Attorney to Launch Campaign Against Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) will launch a campaign to combat the prolonged use of solitary confinement in New Jersey prisons at a wine and cheese reception in Princeton on January 8 at 187 Library Place.  

U.S. Representative Rush Holt will be special guest at the event, which will run from 4:30 to 6:30p.m.  

International human rights attorney Scott Horton will discuss “Popular Support for U.S. Torture:  Why It is Rising in the Most Recent Polls and What Can Be Done About It.”  A 15-minute film introducing NRCAT’s work on solitary confinement will also be shown.

Princeton theologian George Hunsinger formed NRCAT in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal to address U.S. torture abroad.  Since its founding in 2006, more than 310 religious organizations have become members, including representatives from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Catholic, evangelical Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox Christian, mainline Protestant, Quaker, Sikh and Unitarian Universalist communities.  

NRCAT successfully lobbied for an executive order halting the use of torture of post-9/11 detainees, participated in campaigns against anti-Muslim bigotry and continues to work for policies to encourage other countries to take concrete steps to end torture.

NRCAT is dedicated to ending human rights abuses in U.S. prisons, with a specific focus on the widespread use and abuse of solitary confinement

Hunsinger said NRCAT focuses on U.S. prison practices because “abuses are widespread and out of sight, out of mind is not an acceptable moral stance.”

“It is time for religious communities to speak to this issue and to challenge the unthinking vengeance that dominates cultural attitudes towards prisoners,” he said.    

NRCAT works with other organizations, including the ACLU, to pass state legislation to limit the use of isolation cells in prisons.     

Horton served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, among other activists in the former Soviet Union. Horton recently led a number of studies of abuse issues associated with the conduct of the war on terror for the New York City Bar Association, where he chairs the Committee on International Law.  

Tickets for the January 8 event may be reserved at www.nrcat.org/princetonevent or purchased at the door.  For more information, contact Professor George Hunsinger at george.hunsinger@ptsem.edu.