FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 29, 2025
CONTACT: Rev. T.C. Morrow, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and 202-547-1920

Statement Following Signing of the “Laken Riley Act"

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture joined the undersigned partners in the Federal Anti-Solitary Taskforce (FAST) in releasing this statement following the signing of the “Laken Riley Act.”

We strongly condemn the President and Congress for enacting the Laken Riley Act, as it significantly expands the inhumane practice of immigration detention and will further fuel devastating mass deportations. It mandates the detention of individuals--including children and teenagers--arrested for, charged with, or convicted of theft-related offenses. This unconstitutional requirement for mandatory detention will not only cause grave harm to countless people, but also further strain overcrowded and inhumane detention facilities. These policies will only expand the torturous and deadly use of solitary confinement.

This law forms a perfect storm in the midst of executive actions that call for caging and deporting as many people as possible in already overcrowded immigration detention centers, tent cities, military bases, and the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention center; commandeering state and local law enforcement to harass and detain people regardless of their legal status; suspending the refugee resettlement program; forcing incarcerated transgender individuals into facilities counter to their gender identity—and specifically in solitary confinement; and ordering confinement of individuals on death row in the cruelest possible conditions of solitary confinement.

Rather than promoting safety and accountability, the actions of this administration have been cruel and self-serving, and will perpetuate cycles of suffering and injustice that affect our country's most vulnerable populations, including by expanding the use of torture through solitary confinement and other abusive carceral practices, separating and devastating families and communities, and caging and deporting massive numbers of people.

The Federal Anti-Solitary Taskforce (FAST) aims to end solitary confinement in federal prisons and detention facilities, as well as in states, and is made up of civil rights, human rights, faith, and health organizations and leaders. Its members include people who have survived or had family members in solitary confinement, and their allies.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Center for Constitutional Rights
The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (#HALTsolitary NYCampaign)
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Unlock the Box: The National Campaign to End Solitary Confinement
Zealous

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.

###