FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 19, 2014
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National interfaith human rights organization submits testimony calling for the New York City Department of Correction to promote treatment, not solitary confinement
TODAY: New York City Board of Corrections hearing open to media
WASHINGTON, D.C. –The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, long committed to ending long-term solitary confinement in the nation’s prisons and jails based on moral objections to the practice from its membership base of hundreds of diverse religious groups across the country, today submitted testimony calling on the New York City Department of Correction to promote a treatment model that ends the use of solitary confinement.
The Board of Correction will hold a public hearing today, to which media are invited.
Details:
WHAT: New York City Board of Correction Hearing
WHERE: Auditorium, Ground Floor, 455 1st Ave. (between E. 26th and 27th Streets), New York
WHEN: 9 a.m. Friday, December 19, 2014
In her testimony, Rev. Laura Markle Downton, director of U.S. prisons policy and program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, writes:
As people of faith, we are deeply disturbed that the Board of Correction (BOC) has abandoned its plans to issue rule-making to reduce the use of solitary confinement in New York City. We are gravely concerned about the NYC Department of Correction’s request for approval for the creation of ‘Enhanced Supervision Housing Units’ (ESHU), a highly restrictive housing unit that is punitive, not therapeutic. This is a move in the wrong direction.
Whether you refer to it as solitary confinement, “punitive segregation,” “the box,” or “the bing,” — being locked in a cell 22-24 hours a day in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers rises to the level of torture under international human rights standards, and violates basic religious values of community, restorative justice, compassion, and healing. It is immoral, and serves no rehabilitative purpose. …
Faith-based members that belong to NRCAT are united in opposing treatment that violates our values as people of faith. We join with colleagues across New York and
nationwide to work together to bring an end to the torment of solitary confinement, recognizing its consequences are particularly devastating to young people and individuals who enter prison and jail with mental illness, and recognizing that no one should be subjected to long-term solitary confinement, a practice that itself causes mental illness, literally changing the brain chemistry of those subjected to it. …
With the recent release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA torture, the nation’s attention and conscience has been riveted by the immorality of torture of those held in prisons – secret or otherwise. …
As we respond with horror to the details of the newly released report on CIA torture, we know that the torture of solitary confinement persists with impunity each day in New York City jails.
Rev. Downton will deliver her testimony in person at the hearing and is available for interview.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has been vocal in its opposition to solitary confinement on moral grounds. Earlier this year, the organization submitted written testimony to Congress in advance of a Congressional hearing on solitary confinement at the federal level, “Reassessing Solitary Confinement II: The Human Rights, Fiscal and Public Safety Consequences.”
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 300 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.
www.nrcat.org @NRCATtweets facebook.com/nrcat
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