Dear Friends, Two months ago I joined my fellow New York activists in celebrating our biggest win to date. After an eight-year campaign, activists finally succeeded in getting the NY state legislature to pass our landmark legislation to end solitary. On March 31 it was signed by Governor Cuomo. You can learn more on Thursday, June 10 at 1pm ET during our Lessons from the NY #HALT Solitary Campaign webinar. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act makes New York the second state, after New Jersey, to take unprecedented and historic legislative action banning long-term solitary for everyone in their state prisons and jails. Your contribution to our $30,000 matching challenge during Torture Awareness Month allows NRCAT to keep the momentum going in these two states as we also work to replicate this success nationally. When I started my work at NRCAT nearly four years ago, serious consideration of state legislation to end solitary was virtually unheard of. Now, in 2021, more than 70 pieces of legislation to end some aspect of solitary confinement in state prisons and jails were filed across 32 states. This isn’t a red state or a blue state issue. In 2020-21, seven states passed momentous laws that represent victories in keeping youth and pregnant or postpartum people out of solitary, including Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington. I am a solitary survivor. When I was in solitary confinement in New York prisons, I constantly heard that people on the outside didn’t even care that I existed. After a while I began to believe it – not because it was true, but because solitary robs a person of their ability to hope. Many on the outside fought for me long before I knew they existed, and today I protest and work for change alongside them. Every dollar you give this June will be matched to enable NRCAT to maintain pressure on governors, heads of state correctional institutions, and state legislators to continue to promote sound policy solutions to end solitary confinement in this country. Over the past 10 years, NRCAT has been in the lead on the national movement to end solitary confinement, and we don’t plan on stepping back until we win. Everywhere. Thank you, Johnny Perez
Director, NRCAT’s U.S. Prisons Program
Solitary Survivor |
