MEDIA ADVISORY
July 12, 2013
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National interfaith anti-torture group joins organizations across New Jersey in call for end to juvenile solitary confinement
Interfaith group to gather with supporters Monday in Trenton
TRENTON, N.J. – The New Jersey affiliate of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture is joining partners from throughout New Jersey in calling for an end to the practice of placing youth in solitary confinement in juvenile detention facilities in the state. NRCAT representatives will gather in front of the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton on Monday, July 15, to support and discuss this month's filing by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey of the "Petition for Rulemaking." The document, filed this month with the Juvenile Justice Commission of New Jersey, proposes five amendments to the New Jersey Administrative Code, including calling for the cessation of solitary confinement as it is currently used in juvenile detention facilities statewide.
"While solitary confinement has proven to be harmful to people of all ages, it is particularly devastating when used on children and youth," said Laura Markle Downton, director of U.S. prisons policy and program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. "Research concludes that locking children in isolated rooms for 22 to 24 hours a day, often for weeks or months at a time, inflicts a level of trauma that often renders irreparable harm psychologically, developmentally and socially. Although safer, more humane, and more cost-efficient alternatives exist, solitary confinement is nonetheless currently implemented in juvenile detention facilities across New Jersey."
GATHERING OF HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS IN SUPPORT OF THE "PETITION FOR RULEMAKING"
WHEN: Monday, July 8, at 11 a.m.
WHERE: In front of Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex
25 Market Street
Trenton, N.J.
WHO: Representatives from human rights groups including:
- National Religious Campaign Against Torture
- American Civil Liberties Union
- New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
- Rutgers Camden Children Justice Clinic
- American Friends Service Committee
- New Jersey Advocates for Correction, and the People's Organization for Progress.
"All the major faith traditions that comprise our national organization share a call to protect the well-being of future generations," Downton said. "We recognize that placing New Jersey youth in solitary confinement denies their essential human need for community, severely disrupts their psychological and social development, and is associated with high rates of suicide and serious mental health problems.
"Because youth are still developing mentally and physically, traumatic experiences like solitary confinement can exacerbate, or create for the first time, short and long-term mental health problems."
There are outright bans on the punitive solitary confinement of juveniles in Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Additionally, Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana place serious limitations on the use of solitary for juveniles. Legislation to address the practice is in at least six state legislatures, indicating the high level of national concern to see this practice brought to an end.
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. In 2010, NRCAT partnered with a diverse coalition of organizations in Maine to advocate 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 Senator Dick Durbin (IL) 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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