FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 2022
CONTACT: Rev. T.C. Morrow, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or 202-547-1920

Faith Leaders Express Grave Concern and Disappointment in Response to Gov. Newsom Veto of the California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement

SACRAMENTO, CA - Leading religious leaders expressed grave concern and disappointment today following the news of Gov. Newsom’s veto of the California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement, an act which would end prolonged solitary confinement in California prisons, jails and for-profit immigrant detention centers.

Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said, “Governor Newsom missed a golden opportunity to end the torture of solitary confinement in California when he vetoed the California Mandela Act on Solitary. Solitary confinement has been condemned as torture by Pope Francis and faith leaders across the globe. The religious communities and faith leaders who implored the governor to do the right thing this year will recommit to double our efforts in the coming year to ensure that the voices of survivors of solitary and their loved ones are heard: solitary is torture. For the thousands of individuals in California prisons, jails and detention centers who now remain in these living tombs, we will not end this struggle for human dignity and racial justice until the torture stops.”

Weeks before, 37 religious organizations in California, including national faith organizations with a significant presence in California, joined together in delivering a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom to urge him to sign AB 2632, the California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement. If signed into law, California would have joined New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut in legislating strict limits on the use of solitary confinement.

The United Nations, leading medical and mental health experts, and other developed nations broadly recognize the use of prolonged solitary confinement as a form of torture. The California Mandela Act would have applied to jails, prisons, and private, for-profit immigrant detention centers in California, defined solitary confinement as any period of confinement that exceeds 17 hours in a cell, limited the duration any person can be held in isolated conditions, and banned the use of solitary confinement for certain populations.

The full letter, which was delivered to Gov. Newsom on September 14, 2022, is available in PDF and reads as follows:

September 14, 2022

Dear Governor Newsom,

As leading California religious organizations representing a diversity of faith communities throughout our state, we write with a sense of moral urgency to call on you to sign the California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement into law.

This legislation, inspired by the United Nations Nelson Mandela Rules, which defines prolonged solitary confinement as torture, provides an opportunity for California to move to the right side of history in relationship to this critical human rights issue. The United Nations, leading medical and mental health experts, and other developed nations broadly recognize the use of prolonged solitary confinement as a form of torture. And yet in our nation, the practice is commonplace and largely unregulated. Individuals can be held in isolated conditions of confinement for months, years, and here in California, even decades. Yet the tide is turning and in 2022, Connecticut became the third state in the U.S. to ban prolonged isolated confinement legislatively, following New Jersey in 2019 and New York in 2021.

Now is the time for California to keep pace with the national movement to end this devastating practice impacting thousands of incarcerated people, their families and loved ones, and our communities to which they return.

The California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement defines solitary confinement as any period of confinement that exceeds 17 hours in a cell, mandates that facilities document any instance in which solitary is used, and places limits on the duration any person can be held in these conditions. The bill also bans the use of solitary confinement for certain populations including people who are pregnant, have disabilities, or fall within certain age limits.

Our various faith traditions hold in common a belief in the inherent dignity and worth of each human person. Complete isolation violates basic religious values of redemption, compassion, and restorative justice. As religious organizations, we stand in solidarity with the leadership of detained and formerly incarcerated individuals and their families who have worked tirelessly on this issue and have called upon us to join them in this sacred pursuit. In 2013, over 30,000 people organized inside California prisons to protest solitary confinement and communities of faith and religious leaders nationwide expressed their solidarity and support. Today, the California Mandela Act builds upon the decades of work done by detained individuals, activists and organizers to replace the tombs of solitary confinement with rehabilitation, restorative justice, and community.

Solitary confinement is torture. As moral leaders in our state, we call upon you to use the power of your pen to end this destructive practice that violates basic principles of human rights and the inherent God-given human dignity bestowed on all. We urge you to sign the California Mandela Act into law today.

Sincerely,

All Saints Church, Pasadena
American Friends Service Committee
Board of Missions and Social Justice, Arlington Community Church (UCC)
California Catholic Conference
California Council of Churches IMPACT
Congregation Rodef Sholom, San Rafael
Diocese of Fresno, CA
Diocese of Monterey
Diocese of Oakland - Office for Life and Justice
Faith In Action Bay Area
First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, UCC
First United Methodist Church, Pasadena
Friends Committee on Legislation of California
GLIDE, San Francisco
Holy Family Parish, San Jose
Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church, San Jose
Insight Santa Cruz, a Buddhist Center
Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
Jewish Studio Project
Jewish Voice for Peace, Santa Cruz Chapter
Justice Revival
Kanfot Ha'aretz
Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles
Monterey County Methodists for Social Justice
Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Nefesh, Los Angeles
Now We Rise!
Office of Restorative Justice, Diocese of Santa Rosa
Or Hamidbar, Palm Springs
Saints Simon & Jude Catholic Church, Huntington Beach
Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian Church, San Anselmo
Temple Beth El, Aptos
Tri-Valley Cultural Jews (a CSJO community)
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society

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.

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