“Companionship or Death”: Jewish Engagement With the Injustice of Solitary Confinement
The title of this post is the title of an article by Johns Hopkins student and Solitary Watch reporter/researcher Rachel M. Cohen, originally published on the website New Voices. It documents one part of the growing resistance to solitary confinement in the religious community, much of it spearheaded by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.
If community is a foundation of Jewish life, what does Judaism have to say about solitary confinement, the forcible separation of a person from the community?A few months ago I began an internship with Solitary Watch, an investigative news organization dedicated to reporting on solitary confinement.Once I got started, I became interested in learning more about the work the American Jewish community organizes around this issue.
It turns out there is a lot of work being done, though it started quite recently. Beginning in 2012, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights (recently renamed from Rabbis for Human Rights-North America), a coalition of 1,800 rabbis, and Uri L’Tzedek, a prominent liberal Modern Orthodox social justice organization, have both made the issue of solitary confinement a prominent part of their advocacy efforts.
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment where individuals are subjected to approximately 22-24 hours per day of isolated lockdown in tiny cells. Many Americans mistakenly believe that solitary confinement is used sparingly, only for the most dangerous or threatening prisoners. However, according the American Civil Liberties Union, there are more than 80,000 men, women and children currently in some sort of solitary confinement in United States prisons. Many have a mental illness or cognitive disability, and the majority has been placed there for nonviolent violations of prison rules.
The costs of solitary confinement are much higher than housing inmates in the general prison population. Mississippi recently reduced the number of prisoners it holds in solitary from 1,000 to about 150, and closed down their high-security Supermax unit. According to the ACLU, the reforms are saving Mississippi’s taxpayers approximately $8 million per year.
That economic perspective on solitary confinement is important, but there is a moral perspective to consider as well – and that is where the religious community can add a unique voice to the national conversation.
“We’re looking to provide some moral weight to the solitary confinement conversation by applying Jewish values,” said Shlomo Bolts, a prison consultant from Uri L’Tzedek.
“Sympathy for prisoners is not the most common sentiment amongst the American public. People do not want to be seen as weak or soft on crime,” said Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. “In the Torah however, it clearly says that if someone asks for forgiveness three times and you don’t forgive them, then the onus is on you. In Judaism we believe in repentance and that punishments don’t go on forever.”
While Uri L’Tzedek and T’ruah approach the issue of solitary confinement from a distinctly Jewish perspective, the scope of both groups’ work on the issue extends well beyond the Jewish community.
“We don’t want to make this a Jewish issue. We want to make it an American issue. As Americans we’re allowing for it to happen, we’re paying for it with our tax dollars,” said Kahn-Troster.
“We want to apply the Jewish values we learn to help all people,” said Bolts.
As California Implements Some Solitary Confinement Reforms, Prisoners Remain Skeptical
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had begun the process of implementing reforms the Department has crafted over the past year addressing the long-term solitary confinement of gang members in the California prison system. California currently holds over 3,000 inmates in segregation units due [...]
Twelve Years in Solitary, and “Still in Illegal Limbo”
Guest Post by Bret Grote Click here to listen to an interview on Paul Rogers with advocate Lois Ahrens and sister Kharla Rogers. Paul Rogers has spent more than 4,300 consecutive days – over 12 years – locked behind a solid steel door in the bowels of a Pennsylvania prison. He spends twenty-four hours a day [...]
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Suicide in Solitary: The Life and Death of Armando Cruz (Part 2)
On December 26, 2008, Armando Cruz was admitted to Mercy Hospital of Folsom following an attempted self-castration. He had “wrapped strips of sheets/shirts around base of scrotum and has been tightening them over the past three days because ‘I am on a mission,’” according to a Clinical Report by a physician who examined him. Cruz [...]
Suicide in Solitary: The Life and Death of Armando Cruz (Part 1)
On September 20, 2011, at 10:55 pm in the Psychiatric Services Unit of California State Prison, Sacramento, a guard was completing his rounds checking on patients in the unit. Locked in solitary confinement, but allowed 10 hours of recreation a week as well as some group activities, prisoners held in these units have been diagnosed [...]
As Washington State Prisons Begin Reforms, 800 Remain in Solitary Confinement
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Indiana’s Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners in Solitary Confinement Violates Constitution
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Photography Exhibition Highlights Children in Solitary
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Brandon Green, Chronicler of Solitary Confinement
Since first appearing in an October 16th, 2010 Voices from Solitary post, Utah State Prison, Draper, prisoner Brandon Green has been a consistent and prolific chronicler of “the vortex” that is the supermax Uinta One facility. Over 90 inmates are held in solitary confinement in the facility, where inmates are held in 8×6 cells for up to [...]
Voices from Solitary: “That’s the Only Mail I Get…”
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Voices from Solitary: Haunted by Memory’s Ghosts
The following account comes from our faithful reader Alan CYA #65085. He recalls time spent, more than 40 years ago, in a juvenile jail in California–and a Christmas spent in solitary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]
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Santa Was in Prison and Jesus Got the Death Penalty
This post has become a Christmas tradition at Solitary Watch. To all our readers, warm wishes for the holidays. As Christmas is celebrated in Incarceration Nation, it’s worth remembering certain things about the two figures who dominate this holiday. As more than 3,000 Americans sit on death row, we revere the birth of a man who [...]
Support Our Holiday Project: “Lifelines to Solitary”
Many, many thanks to those of you who have generously given to our “Lifelines from Solitary” Project so far. We have already raised more than a thousand dollars to help us send cards, letters, and newsletters to nearly 500 people in prison–most of them in solitary confinement. With your help we’ve been able to send [...]
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