Tamms Minimum Work Camp

[Forevermah]

Please Post your information here. 

Thank you!

[allgone]

No one has any loved ones here?  Well I'll try to update when he gets settled there.

[allgone]

They are really strict here.  There is a huge rule book that they are supposed to memorize completely and not knowing a rule is not an excuse.  Tickets are handed out frequently for small things.  6 tickets are grounds for transfer.

Everyone gets a job.  They work at least five days a week.  I've been told the best jobs are on the road crew.  They get to go out of the prison and work outside.  They also get to live in the quietest of the dorm rooms. 

Visiting is good.  Your pull up in your car to a stop sign and then you have to wait for them to come out.  They take your license and write down all your info and then tell you where to park.  Your car will be searched.  You follow the COs into the building and then check in, they will keep your DL until you leave.  You can take $20 into the visiting room.  They give you a locker key and you put everything else on you in there.  They were all very polite and helpful to me.  You get shook down in a little closet and then go into the visiting room. 

There are six tables.  Bathrooms are right there but kept locked.  You have to get a CO to come unlock them to use them.  A pop bottle vending machine and a machine with candy and chips are the only things there.  You need to buy a debit card for $1 for the machines.  The pops were 75 cents.  I don't know any other prices.

You can hug and kiss at the beginning and end of the visits.  You can hold hands and sit next to each other.  Inmates can get up to vending machines.  They can't handle money or the debit cards.  It was pretty laid back. 

I can't think of anything else right now.  It is a long drive from Chicago but is actually pretty.  Oh and there's an America's Best hotel about 15 minutes from the prison.  But all that is there is the hotel and a gas station.

[allgone]

Just wanted to update real quick.  I was told the co's are extremely cruel here.  Certain groups of co's would single out certain inmates and pick on them unmercifully.  Little things that just made them feel like less than men. 

During certain strip searches, these co's would have a certain inmate bend over and spread.  Laughing and saying things like "get your fingers up in there, boy.  Really spread them for me.  Farther, I can't see anything."  Then have the inmate stand and put his fingers in his mouth and say stuff like "How does your shit taste, boy?"  I've been told a bunch of other things along these lines.  All the things are just as degrading and horrifying.

I would cry if I knew my LO was being sent here.  It was really that horrible. 

[lvanrs2]

The guards will continue to act this way unless some sort of undercover operation is done.  I am sure the guards are on their best behavior while anyone with authority is walking through.

[superb86]

Just wanted to update real quick.  I was told the co's are extremely cruel here.  Certain groups of co's would single out certain inmates and pick on them unmercifully.  Little things that just made them feel like less than men. 

During certain strip searches, these co's would have a certain inmate bend over and spread.  Laughing and saying things like "get your fingers up in there, boy.  Really spread them for me.  Farther, I can't see anything."  Then have the inmate stand and put his fingers in his mouth and say stuff like "How does your shit taste, boy?"  I've been told a bunch of other things along these lines.  All the things are just as degrading and horrifying.

I would cry if I knew my LO was being sent here.  It was really that horrible. 

What you were told is extremely overexaggerated!  I was there 3 years ago and it wasn't bad at all.  There is 1 c/o that says "spread them wider"  but that is it!  No fingers in there!  God, people really twist things around.  I was able to eat all I wanted at work in the kitchen and gained a lot of weight down there, mostly muscle because the weight room was like a powerhouse gym!  The whole joint has a/c.  They sell ice cream on commissary.  There is no fence or guard towers.  Some c/o's are complete *******s, others are very nice people, just like any other joint.  I've been to 5 prisons and tamms work camp was one of the best places to do time.

[allgone]

I'm glad it was a good place for you.  However what I was told is not overexaggerated.

[Still love my son]

Allgone...I'm confused is your love one there or NOT there?
Your posts are confusing.
In one post you say, I will let you know what I find out about the place after he gets there, then in another post you say the place is so horrid I'm glad my loved one is NOT there.

 

[allgone]

Oh sorry.  He was there and is no longer there.

[superb86]

I'm sorry but I refuse to believe that they made inmates  stick there fingers up there asses and then put them in there mouths.  If an inmates actually listened and did it then there just as screwed up as the guards.  Where are you getting your info?  I lived in tamms for 6 months.

[allgone]

Im getting the information from my loved one who was here and has since moved.  This happended right in front of him to a young inmate.  I know that my LO never had any stories like this at any where else he's been.  Whenever I heard stories like this, I always thought they were not true because he kept telling me things like that didn't really happen. 

Until they actually did, right in front of him.  This wasn't even the worst of the things that he has seen.  There were so many little cruelties that he's seen.  It is shocking to me and now makes me question all those stories that I've heard and dismissed.  I guess it's hard to believe until it's something that is actually experienced.

So I hope that if anyone's LO does go here, they have Superb86's experience and not my LO's experience.

[superb86]

Did your LO say what the guy did about the co's making him do that?  It just bothers me that not only a c/o would tell the guy to do it but the fact that he actually did it!  They'd have to whoop my ass and take me to seg before I'm gonna put shitty fingers in my mouth.  I'm sure any other convict would feel the same way.

If your for sure it happened then I guess it did, it's just hard to believe because 3 years ago it was a sweet laid back place to do time.  I remember guards buying us snacks from the vending machines and bumming us filtered cigarettes.  And yeah there were some *******s but nothing like your talking about.  I can maybe see them messing with the supermax guys like that as there are a lot of guys back there who killed/injured c/o's in other joints and guys with messed up cases like serial killers and rapists.  The work camp had no sex offenders or murders and you couldn't even be there if you were on psych meds.  It was all petty criminals with short time.  But who knows, things are always changing with idoc!  And usually for the worse!

[pac5401]

My son is at Vienna and just called to say he's being transferred to the Tamms Work Camp.  But he is diagnosed mentally ill, and was not eligible for Boot Camp because of it, so had a medical discharge from Boot Camp.  I'm scared about him going to Tamms at all, the work camp sounds OK, I guess, but why keep him at Vienna for 2 weeks and then move him?  And I'm really worried that they are moving him to the mental health unit and that he misunderstood about going to the Work Camp.  Will he be able to call from the Work Camp?

[Forevermah]

My son is at Vienna and just called to say he's being transferred to the Tamms Work Camp.  But he is diagnosed mentally ill, and was not eligible for Boot Camp because of it, so had a medical discharge from Boot Camp.  I'm scared about him going to Tamms at all, the work camp sounds OK, I guess, but why keep him at Vienna for 2 weeks and then move him?  And I'm really worried that they are moving him to the mental health unit and that he misunderstood about going to the Work Camp.  Will he be able to call from the Work Camp?

The work camps are usually a much more laid back atmosphere and not so restricted, it might be good for him. It is a low security facility.  He will be able to call and write the same, just if you write him now, change his address to Tamms.

[HisGirl]

Pac:

I replied on your other post regarding your son. I am relieved to find out he told you he was being sent to the work camp. Hopefully, he does well there.

[shaela]

my l/o is getting transfered to tamms work camp on tuesday, i was just wondering how does everything work there,do they have to finish ther time out there, or do they get work release sooner.

[Brother James]

My brother has just been transferred from Vienna To Tamms MSU.is this a good move? Is there anyway that he can reduce his sentence or get to work release while he is at Tamms? Are there college classes available? Where can I find more info on how to help him reduce his sentence? Thanks.

[lbattle40]

By any chance does anyone know the name of the field services rep at Tamms MSU? Im trying 2 send off the info for interstate compact transfer.  Thx.

[Marks_guy]

You can just call and ask to speak with field services. They will connect you to that office.