For Immediate Release: July 22, 2011
Contact: Samantha Friedman, office: (202) 265-300 or cell: (202) 215-9260 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to California state prison inmates’ announcement today that they have called an end to a three-week hunger strike, Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement, calling attention to the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. state and federal prisons:

“Hunger strikes are the last resort of prisoners protesting inhumane conditions.  At Pelican Bay State Prison, the epicenter of the California prison hunger strike, hundreds of prisoners are held in prolonged solitary confinement, a practice that qualifies as torture due to its destructive physical and psychological effects.  Inmates in California voluntarily starved themselves for the last three weeks in order to protest these inhumane conditions.

With the reported end of the hunger strike, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture will work with our partners in California to continue urging California state prison officials to take good faith steps to end the use of prolonged solitary confinement.

While the hunger strike in California is over, the fight to end prolonged solitary confinement continues all across the country.  More than 36,000 people in U.S. state and federal prisons are currently being held in prolonged solitary confinement.  These prisoners are held in cells by themselves for up to 23 hours a day.  Some are kept isolated for months, years, or even decades.

NRCAT is a coalition of religious organizations committed to ending torture sponsored or enabled by federal or state government in the United States.  As people of faith, we believe that our country has an obligation to respect the inherent God-given dignity of all human beings.  Holding people in solitary confinement for years and decades until they become mentally broken is immoral.  We call upon fellow people of faith to join us in demanding that officials at both the federal and state levels work to end prolonged solitary confinement.”

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture asks people of faith to sign its statement calling for an end to prolonged solitary confinement across the nation.  The statement is available at www.nrcat.org/end-solitary .