EDGAR OPENS DOORS TO SUPER-MAXIMUM PRISON AT TAMMS

TAMMS, Ill. -- The first group of prisoners will arrive next month at Tamms Correctional Center, which could be the site of Illinois' next execution.

Gov. Jim Edgar Tuesday dedicated the super maximum-security prison, which cost $73 million and holds 500 prisoners.

More than 200 people, including state Department of Corrections officials and prison wardens and county and city officials, watched Edgar snip a ribbon that officially opened the prison. It includes an adjacent 200-bed minimum-security work camp that opened in 1995.

"This new prison will house the states's most violent and unmanageable inmates from other facilities," said Edgar. "The inmates to this fortress prison will have to earn their way in, and they will have to earn their way out by demonstrating that they can abide by this prison's stringent rules and regulations."

Prisoners at Tamms won't be allowed to make telephone calls. They will have limited contact with each other and prison staff, and contact with visitors won't be allowed.

"The inmates will be handcuffed and shackled whenever they are out of their cellblocks," said Edgar. "Recreation will be limited to an area without recreation equipment, one prisoner at a time."

Edgar said prisoners won't be allowed to smoke, and they will have fewer personal items in their cells than in any other prison in Illinois.

Inmates will spend 23 hours a day locked alone in 67-square-foot cells. Corrections officers will remotely control electronic locks from switchboards protected by bulletproof glass. Cameras and motion detectors will keep watch on prisoners' movements.

There will be no group activities. Prisoners will be fed in their cells.

"This is a big day for Tamms, Alexander County and Southern Illinois," said Edgar.

A total of 445 people will be employed at the prison, including 312 security staff. The prison will have a $17 million payroll and a budget of $23.9 million. The 23-acre prison, situated on a 236-acre tract, is protected by double 12-foot-high cyclone fencing topped with razor ribbon.

"When the super-max prison concept came up a few years ago, I had some concerns, especially about the costs," said Edgar. "This is an expensive prison, but we feel that the Tamms mission is to enhance the safety of staff and inmates at other prisons and to improve the security and operations of those facilities."

The project already is having some effect on other prisons, said Edgar.

"Inmates know now that the Tamms center is ready," Edgar said. "We have noticed less violent activity in some of our prisons. The message from other prisons is that nobody wants to come here."

On hand at Tuesday's dedications were Odie Washington, director of the Illinois Department of Corrections; Larry Mizell, chief deputy director; and George Welborn, Tamms warden.

"We'll phase in inmates to the prison here," said Welborn. "Right now we're still training workers here. But we should receive our first group of prisoners possibly by March 9."

After that as many as 20 to 30 prisoners a week will be transferred to Tamms. "We could be at maximum capacity by next summer," said Welborn.

Mizell said it was unknown when the first execution will be held at Tamms. The prison won't have a death row, but includes rooms for inmates' families and attorneys. Tamms will be the site of all executions in Illinois. Inmates awaiting death still will be housed at Menard and Pontiac correctional centers, both maximum-security prisons.