September 24, 2020
Contact: Christopher Gray
cgray@rabengroup.com
757.575.1615
More than 100 medical experts, human rights groups, and faith organizations join Unlock the Box in calling on the CDC to issue clear and consistent guidelines eliminating the use of prolonged solitary confinement as a form of pandemic response
Washington, D.C. — Today, a coalition of more than 100 medical experts, human rights organizations, and faith-based organizations joined the Unlock the Box campaign in issuing a letter calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to revise its current guidance for adult and juvenile correctional facilities to both slow the high rate of COVID-19 transmission, and ensure effective compliance with existing guidelines. Specifically, the letter calls on the CDC to issue guidelines restricting the use of punitive and prolonged solitary confinement as a form of pandemic response at the federal, state and local levels.
“There is an ongoing and accelerating humanitarian crisis occurring in jails and prisons across the nation, and public officials have a legal, ethical and moral obligation to adopt and implement safe and effective strategies in response to COVID-19,” said Jessica Sandoval, Campaign Strategist for the Unlock the Box Campaign. “It is well past time for the CDC to listen to the warnings of medical experts, human rights watchdogs and public health professionals by issuing clear and consistent guidelines restricting the use of solitary confinement and system-wide lockdowns in response to this pandemic. These tactics are proven to be dangerous and ineffective, and with the number of cases quickly rising, we are on the verge of a deeper crisis of unprecedented size and scale.”
Unlock the Box, a national campaign to end the use of solitary confinement, is leading this effort in response to the 500 percent growth in the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1,000 incarcerated individuals have already died of COVID-19, and jails and prisons make up more than 90 percent of the nation’s top pandemic hotspots.
According to the United Nations, the use of solitary confinement for more than 15 days can amount to torture, and the practice should be severely restricted, especially for pregnant women, children and people suffering from serious mental illness.
Many prominent national organizations signed the coalition letter, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights and the NAACP. A number of faith-based organizations also signed the letter, including the First Unitarian Church, Catholic Migration Services, and the Church of Scientology, as well as medical and public health professionals.
The coalition’s letter calls for the CDC’s swift implementation of the following five measures:
The coalition’s letter highlights a June 2020 report by Unlock the Box that details the myriad ways in which under-prepared state and federal corrections officials have failed to develop comprehensive plans for containing the spread of COVID-19 inside their facilities. The report found that prolonged solitary confinement has become the default pandemic response in prison systems across the United States to COVID-19, even while the practice has been shown to increase the spread of the disease. Instead of being tested and provided with adequate medical attention, many incarcerated people demonstrating symptoms are swiftly transferred to solitary confinement where they are deprived of all social contact, receive no information or attention from medical staff, and are subject to unsanitary conditions.
The public health impacts of elevated solitary confinement during the COVID-19 crisis cannot be overstated. As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, the CDC’s failure to take bold action to stem the spread of the virus in correctional institutions could result in thousands of preventable deaths. The CDC must act now to ensure that incarcerated communities receive proper COVID-19 testing and medical attention.
STATEMENTS FROM COALITION MEMBERS
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September XX, 2020
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[ORGANIZATION] joins more than 100 medical experts, human rights groups, and faith organizations in calling on the CDC to issue clear and consistent guidelines eliminating the use of prolonged solitary confinement as a form of pandemic response.
Washington, D.C. — Today, [ORGANIZATION] joined a coalition of more than 100 medical experts, human rights organizations, and faith-based organizations in issuing a letter calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to revise its current guidance for adult and juvenile correctional facilities to both slow the high rate of COVID-19 transmission, and ensure effective compliance with existing guidelines. Specifically, the letter calls on the CDC to issue guidelines restricting the use of punitive and prolonged solitary confinement as a form of pandemic response at the federal, state and local levels.
[QUOTE FROM ORGANIZATIONAL SPOKESPERSON]
The number of people held in prolonged solitary confinement has increased by an estimated 500 percent in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase comes after years of slow but steady declines in the number of people estimated to be held in these conditions. According to the United Nations, the use of solitary confinement for more than 15 days can amount to torture, and the practice should be severely restricted, especially for pregnant people, children and people suffering from serious mental illness.
Numerous medical experts and public health officials have repeatedly warned that solitary confinement exacerbates the spread of the virus, and is not an effective form of pandemic response. More than 1,000 incarcerated individuals have already died of COVID-19, and jails and prisons make up more than 90 percent of the nation’s top pandemic hotspots.
The coalition’s letter calls for the CDC’s swift implementation of the following five measures:
The coalition’s letter highlights a June 2020 report by Unlock the Box that details the myriad ways in which under-prepared state and federal corrections officials have failed to develop comprehensive plans for containing the spread of COVID-19 inside their facilities. The report shows that in addition to prolonged solitary confinement becoming the default pandemic response in many prison systems across the United States to COVID-19, there has also been a systematic failure to institute basic public health measures that could actually prevent the virus’s spread inside these facilities. These include targeted and safe depopulation efforts that would reduce overcrowding and make effective social distancing easier and more effective. Many jails and prisons have also failed to provide critical personal protective equipment, or enough basic sanitization supplies such as hand sanitizer or soap.
“There is an ongoing and accelerating humanitarian crisis occurring in jails and prisons across the nation, and public officials have a legal, ethical and moral obligation to adopt and implement safe and effective strategies in response to COVID-19,” said Jessica Sandoval, Campaign Strategist for the Unlock the Box Campaign. “It is well past time for the CDC to listen to the warnings of medical experts, human rights watchdogs and public health professionals by issuing clear and consistent guidelines restricting the use of solitary confinement and system-wide lockdowns in response to this pandemic. These tactics are proven to be dangerous and ineffective, and with the number of cases quickly rising, we are on the verge of a deeper crisis of unprecedented size and scale.”
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