MEDIA ADVISORY
March 3, 2014
CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team
Office: (202) 776-7700 or cell: (202) 215-9260 or
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TUESDAY: Representative of national interfaith human rights organization to deliver testimony at Maryland Senate hearing on solitary confinement
ANNAPOLIS – As part of a Maryland State Senate hearing on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, to discuss legislation to study the use of solitary confinement in Maryland prisons, Laura Markle Downton, Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, will deliver testimony.
In her testimony, Laura Markle Downton will spotlight the continuing national and state-level human rights crisis faced by tens of thousands of adults and children held in conditions of long-term isolation in prisons, jails and detention centers at the federal, state and local level. On any given day, approximately 8.5 percent of people incarcerated in Maryland prisons are confined in conditions of solitary confinement.
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WHAT: Maryland State Senate hearing on Senate Bill 0861: Corrections – Isolated Confinement Study
WHEN: Tuesday, March 4, at 1 p.m.
WHERE: 2 East, Miller Senate Building, Annapolis, Md.
WHO: Speakers including Laura Markle Downton, Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program, National Religious Campaign Against Torture
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has been vocal in its opposition to solitary confinement on moral grounds. Last week, the organization submitted written testimony to Congress in advance of a Congressional hearing Feb. 25, on solitary confinement at the federal level, “Reassessing Solitary Confinement II: The Human Rights, Fiscal and Public Safety Consequences.”
“Maryland’s usage rate of solitary confinement is considered high compared to other states and is fundamentally antithetical to rehabilitation,” said Laura Markle Downton, Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is calling on Maryland lawmakers to honor their commitments to state, Constitutional and international standards of human rights by confronting the use of solitary confinement in Maryland facilities. I will highlight developments in states that have implemented significant reductions in their use of isolation following studies like that proposed in Maryland, including Maine, New Mexico and Colorado. The proposed study bill in Maryland is an important step in the state following broad national recognition that solitary confinement is immoral, fiscally wasteful, endangers institutional and community safety, and must be brought to an end.”
Laura Markle Dowton’s full testimony is available online at nrcat.org.
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.
www.nrcat.org @NRCATtweets facebook.com/nrcat
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