FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2015
CONTACT: Benny Witkovsky, West End Strategy Team: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; (o) 202-776-7700, (c) 202-765-4290

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Wednesday, March 11, at the invitation of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), Robert Dellelo testified at the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections public meeting about his experiences having served more than 50 years behind bars. More than a decade of those years was spent in solitary confinement, recognized as a form of torture under international human rights standards. Mr. Delello's submited testimony is available here.

Accompanying Mr. Delello at the Colson Task Force meeting was Rev. Ron Stief, executive director of NRCAT. Inspired in large part by Mr. Delello's story and counsel, NRCAT has worked since 2009 to mobilize the faith community to advocate for an end to the torture of solitary confinement, advancing interfaith participation in campaigns nationwide.

In April 1964, Dellelo entered MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole, Mass., having been sentenced to life in prison, and with a seventh grade education. In November 2003, having overturned his life sentence, he left prison with a bachelor's degree and a major in sociology. He became a certified paralegal shortly after his release. While in Walpole, he was the first president of the Prisoner's Union (National Prisoners Reform Association), and chairman of the Inmate Council that preceded the NPRA. He also founded an AIDS education program, and ran the prison library. His experiences are featured in When the Prisoners Ran Walpole, by Jamie Bissonette.

Since his release, Dellelo has become an advocate for rehabilitation and the rights of the incarcerated, testifying before the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Corrections Reform, addressing state lawmakers at the Massachusetts Legislative Education Day at the State House, and testifying at numerous legislative hearings. He has spoken to audiences at Harvard University, Boston College Law School, Northeastern University School of Law, and at various church groups and advocacy organizations.

Dellelo now serves as Program Assistant at the Criminal Justice Program of the American Friends Service Committee in Massachusetts.

Today, Dellelo offered his recommendations to the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections, informed by his experiences as a 73-year-old who has survived conditions of long-term solitary confinement and decades in confinement, from reform schools to Massachusetts state prisons, to federal prisons in Marion, Illinois, and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

Speaking on his experience in long-term isolation, Dellelo said:

"I heard men crying at night. Anger, hate and rage totally consumed me. My greatest fear was losing my mind and disconnecting from reality. My mind would dwell in panic and violent fantasies completely uncharacteristic of my personality. I watched other men snap. Many would just start screaming, others self mutilated and took their own lives. It's still quite difficult recalling the experience and the terror I experienced in my mind, day in and day out. To this day, I experience panic attacks when in large crowds. I witnessed large numbers of mentally ill prisoners end up in segregation -- or solitary confinement -- simply because they could not function in the prison environment."

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, stated in a 2011 report that solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should "be subject to an absolute prohibition" based on scientific evidence of its psychological damage, noting that some of the psychological effects caused by isolation become irreversible after 15 days. Further, he called for an absolute prohibition against the use of solitary confinement for the most vulnerable, including individuals with mental illness and youth. Yet incarcerated adults and youth in the federal Bureau of Prisons are held in these conditions for months, years, even decades.

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.
NRCAT.org     @NRCATtweets     facebook.com/nrcat

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