NRCAT Press Releases

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 anti-torture group joins call for a just and humane end to California prison inmate hunger strike
Group sends open letter to Gov. Brown, CA Corrections Secretary, signed by nearly 800 clergy, religious leaders nationally

WASHINGTON – This week, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee and the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, joined nearly 800 clergy and religious leaders in issuing a call – via a letter sent yesterday – to California Gov. Jerry Brown and Jeffrey Beard, California Corrections Secretary, that they honor the reasonable demands of prisoners being held in SHU (Security Housing Units) in California. The goal of the letter is to encourage California leadership to meet the inmates’ demands and bring the inmates’ hunger strike to a swift and humane end.

In the religious leaders’ open letter, “A Religious Call for a Just and Humane End to the Hunger Strike in California Prisons,” nearly 800 clergy and religious leaders from across the United States express that they “stand in support of the five demands of the California state prison inmates who have resumed a peaceful hunger strike. These core demands relate to solitary confinement – a practice where prisoners are confined to a small, windowless cell, without sunlight, fresh air, meaningful human contact or constructive activity for many years, even decades.”

As the letter goes on to say, “Our various faith traditions hold in common a belief in the dignity and worth of each human person. Prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement violates the basic religious values of justice, compassion, and healing.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 12, 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 religious leaders support Obama’s efforts to close Guantanamo, ask him to resume transfers and veto attempts to keep Guantanamo open

Washington, D.C. – Forty-three senior leaders of religious denominations and ecumenical organizations sent a letter to President Obama today, encouraging him to resume transfers of detainees out of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and asking him to veto any congressional attempts to keep Guantanamo open. The full text of the letter with the list of signers can be seen here.

In the letter, the religious leaders tell President Obama, “The hunger strike at Guantanamo is an ongoing humanitarian crisis – caused in large part by the despair prisoners at the detention center feel over their continued detention without hope of trial. It is past time for our country to deal with that crisis.”

MEDIA ADVISORY
July 12, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
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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."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2013

CONTACT:
Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
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National advocates for ending torture in U.S. prisons available for interview
NRCAT director of U.S. prisons program, board vice president can comment on California prisoner hunger strike

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the third prisoner hunger strike in California's Pelican Bay, Corcoran and Tehachapi Security Housing Units, begins today, Director of U.S. Prisons Policy and Program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Laura Markle Downton, and NRCAT Board of Directors Vice President, Virginia Classick, are available for interview and comment on torture in U.S. prisons.

As spokespersons for a diverse national coalition of more than 320 U.S. religious organizations, Markle Downton, based at NRCAT's national office in Washington, and Classick, who lives in California, can speak to the significance of the California hunger strike and its implications for the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. Additionally, Markle Downton and Classick will emphasize not only the need for an end to the use of prolonged solitary confinement in California prisons, but also the importance of addressing this devastating practice nationally.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2013

CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
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National interfaith anti-torture group joins 50+ organizations calling on the U.S. to allow UN torture expert to examine use of solitary confinement
Interfaith group issues support following reports of over 80,000 in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons

WASHINGTON – This week, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture joined more than 50 civil and human rights organizations in submitting a letter to U.S. officials calling for the U.S. government to allow the United Nations to conduct a fact-finding mission to examine the use of solitary confinement in detention facilities in the United States.  Though Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, has repeatedly requested such an examination, his requests have been ignored.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, comprised of more than 320 diverse faith-based organizational members across the United States, joined the call for such an examination as part of its ongoing efforts to end the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. jails and prisons. In May, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report was released, concluding that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has failed to evaluate the impact of solitary confinement on institutional safety and the well-being of prisoners, despite a 17 percent increase in its use of solitary confinement between 2008 and 2013. A recent UN report found an estimated 80,000 people are held in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails. In a 2012 report presented to the United States Human Rights Council, Mendez called for a universal prohibition of prolonged solitary confinement exceeding 15 days, and a total ban on the use of solitary confinement for vulnerable populations including persons with mental disabilities and youth, finding its prolonged use a form of torture. 

Media Advisory: June 21, 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

NEXT WEEK: Coalition of religious/human rights groups to demonstrate against torture in Washington, as part of Torture Awareness Month

Events to include keynote by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

Washington, D.C. – As part of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s annual commemoration of Torture Awareness Month, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture will keynote a talk, “Healing a Culture of Torture,” on Tuesday, June 25, at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation. He will discuss his work to investigate and decrease the prevalent use of solitary confinement in prisons at all levels of the American justice system. The following day, NRCAT will join a national coalition of religious and human rights groups for a demonstration against torture in front of the White House. The public witness will focus on the call for the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and an end to indefinite detention.

Both the talk and the public witness are open to the media, and coverage is welcome. Photo and video opportunities will be available, and NRCAT will collect photos and video to distribute afterward. NRCAT representatives also are available for interview. To arrange interviews, please contact Samantha Friedman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (202) 265-3000.

Details on the two events can be found below:

PRESS ADVISORY
June 19, 2013

Contact: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
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SATURDAY in COLUMBIA: Leaders of national faith-based organizations to keynote talk on torture as a moral issue

Columbia, Mo. – The leaders of two national organizations will speak in Columbia on Saturday, June 22, at the Islamic Center of Central Missouri, about why torture is a moral issue. Rev. Richard Kilmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, interfaith and community director at the Islamic Society of North America, will share their views on the critical reasons for ending U.S.-sponsored torture forever.

“There has been too much debate about the efficacy of torture,” Killmer noted. “Torture is immoral, and whether it is justified should not be up for debate. Torture tactics during the United States’ post-9/11 interrogation practices have been detrimental to U.S. security.”

Saturday’s talk will address NRCAT’s ongoing call for the Senate Intelligence Committee to release its 6,000-page report on CIA torture, which it adopted late last year, to the public, so all Americans have access to the facts about the harmful impact torture has had on U.S. security and the United States’ legacy abroad.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 12, 2013

Contact: Samantha Friedman, Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications
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Former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor Keynotes Montgomery County talk on torture as a moral issue

Washington, D.C. – A trio of interfaith and religious organizations today hosted a panel discussion, “Torture is a Moral Issue – Our Issue,” in Derwood, Md. The panel examined what led to the use of torture as U.S. policy, why it is important that the government acknowledge this reality and accept responsibility for its actions, and what steps should be taken to ensure that this deviation from the founding principles of the United States never again becomes policy.

The three co-sponsoring organizations of the event were the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), Pax Christi of St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, and Interfaith Action for Human Rights, which is the mid-Atlantic affiliate of NRCAT.

The panel featured Col. Morris Davis (ret.), who served as Chief Prosecutor at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and is today pushing for the Obama administration to close the facility, and Dr. Stephen Colecchi, Director, Office of International Justice and Peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Colecchi is an outspoken opponent of the use of torture and other coercive interrogation techniques. Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of NRCAT, moderated the panel.

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

National interfaith group asks Hagel to explain Administration’s position on Guantanamo closure
NRCAT writes to Secretary of Defense in response to comments by U.S. SOUTHCOM chief

Washington, D.C. – After Gen. John Kelly, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, recently said that the military is powerless to end the hunger strike at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director, and Linda Gustitus, president, of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, sent a letter today to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. The letter asks him to clarify the Obama administration’s plan for shuttering Guantanamo, as President Obama has promised to do, and suggests that Kelly’s comments do not line up with those by the president, nor will they lead to resolution of the crisis at Guantanamo.

The letter reads, in part:

Media Advisory
May 23, 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

President Obama calls for closing Guantanamo,
says torture “compromised our basic values”
National interfaith group calls on Obama to back words with action

Washington, D.C. – During a speech today at the National Defense University, President Obama committed his administration to working to transfer detainees out of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and condemned torture as compromising our basic values. Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released this statement in response to the speech:

The detainee center at Guantanamo Bay represents both torture, which our government used at the prison, and imprisonment without charge or trial, which is the circumstance most detainees there continue to face. Torture is a grievous sin, and we should not continue the existence of such a prominent symbol of torture. Likewise, prolonged imprisonment without charge, trial or hope of release is contrary to fundamental American values.

President Obama spoke strongly about torture itself today, condemning it as having ‘compromised our basic values.’ People of faith agree with the president and believe that in order to prevent the future use of torture, the public needs to have access to the facts about our government’s past use of torture. These facts are included in a more than 6,000 page report written and adopted by the Senate Intelligence Committee in December. That report remains classified.