Dems want inmate legislation

A trio of House Democrats say they want to introduce legislation designed to restrict the time inmates can be held at the Tamms Correctional Center. The bill would limit inmate stays at the southern Illinois facility to one year in most cases and would keep the state from transferring prisoners there who have serious mental illnesses. It would also require a quarterly assessments about whether each prisoner should remain in the state's only super-maximum prison facility. State Representative Julie Hamos is an Evanston Democrat who is among the measure's proponents. She says the prison needs better standards. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections says it will study the proposed legislation, but says inmates in the facility are violent offenders who don't belong in the general population.