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March 25, 2008
Supermax Subscriptions at Tamms Supermax
Hello all,
Two weeks ago, Supermax Subscriptions sent a mailing asking every man incarcerated at Tamms C-Max unit if they would like to receive magazine subscriptions: free gifts from people with surplus airline award miles that they'd like to exchange for gift subscriptions. Tamms C-Max is a no contact, permanent solitary confinement prison in Southern Illinois. The men have been there for years on end — many for ten years. They have no communal activity, no phone calls, no programs, no education, no work, no librarian, and virtually no reading.
Already, over ten percent of the population has replied to our mailing. The magazine requests are pouring in and we have men who would like to receive everything from Newsweek to the Wall Street Journal to Horse Illustrated. Clearly the need for reading materials is dire and we are excited to start the process of helping these guys out.
Here's where you come in.
1) If you have award miles on Delta or American Airlines, please contact us at:
supermax@temporaryservices.org
Tell us how many miles you would like to donate. The minimum number needed for the least expensive subscription is 400 miles.
2) We will then send you the name, inmate number and address of a prisoner(s), along with his/their subscription requests.
3) You can then log in to your award miles account, find the page that lets you give a gift subscription, fill in the prisoner's information and send them the magazine(s) they've requested. Note that the prisoner will not see your personal information or even who gave them the subscription unless you send them a postal letter. The gift subscription interface can only send the gift recipient an email note, and prisoners at Tamms do not have access to the internet.
4) After you send a gift subscription to a prisoner, PLEASE email us and tell us the name of the prisoner(s) and the magazine(s) you sent. At this point we will note that they have been taken care of to avoid people sending out duplicate subscriptions.
Thank you for your interest and possible participation! If anything is unclear, please don't hesitate to ask!
all the best,
Supermax Subscriptions
[Tamms Poetry Committee, Sarah Ross, Temporary Services (Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin, Marc Fischer)]
More about Supermax Subscriptions: http://www.temporaryservices.org/supsub.html
More about activism against Tamms: http://www.YearTen.org/
Major article about abuses at Tamms on Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/story/80440/
Posted by lois at March 25, 2008 09:36 AM