Historic Hearing on Prolonged Isolation in Prison Cells

This historic hearing took place under the chairmanship of Senator D*** Durbin, Senate judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday. Sen. Durbin and the panelists presented powerful testimony. Especially disturbing and moving  was the testimony of Anthony Graves, who was wrongly convicted of murder, and  was exonerated after spending 18 years in prison, most of them in solitary confinement. He courageously described in factual and graphic detail how he and his fellow prisoners  were brutally treated, and how such treatment is intentionally used to break down their  spirits, resulting in severe anguish and permanent damage, including suicide, self-mutilation, paranoia and difficulty in adjusting to the world outside. Sen. Durbin stated that over 80,000 of the 2.3 million prisoners are held in isolation, among them children and those with mental illness.

The New York Times has excellent coverage of the hearing. Click on http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/opinion/the-abuse-of-solitary-con....

In our own Commonwealth of Virginia, 500 of the 750 cells at the Red Onion Maximum Security Prison are isolation cells, where prisoners are kept 23 out of 24 hours each day. Recent hunger strikes drew attention to their abysmal treatment.  There is a total of 1,800 isolation cells in the whole of Virginia. Del. Patrick Hope (Arl.) is urging that a study be initiated on the use of isolation in Virginia. Click on: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/va-prisons-use-of-s...

Please contact me at moyaatk@yahoo.com if you'd like to join members of our congregation in working with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and with  Del. Hope, educating ourselves and advocating for the elimination of prolonged isolation in prisons.  

Our church is a participating member of NRCAT, and values its leadership in bringing daylight to the issue of solitary confinement by making it a major part of its platform, and by promoting Tuesday's Senate hearing. To learn more about its significant anti-torture work, click on: http://nrcat.org.