PRESS ADVISORY:
October 1, 2012
Contact: Samantha Friedman, office: (202) 265-3000 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
THURSDAY: Town Hall on Solitary Confinement in New York
NEW YORK -- Each year, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) sentences thousands upon thousands of prisoners to spend months, and even years, in Special Housing Units (SHU), where they are subject to extreme forms of isolation and deprivation. Each year, 25,000 people, many of whom will have spent significant amounts of time in a SHU cell, are released from New York prisons to return home. In New York City, the Department of Correction is expanding solitary confinement capacity in the jails – once completed, solitary cells will number 1,215, or approximately one for every 10 incarcerated individuals.
This Thursday, October 4, state and local legislators, advocates, the formerly incarcerated and their families will come together in New York for a town hall discussion about the use of solitary confinement in New York State prisons and New York City jails and avenues for change. The conversation follows the New York Civil Liberties Union’s release tomorrow, Tuesday, October 2, of its report, “Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York’s Prisons.” You may visit http://www.nyclu.org/BoxedIn on Tuesday to see the report and to access exclusive multimedia content and an expansive library of New York SHU data and other documents obtained through open records laws.
Thursday’s event is open to the public, and press is encouraged to attend.
But whether or not you can be there in person, as you continue to report on solitary confinement in the United States -- and the growing level of national attention to this controversial means of housing inmates -- please consider as a source for more information the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, a membership organization of 319 religious organizations committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, which can have drastic negative physical and mental impacts on inmates. Learn more about NRCAT’s work in the field of solitary confinement. Additionally, please view the short documentary film NRCAT produced on solitary confinement, available online.
NRCAT’s executive director, the Rev. Richard Killmer, and NRCAT’s Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program, Heather Rice, are both available for interview.
DETAILS FOR THURSDAY:
Where: Adam Clayton Powell Building, 8th Floor, Conference Room B
163 W. 125th Street at Seventh Avenue
New York, NY
NOTE: You will need to show ID to gain access to the building. If you plan to bring a still or video camera, you will need to give advanced notice to Nate Vogel at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
When: Thursday, October 4 from 6:30-8 p.m.
Endorsed by Correctional Association of New York, Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement, Metropolitan New York Religious Campaign Against Torture, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, New York City Jails Action Coalition, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York State Prisoner Justice Network, Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, Solitary Watch, Urban Justice Center. For more info, please visit www.nyclu.org/boxedin on Tuesday, October 2, www.nyclu.org/event, and http://solitarywatch.com/events/.
///
