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National interfaith anti-torture group supports Florida State Senate bill to limit solitary confinement of juveniles
Interfaith group’s feedback comes in advance of today's hearing on the bill

WASHINGTON– Representatives on behalf of a national interfaith anti-torture group will be among those to testify in support of a bill the Florida Senate Committee on Criminal Justice will consider today at a hearing in Tallahassee, Senate Bill 812, known as the “Youth in Solitary Confinement Reduction Act.” S.B. 812 includes provisions that strictly limit the use of solitary confinement both for children under 18 years old and for youthful offenders, defined as those between the ages of 18-24. On behalf of its more than 320 diverse faith-based organizational members across the United States, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture issued its support today for the bill’s passage.

“All major faith traditions include a call to protect the well-being of future generations,” said Laura Markle Downton, director of U.S. prisons policy and program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “Members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture care deeply about eliminating prolonged solitary confinement, particularly for youth. Florida holds more young people under age 18 in adult state prisons than any other state. Once detained in adult prisons, youth are treated as adults. There is no state law in Florida or any Department of Corrections regulation on solitary confinement to differentiate minors from adults. The potential damage to young people is particularly great. We strongly support the passage of Senate Bill 812 as an important step toward eliminating this destructive practice.

“Because youth are still developing, traumatic experiences like solitary confinement can exacerbate, or create short and long-term mental health problems. The most common deprivation that accompanies solitary confinement, denial of physical exercise, is physically harmful to adolescents’ health and well-being.”

NRCAT’s support of the bill comes in advance of a hearing scheduled for today, March 18, convened by the Florida Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.

“We recognize that prolonged solitary confinement denies the essential human need for community and severely disrupts the psychological and social development of youth,” said Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “The damage of solitary confinement upon young people is a violation of human dignity and is of grave concern to the faith community. Senate Bill 812 presents Florida with an important opportunity to address this harmful practice.”

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture advocates for eliminating the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. federal and state prisons. More information on NRCAT’s work in the field of solitary confinement is available at nrcat.org, as is the organization’s short documentary film on solitary confinement. Regarding NRCAT’s success at the state level, in 2010, NRCAT partnered with a diverse coalition of organizations in Maine to push for the successful passage of a resolve by the state legislature requiring the Department of Corrections to review its solitary confinement policies and procedures. As a result of the review and its recommendations, the solitary confinement population in Maine has been reduced by more than 70 percent.

Momentum to halt the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. prisons continues to build nationally, with the first-ever Congressional hearing on the use of prolonged solitary confinement convened by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin in 2012. Following the hearing, in February of this year, the Federal Bureau of Prisons agreed to the first-ever independent and comprehensive assessment of its use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. federal prisons.

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 320 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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