Dear Friends,

This month brings a significant religious convergence. On April 17, Easter, Passover, and Ramadan will overlap. Other holy days will also take place in April including Vaisakhi, Mahavir Jayanti, and Theravada New Year. All of us at NRCAT join you in honoring the interconnectedness of our lives as it inspires us to dig deep into what our unique faith traditions teach us about our justice work and advocacy.

To that end, NRCAT has collected faith statements from many of our national religious organizational members about the moral imperative we hold in common to end the torture of solitary confinement. We invite you to share the statements from this collection with members of your faith community. If your faith tradition or any of your affiliated local or national religious groups have made a statement on ending solitary, send it to us and we’ll add it to our website if it is not already included.

Our various faith traditions hold in common a belief in the inherent dignity and worth of each human person. Complete isolation violates basic religious values of redemption, compassion, and restorative justice. NRCAT has recently launched a national pledge, A Moral Call to End the Torture of Solitary Confinement, that can be shared in educational and advocacy efforts across the country. We urge you to add your name to this effort, as we share from the religious wisdom and secular teachings that call each of us to this work of mending our world.

We are thankful to be partners with you in this sacred work.

With respect and gratitude,

Johnny Perez, Director, U.S. Prisons Program
Laura Markle Downton, Director of Faith and Community Engagement