NRCAT Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 15, 2018
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Interfaith Coalition Applauds NY Assembly inclusion of HALT Act in Criminal Justice Legislative Package

WASHINGTON, DC -  Joining with partners throughout New York state, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture applauds the New York Assembly for including the Humane Alternatives to Long Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act (A.3080) in its criminal justice reform package.

Prolonged solitary confinement is an internationally recognized form of torture. Nationwide, alternatives to solitary are supported by leading corrections officials and a growing number of state legislatures. In New York, the HALT Act creates alternatives to isolated confinement for any person separated from general population for more than 15 continuous days. It requires that such persons be in a separate secure residential rehabilitation unit – a rehabilitative and therapeutic unit aimed at providing additional programs, therapy, and support to address underlying needs and causes of behavior, with 6 hours per day of out-of-cell programming plus 1 hour of out-of-cell recreation.

The HALT Act also prohibits special populations from placement in solitary confinement, including persons twenty-one and younger, fifty-five and older, and pregnant women.

Johnny Perez, Director of U.S. Prisons Program, said, "The HALT bill will bring relief to more than 5,000 people who are subjected to the torturous conditions in New York by creating meaningful alternatives. For the interfaith members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture throughout New York state, its passage is a moral imperative."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 30, 2018
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faith Coalition Regrets Trump Decision to Continue Indefinite Detention at GITMO

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to President Trump’s State of the Union prix cialis announcement that he would order that prisoners continue to be detained indefinitely without trial in Guantanamo Bay, Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement:

“If President Trump wants to be tough on terrorists, he should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and deprive them of an important recruiting tool. It is a moral outrage that the U.S. continues to spend more than $10 million per detainee each year to keep open a prison that is an international symbol of U.S. torture. Calling for indefinite detention without trial is one of the most un-American things I’ve ever heard in a State of the Union address.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 14, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faith Coalition Condemns U.S. Senate Confirmation of
Torture Memo Lawyer, Steven Bradbury

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to the Senate's 50-47 vote to confirm Steven Bradbury to be General Counsel at the Department of Transportation earlier today, Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement:

"We are disappointed that the U.S. Senate would confirm a lawyer who wrote key legal memos authorizing torture. Torture was against the law then and now, and the brutality that Mr. Steven Bradbury defended violated an act of Congress, the Detainee Treatment Act, that was passed specifically to put an end to the torture program. Multiple

Senators took to the floor to describe Mr. Bradbury's unethical record of defending torture, and the vote to confirm him despite that record demonstrates what is wrong with a Senate that rubber-stamps almost anyone for high level positions in government."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 1, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faith Coalition Opposes Trump's Statement that NYC Attack Suspect
May be Sent to Guantanamo Bay Prison

Washington, DC – In response to President Trump's statement that he may send Sayfullo Saipov, the man suspected of killing 8 people on a bike path in New York City, to Guantanamo, Rev. Ron

Stief, Executive Director at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, released the following statement:

"In this day of mourning, we must unify as a people, holding fast to our shared values and demanding justice – not revenge – for the attack in New York City. Indefinite detention without trial in Guantanamo is un-American, illegal, immoral, and is no way to bring justice for the victims of this attack. The suspect should be tried in accordance with U.S. law, not sent to Guantanamo where he may never face the legal consequences of his actions.

Every American should resist the calls of those who are using this tragic event to divide us by blaming immigrants, Muslims, or refugees for this attack. Now is not the time to look for scapegoats, rather it is a moment to stand together in unity against acts of senseless violence."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NRCAT Welcomes Johnny Perez as Director of U.S. Prisons Program

Washington, DC - The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is pleased to announce that Johnny Perez will join the NRCAT team as Director of U.S. Prisons Program. Beginning on October 16, Mr. Perez takes over the role from Rev. Laura Markle Downton who has overseen tremendous growth in NRCAT's U.S. Prisons Program since she joined the staff in 2013. Rev. Downton continues with NRCAT in the role of Campaign Strategist, shifting to more writing and fundraising to assist all of NRCAT's program areas.

On any given day, it is estimated that between 80,000 to 100,000 incarcerated people, disproportionately adults and youth of color, are held in solitary confinement in the U.S. That number does not include people in local jails, juvenile facilities, or in military and immigration detention. NRCAT's U.S. Prisons Program is focused on making visible this hidden torture of solitary confinement, and working to replace it with restorative alternatives rooted in human dignity.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 6, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Anti-Torture Events in Washington State in September

Washington, DC - In August, a settlement was reached in the ACLU’s civil case against the two psychologists who designed and implemented the CIA's post-9/11 torture program.  The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is glad for the small measure of accountability representated by this settlement with James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen.

NRCAT is pleased to co-sponsor the following events with the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture and other partners.  Originally scheduled to coincide with the anticipated court dates for the case, recent actions of the Trump Administration make it as important now as ever to resist the use of torture.

• September 6 at the Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane - The Legal Obligation to Prevent and Prosecute Torture with keynote by Juan Mendez, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.  This will be live-streamed if you cannot join in person.
• September 9 in Spokane - Why Torture is Wrong with keynote by Curt Goering, Executive Director, Center for Victims of Torture and response by Rev. Rich Lang, District Superintendent, Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church, Seattle District.
• September 26 at the University of Washington Law School in Seattle - Panel discussion on the Moral and Political Obligation to Resist Torture. Speakers: John Kiriakou, former CIA whistleblower who first made public the CIA's use of
  acheter viagra
  waterboarding, will discuss the role of internal dissenters. Lisa Hajjar, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, scholar and author, will discuss the legal resistance to torture. Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), will discuss the importance of resistance from the position of human rights and faith-based organizations. Rob Crawford, co-founder of the Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture (WSRCAT) and Professor Emeritus from the University of Washington, Tacoma, will discuss grassroots resistance to torture.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 8, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Faith Communities Join in Call for a Faithful Budget

Washington, DC - The National Religious Campaign Against Torture joins over thirty national denominations and organizations in calling for a faithful budget advancing the notion, as described in the preamble of the faithful budget document, that:

"Government of, by and for the people is a vital forum for promoting the common good, cultivating basic virtues, and ensuring that no one is left behind. All of us have something to contribute to our life together, and none of us is excluded from our circle of mutual care and concern."(I)

The full text of the preamble is below and sections of the document can be downloaded here:

• Faithful Budget (Full Document)
• Faithful Budget Preamble
• Criminal Justice
• Domestic Human Needs
• Environment
• Foreign Assistance
• Health Care
• Immigration
• Native Americans
• Paying for a Faithful Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Washington, DC – In a decision earlier today, the Supreme Court gave President Trump permission to reinstate a portion of his controversial travel ban. Called a "Muslim Ban" because President Trump's order affects only people from majority Muslim countries, the portion of the ban that was re-instated only applies to people who do not have a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States. In practice this means that refugees - those fleeing violence and terror without pre-established international connections in the U.S. - will be the group most affected by the new version of President Trump's Muslim Ban.

Matt Hawthorne, Policy Director at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, had this to say about the ruling: "For a country built by immigrants to turn its back on refugees fleeing violence and terror is not only hardhearted, it's wrong. The Supreme Court's decision to reinstate a portion of the President's Muslim Ban fails to respect the core values of this great country - a country that enshrined freedom of religion in its Constitution. In light of this ruling, I hope that President Trump will be moved by compassion for children who have been displaced by terrible wars and other conflicts and reconsider his effort to ban refugees."

NRCAT shares this press release from Muslim Advocates, Center for New Community, and Muslim Public Affairs Council.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2017
Contacts:  Scott Simpson,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 202.735.1984; Lindsay Schubiner,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 202.810.4375

129 Groups Urge Mayors to Disavow Anti-Muslim Marches

A coalition of 129 national and local organizations sent letters to 29 mayors in advance of anti-Muslim marches scheduled in their cities on Saturday, June 10. 
 
The letters call on the mayors to embrace “values of pluralism, diversity, and liberty for all while firmly rejecting the forces of hate and bigotry that seek to divide us.” Click here to see the letters addressed to the mayors of all 29 cities.
 
A series of anti-Muslim marches are being held in 29 cities to coincide with the Ramadan holiday and are being hosted by a hate group called ACT for America. As documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Facebook pages for the marches include violent and racist rhetoric.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 6, 2017
CONTACT: T.C. Morrow, (202) 547-1920 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

U.S. Faith Coalition Condemns Effort to Bury the Truth about Torture

Washington, DC – In a statement released today, Rev. Ron Stief, Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, condemned Senator Richard Burr's effort to bury the truth about torture by having the Trump Administration return its copies of the full Senate Torture Report:

“The truth is that torture is not only immoral, it's also illegal and ineffective. Instead of learning from the past, the Trump Administration has decided to comply with Senator Richard Burr's effort to bury that truth by returning copies of the full Senate Torture Report to the Senator. We hope both Senator Burr and the Trump Administration reconsider this poor decision, and ask themselves, what do they have to fear from reading the Torture Report? What do they have to fear from the truth?"