SUIT WILL CHALLENGE NEW PRISON

TAMMS, Ill. -- A lawsuit in behalf of four inmates will allege "cruel conditions" and "restrictive movements" by prisoners at Tamms Correctional Center.

The suit was anticipated even before the first brick was put in place at the new super-maximum security prison.

Nic Howell of the Illinois Department of Corrections said such a suit has been filed against "almost every facility like this in the nation."

The suit against Illinois Department of Corrections Director Odie Washington and eight other officials in behalf of the four inmates -- identified only by their initials -- also will claim state prison officials ignore complaints of mentally ill prisoners and deny them counseling. The suit was expected to be filed late Thursday or early today in Chicago.

"We haven't seen the suit yet," said Howell. "We understand that it claims that corrections workers taunt inmates, forcibly inject them with sedatives and require suicidal prisoners to suffer hours of humiliating observation in an unfurnished concrete cell."

Howell said the department believes it is running the facility constitutionally.

"We currently have 253 inmates down there," said Howell. "We screen inmates for mental health. In fact, we have a higher percentage of mental-health staff there than other places."

The plaintiff inmates will claim a variety of ailments. One will claim that unfriendly spirits buried below the prison visit his cell.

The lawsuit will seek unspecified damages and better treatment of prisoners.

Similar suits have been filed in many states where super-maximum security prisons have opened to house the worst inmates.

The Tamms prison is necessary, say prison officials, to isolate the violent and troublemaking prisoners from other inmates.

Prison officials have made no secret of the fact that they hope Tamms will be a harsh experience for the state's most violent criminals, but they deny that the prison is unconstitutionally cruel.

"Tamms is not meant to be a nice place," said Howell.

The prison, with a capacity for 520 inmates, opened last year. Its inmates are confined to their cells at least 23 hours a day, cannot make telephone calls and are given no exercise or recreational equipment.