminishing societal returns, states across the country are reducing their use of segregation and finding that there are safe alternatives.  Mississippi experienced a decline in violence within its prisons after it drastically reduced its use of solitary confinement in one supermax unit; Mississippi eventually closed the facility all together.  Maine and Colorado also have made significant reductions in the use of solitary confinement without jeopardizing prison safety.

Among the many groups testifying in support of prison closure at the hearing, held at Shawnee Community College, were David Fathi, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project; Debra Erenberg, Midwest Regional Director of Amnesty International USA; Claire Leslie, Coordinator of the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights; Laurie Jo Reynolds, organizer of Tamms Year Ten; Northwestern University professor Stephen Eisenman, also with Tamms Year Ten; Jean Maclean Snyder, a prisoners rights attorney; and Alan Mills and Brian Nelson on behalf of the Uptown People’s Law Center.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a growing membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, 313 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.

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