NRCAT Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 18, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team
Office: (202) 776-7700 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Speaks on Los Angeles Panel on Solitary Confinement in response to historic prisoner hunger strike
Solitary confinement in California prisons, at national level, addressed

LOS ANGELES – As a result of the historic hunger strike in California prisons this summer, a series of state legislative hearings addressing conditions of solitary confinement in California is now underway. In the midst of these hearings, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture joined four other organizations to sponsor a panel today in Los Angeles, that included remarks from Juan Mendez, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, on solitary confinement locally and nationally. Family members of prisoners in solitary confinement active in California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement (CFASC) will speak, as well as representatives from the faith community. The panel was held at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

California holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other state. Last year, more than 300 prisoners submitted a petition to Mendez, alleging that their conditions of confinement violate the United Nations Convention Against Torture. In response, Mendez has requested that the U.S. State Department authorize him to visit prisons in California. That request remains pending.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 9, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team, (202) 776-7700 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National Religious Campaign Against Torture Announces Next Executive Director
Rev. Ron Stief, ordained UCC minister, faith-based organizer, to take helm in January

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s board of directors announced today that it has named the Rev. Ron Stief as its next executive director. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ with a background in faith-based organizing at the community and national levels, Stief comes to NRCAT with significant local and Washington advocacy experience. He will become executive director on January 1, 2014. Stief succeeds the Rev. Richard Killmer, who has served as NRCAT’s first executive director since being named to the role in May 2007. Killmer will retire on December 31.

“The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is blessed to have found someone in Rev. Ron Stief with extensive experience in and knowledge of the interfaith world, human rights, fundraising, development and advocacy,” said Linda Gustitus, president of NRCAT’s board of directors. “He is a man of faith, a man of conviction, and a man with a deep sense of justice. We look forward with confidence and enthusiasm to building on the great work of our organization under Rev. Richard Killmer.”

PRESS ADVISORY October 9, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team, (202) 776-7700 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

TODAY: National interfaith coalition calls for legislative action to end long-term solitary confinement in California, in advance of hearing this afternoon
Solitary confinement in California prisons to be discussed at joint public safety committees hearing today

SACRAMENTO – In advance of a state legislative hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. today to address conditions of solitary confinement in California, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture is gathering local support from religious leaders and people of faith as a part of its national initiative to end the form of imprisonment that it deems constitutes torture. The joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly committees on Public Safety will be held today, Wednesday, October 9, at 1 p.m. at the State Capitol, Room 4202, and is the first in a series of hearings on the issue.

The hearings are being convened in response to this summer’s historic hunger strike in California prisons, in which more than 30,000 prisoners protested the inhumane conditions of their confinement. At least 100 remained on strike for 60 days. Before and after the hearing, rallies will be held outside the State Capitol, coordinated by the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition in collaboration with California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement.

CONTACT: Meredith MacKenzie, West End Strategy Team, (202) 776-7700 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National Interfaith Anti-torture Group Affirms ICE Mandate Limiting Solitary Confinement for Immigration Detainees as Valuable Step

WASHINGTON, DC – This week the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued new directives that will update current detainee policy and procedures regarding solitary confinement. The new directives set limits on the time that civil immigration detainees can be held in solitary confinement. The new policy requires increased consideration for disciplinary confinement and review of those with vulnerabilities, such as mental illness.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Rev. Richard L. Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “The documented physical and psychological effects of solitary confinement are devastating, causing increased rates of mental illness, self harm and even suicide. Such denial of all meaningful human contact violates basic human rights, and has no place in civil detention. As people of faith, we support alternatives to detention and further protections which prevent detainees from being subjected to the indignity of isolation.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, September 5, 2013

CONTACT: Meredith MacKenzie, West End Strategy Team
Office: (202) 776-7700 or cell: (202) 427-2007 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National interfaith anti-torture group applauds historic prisoner hunger strike now suspended in its 60th day
Interfaith group calls on California legislators to take swift action to address the human rights abuses raised by the hunger strike, including prolonged solitary confinement

WASHINGTON – Today, the 60th day of the hunger strike in California prisons, the hunger strike has been suspended.  Since the historic prisoner hunger strike began on July 8, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture has joined with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition and its allies, in calling on Governor Edmund G. Brown of California and Dr. Jeffrey A. Beard, Secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to bring the hunger strike to a humane and just end.

Nationally, religious leaders have expressed strong support for the reasonable core demands of the California state prison inmates on their third peaceful hunger strike, demands related to solitary confinement – a practice in which prisoners are confined to a small, windowless cell for 23 to 24 hours a day, without sunlight, fresh air, meaningful human contact or constructive activity for years, even decades.  In California, nearly 12,000 imprisoned people are held in solitary confinement.  More than 1,000 clergy and religious leaders in California and throughout the United States joined in “A Religious Call for a Just and Humane End to the Hunger Strike in California Prisons” by signing an open letter delivered to Gov. Brown within the first month of the hunger strike. 

PRESS ADVISORY
August 13, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team
Office: (202) 776-7700 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Wednesday: SHU isolation unit to open to visitors outside State Capitol
Clergy, families of prison inmates, Assemblyman Ammiano to call for humane end to California prisoner hunger strike

SACRAMENTO – In support of the California prison inmates who have entered their fifth week on hunger strike, representatives of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture will join tomorrow with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement (families of inmates who are on hunger strike), and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento to show the public the realities of life inside the SHU.

Inviting the public to visit an installation of a life-size mock Security Housing Unit cell on the South Steps of the State Capitol is part of the groups' ongoing ask of Gov. Jerry Brown and California's corrections secretary, Jeffrey Beard, to meet inmates' Five Demands and bring the hunger strike to a swift and humane end.

The cell will be on display and available for the public to visit from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, August 14.

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications, (202) 265-3000 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

California, national people of faith and families of inmates on hunger strike ask Gov. Brown for a just, humane end to prison inmate hunger strike

SACRAMENTO – In support of the California prison inmates who are on a hunger strike, representatives of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture today joined with California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement (families of inmates who are on hunger strike) in Sacramento to ask Gov. Jerry Brown and California’s corrections secretary, Jeffrey Beard, to meet inmates’ demands and bring the hunger strike to a swift and humane end.

On July 8, prisoners throughout California began a peaceful hunger strike to protest the inhuman conditions of long-term solitary confinement. In California, nearly 12,000 people in prison are held in solitary confinement for 23 to 24 hours a day in small, windowless cells without sunlight, fresh air, meaningful human contact or constructive activity for many years, even decades.

People of faith and the California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement gathered today at the State Capitol and together delivered a letter to the Governor, signed by more than 1,000 clergy and religious leaders from across the country, as well as petitions from partnering groups, which ask California officials to meet the core demands of prisoners in the Special Housing Units (SHU) to resolve the hunger strike swiftly.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 26, 2013

Contact: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications, (202) 265-3000 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National Interfaith Coalition Thanks President Obama for Moving to Repatriate Algerian Guantanamo Detainees

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the White House announced that the Department of Defense certified two detainees at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for repatriation to Algeria.

Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said in response:

“Many times this year, the President has publicly committed his administration to closing the prison at Guantanamo. Today, the Obama administration has taken an important step toward following through on the President’s commitment by using the authority he and his administration have under current law to certify two Algerians for transfer out of the detention center."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
Office: (202) 265-3000 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Leaders of national religious groups break fast to close Guantanamo at interfaith Capitol Hill gathering
Breaking of the fast preceded Durbin hearing on closing the detention center

WASHINGTON – A group of religious leaders and people of faith came together at an interfaith gathering today to break their fasts together in anticipation of a Congressional hearing about the possibility of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

The one-day fast, organized by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, began at 12 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, and extended through 12 p.m. today. The participants, who broke their fasts at the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, were joined in fasting by almost 200 other clergy and people of faith from across the country.

The religious leaders who spoke at the break fast gathering included Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture; Virginia Farris, Foreign Policy Advisor, Office of International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Sandra Sorensen, Director, United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries; Maggie Siddiqi, Program Coordinator, Islamic Society of North America’s Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances; Rabbi Charles Feinberg, Adas Israel Congregation; Diane Randall, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation; and Rev. Amanda Poppei, Unitarian Universalist minister, Senior Leader, Washington Ethical Society.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 18, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications, (202) 265-3000 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National anti-torture group opposes force-feeding of mentally competent detainees, calls for independent medical professionals to examine hunger striking prisoners at Guantanamo

WASHINGTON – In response to the force-feeding of hunger-striking detainees at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture today released a statement opposing the force-feeding of mentally competent detainees and calling for independent medical professionals to examine hunger striking prisoners. The statement also says that life sustaining intervention is permissible for detainees who are not mentally competent, but makes clear that such intervention should be focused on restoring those detainees to their full mental faculties. The text of the statement follows:

Today, 166 people are being held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The vast majority have never been tried, convicted or even charged with any crime. More than half of them have been cleared for release or have been approved for transfer. 

The detainees are being held indefinitely. Indefinite detention is not only harmful to the detainees themselves, it also diminishes the moral leadership of our nation, compromises our commitment to the rule of law, and undermines our struggle against terrorism.