AFSCME Deputy Director confronted about their fight to keep Tamms supermax open 11-13-2012 скачать в хорошем качестве

AFSCME Deputy Director confronted about their fight to keep Tamms supermax open 11-13-2012

In honor of Studs Turkel , Roosevelt University, In These Times and the Center for New Deal Studies will present a forum on the role of unions in an age of austerity. Roberta Lynch, the Deputy Director of AFSCME Council 31 participated in a panel to discuss the labor movement, local organizing efforts and a path towards "prosperity for all Americans" on Tuesday 11/13/2012 at Roosevelt University. Supporters of Tamms Year Ten and members of the audience spoke out at the event, both during the keynote and during the Q&A to call attention to the harmful role that AFSCME has played in keeping open Tamms Supermax prison, where every prisoner is held in permanent solitary confinement. • Tamms supermax causes lasting mental damage to men housed there. Isolation provokes hallucinations, self-mutilation, psychosis and even suicide. Men have been in isolation for 14 years and counting. • Tamms has been condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for violating international standards for humane treatment. • The prison is a dumping ground for people with mental illnesses. Many men were sent there for disruptive behavior brought on by psychiatric illness. • Tamms costs $26 million per year and is 2/3 empty. There are only 139 men in the supermax. TAMMS DOES NOT IMPROVE PUBLIC SAFETY—IT THREATENS IT: • Supermax prisons do not deter or reduce violence. They increase tension, anger, hostility, and mental problems. • States that recently closed supermax prisons or stopped using them for isolation saw all measures of violence plummet. • The IDOC states that only 25 men at Tamms even need heightened security protocols, and they will be secure at Pontiac. Many have serious mental illness. • Dehumanizing forms of punishment worsen behavior and are never necessary for security. For more info on the campaign to close Tamms Supermax prison, visit www.yearten.org