Collections
Supermax Subscriptions / Temporary Services, Tamms Year Ten, and Sarah Ross
Prints
FA.B121.2271
5.5 x 8.5 in; 14 x 20.4 cm
2012
Offset printed poster about the "Supermax Subscriptions" project and features images of letters received from individuals held at the Tamms prison in Illinois. CBA copy 1. In 2008, a group of collaborators gather in Chicago to sign, address and send letters to every prisoner in Illinois' Tamms C-Max Supermax Prison. In their correspondence they asked the men if they wish to participate in "Supermax Subscriptions," a program that exchanges frequent flier miles with magazine subscriptions for individuals in solitary confinement. These men remain in their private cells for 23-24 hours a day, without any contact with the outside world -- no phone calls, community programs, work, or library. Many have been there for over a decade, despite the state's original intent to hold prisoners in the facility for up to two years. Responses to the letters came in almost immediately -- Tamms' prisoners wrote with their subscription preferences and the organizers matched them up with mileage donors. With simple parameters, this project exposes the inhumanity of maximum-security facilities, while enabling individuals to infiltrate these secluded confines and make a meaningful contribution to the lives of those forgotten within these walls.
CBA has two copies.
CBA has two copies.