On any given day, it is estimated that between 60,000 to 100,000 incarcerated people, disproportionately adults and youth of color, are held in conditions of solitary confinement. That number does not include people in local jails, juvenile facilities, or in military and immigration detention. That number does not tell you their names nor their stories, but it tells the story of a moral crisis.

While the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez stated in his 2011 report that solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should "be subject to an absolute prohibition” based on scientific evidence of its psychological damage. Half of all prison suicides occur in conditions of solitary confinement.

TAKE ACTION >> Write to Your Governor  Join us in calling on your Governor to take steps to ensure that incarcerated people and corrections staff are protected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our sisters and brothers behind bars who are incarcerated and those who work in facilities that house them, deserve protection, dignity and care.

Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center

Guantanamo Bay stands as a stark symbol of U.S. use of torture. Closing the detention facility at Guantanamo is one of the steps needed to end U.S.-sponsored torture forever.

TAKE ACTION>>  Guantanamo Bay is a symbol of our nation’s use of torture. As of August 1, 2020, 40 men are imprisoned at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, including five who are cleared for transfer from the prison. Right now it costs an estimated $13 million dollars per detainee per year to maintain the prison. Even as there are discussions of whether its use should be expanded, we need to keep saying, "No, close it down."