EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A federal judge who's ordered hearings for inmates being sent to or already confined at an Illinois supermax prison says isolation there can lead to mental illness.
U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy wrote in support of his decision on the hearings. He says the Tamms Correctional Center is known for its solitary confinement of inmates and "imposes dramatic limitations on human contact" among the prisoners.
Murphy says the isolation inflicts lasting psychological damage and emotional harm on inmates confined there for long periods.
Earlier, Murphy had ruled that Illinois inmates have the right to challenge being transferred to Tamms and that prisoners already housed at the lockup deserve hearings over why they're there.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/The Southern, Tom Barker, File)
U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy wrote in support of his decision on the hearings. He says the Tamms Correctional Center is known for its solitary confinement of inmates and "imposes dramatic limitations on human contact" among the prisoners.
Murphy says the isolation inflicts lasting psychological damage and emotional harm on inmates confined there for long periods.
Earlier, Murphy had ruled that Illinois inmates have the right to challenge being transferred to Tamms and that prisoners already housed at the lockup deserve hearings over why they're there.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/The Southern, Tom Barker, File)
