Darrell Cannon discussion

The discussion that the class had with Darrell Cannon last week was amazing.  Darrell was able to tell us so much information that we would not be able to get anywhere else.  I’m sure bits and pieces of his story are around, but the best information always comes from the main source.  The thing that [...]

Darrell Cannon’s Story

Darrell Cannon brought up some heart wrenching topics, yet the one that really interested me was his story of Tamms.  A supermax prison located in the southern most part of Illinois has gone from temporary punishment to long term dehumanization.  Many times when Darrell was talking he mentioned the fact that, “Tamms was made to [...]

Reaction to Tamms Letters

Regarding the letters from the prisoners, I was extremely surprised as to how well some of them could write. Specifically, the way they formatted, structured, and used intelligent vocabulary to express their feelings and concerns. Like many people, initially stereotyping criminals as uneducated and simpleminded, I enjoyed reading the letters because it was truly the [...]

Supermax Prisons

We read three articles about Supermax prisons. One of the main threads of these articles was that prisoners are often placed in Supermax prisons unnecessarily. Although prison officials and guards say the the SHU (Special Housing Unit) is reserved for only, “the worst of the worst,” often it is the more politically conscious, jailhouse lawyers, [...]

Reaction to Supermax Prison articles.

Supermax prisons impact the confined mentally, physically, and emotionally. Supermax prisons are more interested in punishing, rather than rehabilitating. When prisoners are kept in a cell, alone, and without sunlight and human interaction, psychological effects occur. People evolve and change in these surroundings over time. They begin lose all societal values and norms because they [...]

Supermax prisons: Existing or Living?

When reading Rhodes’ article, centering around her anthropological background, I found her perspective unique in discussing prisoners as beings, and no longer really human.  She ingeniously described prisoners as merely existing, rather than actually living, regardless of what amenities they are provided.  One consequence of supermax prisons is the inability to relate the self to [...]

I had never cut myself

Since I arrived at Tamms things have changed dramatically for me. Before I came to Tamms I had never cut myself but after coming to Tamms I started cutting on myself was placed in restraints numerous times was placed on psychotropic medication both voluntary and involuntary which I had never taken before coming to Tamms, [...]

tired boxer’s head

Since being at Tamms, I suffer symptoms of depression, frustration, paranoia, mental anguish, sleep disorder, deterioration of my physical health, general mental torture… These symptoms are made worse when the administration uses mentally ill prisoners as tools, or as torture device to either drive otherwise normal prisoners over the edge…the mentally ill prisoners drive the [...]

this knowledge overwhelms us

This facility functions more as a mental institution than a prison of rehabilitation and it serves no penalogical purpose other than to warehouse prisoners. As the duration of our isolation drags on and the degree of our conditions of confinement deteriorate you begin to see the psychological effect that this place has on us. We [...]