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National interfaith anti-torture group joins call for a just and humane end to California prison inmate hunger strike
Group sends open letter to Gov. Brown, CA Corrections Secretary, signed by nearly 800 clergy, religious leaders nationally
WASHINGTON – This week, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee and the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, joined nearly 800 clergy and religious leaders in issuing a call – via a letter sent yesterday – to California Gov. Jerry Brown and Jeffrey Beard, California Corrections Secretary, that they honor the reasonable demands of prisoners being held in SHU (Security Housing Units) in California. The goal of the letter is to encourage California leadership to meet the inmates’ demands and bring the inmates’ hunger strike to a swift and humane end.
In the religious leaders’ open letter, “A Religious Call for a Just and Humane End to the Hunger Strike in California Prisons,” nearly 800 clergy and religious leaders from across the United States express that they “stand in support of the five demands of the California state prison inmates who have resumed a peaceful hunger strike. These core demands relate to solitary confinement – a practice where prisoners are confined to a small, windowless cell, without sunlight, fresh air, meaningful human contact or constructive activity for many years, even decades.”
As the letter goes on to say, “Our various faith traditions hold in common a belief in the dignity and worth of each human person. Prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement violates the basic religious values of justice, compassion, and healing.”
Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, comprised of more than 320 diverse faith-based organizational members across the United States and one of the three organizations to bring religious leaders together for this initiative, said, “The reasonable demands of those engaged in the California hunger strike include an end to the egregious use of solitary confinement in California, which currently includes punishing all inmates of a particular racial or ethnic group for one individual’s behavior, as well as access to educational programming currently denied to people in solitary confinement.”
Laura Markle Downton, director of U.S. Policy and program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said, “The damage of long-term solitary confinement is a violation of human dignity and is of grave concern to the faith community. These conditions of confinement violate basic human rights and impact not only prisoners, but also their families and loved ones. We stand with all who are harmed by this misapplication of power and urge Governor Brown and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to honor the prisoners’ peaceful demands for an end to torture. Torture is antithetical to rehabilitation.”
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture advocates for eliminating the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. federal and state prisons. More information on NRCAT’s work in the field of solitary confinement is available at nrcat.org, as is the organization’s short documentary film on solitary confinement. In 2010 NRCAT partnered with a diverse coalition of organizations in Maine to push for the successful passage of a resolve by the state legislature requiring the Department of Corrections to review its solitary confinement policies and procedures. As a result of the review and its recommendations, the solitary confinement population in Maine has been reduced by more than 70 percent. Momentum to halt the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. prisons continues to build nationally, with the first-ever Congressional Hearing on the use of prolonged solitary confinement convened by Senator Dick Durbin (IL) in 2012. Following the hearing, in February of this year, the Federal Bureau of Prisons agreed to the first-ever independent and comprehensive assessment of its use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. federal prisons.
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 320 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.
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