March 25, 20201

IAHR welcomes the news that the State of Virginia has abolished the death penalty. Virginia is the first southern state to do so. The death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment because it discriminates against the poor and people of color. It is cruel and unusual punishment because mistakes and prosecutorial misconduct often mar death penalty decisions. The next step is to ban life sentences without the possibility of parole. It is time for all of us to accept that people can change. https://www.governor.virginia.gov/.../headline-894006-en...

March 5, 2021

Today, I sent the letter below to DC Council Members Mendelson, Cheh, McDuffie, Pinto, and Bonds who are trying to undermine a shelter for the homeless in Ward 7 and a new halfway house for returning citizens from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. CORE DC has contracted both with the District and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to run a homeless shelter in Ward 7 and a halfway house for returning citizens.  The Shelter for the Homeless is up and running and the people it serves seem satisfied with the CORE DC's management.  Separately, CORE DC has contracted with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to manage a halfway house for returning citizens in Ward 7. The halfway house has yet to be built and Councilman Gray is trying his best to prevent it from being built.  To that end he persuaded Council Members Mendelson, Cheh, McDuffie, Pinto, and Bonds to sign a resolution withholding permission from the contractor to build the halfway house. This is another example of our leaders saying they want to support the poor and those who are returning prison but then do the opposite. Here is the letter I sent to the five Council Members.

Dear Council Members Mendelson, Cheh, McDuffie, Pinto, and Bonds:

As the Director of an organization which believes that we all have a responsibility to offer support and guidance to those who have fallen on difficult times, I am deeply troubled to hear that you are supporting an effort among your colleagues on the city council that could result in a disruption to emergency shelter and vital social services for dozens of families experiencing homelessness at a time of unprecedented uncertainty and economic hardship. I am referring to the resolution you have signed along with five other Council Members that aims to terminate the current service provider’s contract to run the short-term housing program at The Horizon in Ward 7.    

As you may know, The Horizon is part of Mayor Bowser’s bold plan to establish dignified, service-enriched programs across all eight wards – a centerpiece of her agenda. At The Horizon’s opening in October 2018, Mayor Bowser said, “With these new short-term family housing programs, we are providing a chance for our families to rebuild their circumstance as they continue to contribute to our greater DC community.”

By all accounts, the existing provider operating The Horizon, CORE DC, has been an ideal partner to the community in making that vision a reality. In fact, it is our understanding that CORE DC was selected to lead a similar short-term housing program in the District, which opened in July of 2020, as well as another DHS program for returning citizens.

At The Horizon, CORE DC provides 35 families experiencing homelessness with safe emergency shelter, case management, and community-based support programs to help them achieve stable and permanent housing. The site also includes computer labs for the residents, outdoor playground and recreational space, age-appropriate indoor recreation space, a homework and a study lounge for residents. Residents of The Horizon are predominantly Black and Brown, and CORE DC’s staff reflects the populations it serves, which is a critical component of building trust.       

The effort to dismantle this program is troubling enough on its own. But it is even worse in light of the fact that CORE DC is planning to open

Monday, February 8, 2021

The Virginia General Assembly is now considering two bills that would restore voting rights to all returning citizens. You may remember that Gov McAuliffe by executive order restored voting rights to 173,000 returning citizens who had been convicted of a felony. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down Gov. McAuliffe's executive order declaring it was unconstitutional. Gov. McAuliffe then restored voting rights individually to over 200,000 returning citizens. Clearly, the right to vote should not be dependent on the political orientation of the Governor. Everyone who has served his or her sentence should be free to vote without exception.  Please support the General Assembly's work on restoring voting rights. Read more about the two bills being considered in yesterday's Richmond's Post-Dispatch.  

February 4, 2021

Please read a very good article about IAHR Board Member David Smith and chair of the Virginia Coalition on Solitary in the Virginian-Pilot.  The article highlights David's time in solitary while he was incarcerated. The article describes SB1301, sponsored by Senator Joseph Morrissey and how the bill will end prolonged isolation in Virginia State Prisons.  

SB1301 has garnered attention in the Virginia Press.  Please read news articles in the Richmond Post-Dispatch and the Progress-Index. 

Virginia Residents: Write your Senator asking him/her to support SB1301 which was a creation of the Virginia Coalition on Solitary. The Coalition Partners include IAHR, ACLU-VA, S.A.L.T. (Social Action Linking Together), and Virginia-CURE. If you don't know offhand your Senator or Delegate click here.  Just enter your mailing address and the names of your Senator and Delegate will come up.  

February 1, 2021

______________________________________________________

Support Virginia Legislation SB 1301 and Maryland Legislation HB 131

Virginia Friends: We need your help! SB 1301 passed its first hurtle. It was voted out of the Virginia Senate’s Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee.  SB 1301’s next step is to pass out of the Virginia Senate’s Finance & Appropriations Committee. Please support our legislation in Virginia by contacting Our bill is scheduled to have a committee hearing on Tuesday or Wednesday, February 2 or 3. It is important that all the letters are sent in by this Tuesday, February 2.  

Maryland Friends: Thank you for sending your letters in support of HB 131 which mandates the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide transitional services to people in restrictive housing (solitary) six months prior to release. HB 131 had a hearing at the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee Tuesday, January 26.  The bill will be voted on by the full House of Delegates sometime within the next ten days.  We are asking you to send a letter of support to your own delegate. See below for details.

See below for the details on the Virginia and the Maryland bills, the link to the bills, and what we need you to do. We have an opportunity to make a difference!

Action Item: Support Virginia Bill SB 1301

The Virginia Coalition on Solitary is advocating for SB 1301 whose patron is Senator Joseph Morrissey (D., District 16).

Some of the major provisions of  SB 1301 include the following:

• No prisoner can be placed in solitary confinement except for providing medical and mental health treatment.
• The bill mandates that a prisoner receive an initial medical/mental health evaluation within eight hours of placement in isolated confinement and comprehensive medical and mental health evaluation within 24 hours.
• A prisoner shall be placed in isolated confinement for up to 48 hours. A prisoner may remain in isolated confinement for another 48 hours only if he or she poses an ongoing threat of physical harm to another person, for a maximum time in solitary of 96 hours.
• Prisoners placed in isolated confinement for their own protection shall receive opportunities for activities, movement, and social interaction.
• Prisoners who are neither in isolated confinement nor in general population shall be offered a minimum of three hours of out-of-cell programmatic interventions or other congregate activities, such as classes, work assignments, or therapeutic treatment.
• No juvenile shall be placed in solitary confinement except for the purpose of providing medical or mental health treatment.
• No juvenile shall be placed in solitary confinement for longer than 24 hours.
• If a juvenile continues to pose an ongoing threat of physical harm to another person, the juvenile can be placed in solitary for another 24 hours or a maximum of 48 hours total.
• All juveniles who are neither in solitary confinement nor in general population shall be offered a minimum of four hours of out of cell programmatic interventions such as classes, work assignments, or therapeutic treatments.

SB 1301 would effectively end prolonged isolation in Virginia State Prisons for both adults and juveniles!

What We Need You to Do

• The bill will be discussed and voted on in the Virginia Senate’s Budget & Appropriation Committee on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. The chair is Janet Howell (D., District 32).
• Please send an email letter (sample following) to Senator Howell and to the following Senators who are committee members: Richard L. Saslaw, Thomas K. Norment, Jr., Emmett W. Hanger, Jr., L. Louise Lucas, Stephen D. Newman, Frank M. Ruff, Jill Holtzman Vogel, George L. Barker, John S. Edwards, R. Creigh Deeds, Mamie E. Locke, J. Chapman Petersen, David W. Marsden, Adam P. Ebbin, Jennifer L. McClellan well as to David Smith, IAHR Board Member and Chair of the Virginia Coalition on Solitary.

We will gather the letters and present them to all the members of the committee at the appropriate time.

Sample Letter:

Dear Senator _______________:

Please support SB 1301 that effectively ends prolonged isolation for both adults and juveniles in Virginia State Prisons. Prolonged Isolation for longer than 15 days was defined as an act of torture by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Moreover, numerous medical and psychological studies have determined that prolonged isolation (longer than 15 days) can damage the mental and physical health of a person. Correctional authorities can manage behavior without resorting to prolonged isolation.

Sincerely, Your Name

Action Item: Support Maryland Bill HB 131: Next Step

• Please write your Maryland House Delegate asking for his or her support for HB 131 which mandates the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide transitional services to those in restrictive housing (solitary confinement) six months prior to release. The bill directs the Department to provide a step down program in a multi-disciplinary approach so that no one is in restrictive housing at the time of release. Releasing people directly to the community from solitary is a threat to public safety!
• To identify your Delegate, click here. Enter your address in the upper left hand side of the page and your Legislator’s names will appear. Click on the name and the Legislators page will appear with their contact info. 

Sample Letter:

Dear Delegate______________:

Please support HB 131 which mandates the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide transitional services to anyone in restrictive housing six months prior to release.

HB 131 meets the standards of the American Correctional Association which is the professional organization of correctional officers and wardens.

Releasing to the community incarcerated men and women directly from restrictive housing is a threat to public safety.

Sincerely, Your Name

____________________________________________________________

January 27, 2021

IAHR signed on to a letter being circulated by Amnesty International, The Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, the ACLU, and other organizations asking the Biden Administration to put an end to executions by the Federal Government by commuting federal death sentences. Here is the letter I received:

Dear Colleagues,

I’m reaching out to ask for your organization to join a coalition letter already supported by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, ACLU, Amnesty International USA, and LDF calling on the administration to commute federal death sentences and take further executive action to erode this racially biased, ineffective, error ridden, arbitrary, and irreversible punishment, that is the death penalty. The deadline to join this letter is Monday, February 1. Click here to add your org.

Over six months, the Trump administration executed 13 people, more than three times as many people than were executed by the federal government in the previous six decades. President Biden made clear that he will work to pass legislation to end the federal death penalty. While it will take legislation to abolish the federal death penalty, there are executive actions at the president’s disposal that could go along towards this end.

In addition to the calls for clemency for those under federal sentence of death, the attached letter calls on President Biden take further executive actions to, dismantle the federal death chamber, cease to seek any death sentences, withdraw authorization for pending death penalty cases, and issue a moratorium on federal executions. Please note this letter is for national organizations. To add your organization to this letter please complete this google form.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Many thanks,

Krissy

Kristina Roth | Union Strong 

Senior Advocate

Criminal Justice Program

Amnesty International USA

600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003

Tel: 202-509-8182; Mobile: 202-945-2021

[email protected]

@Krissy_Roth

Preferred pronouns: She/Her

January 10, 2020

The events of January 5 and 6 have laid bare the bankruptcy and moral corruption of the national Republican Party. The Republican Party has no vision for our country and no real program to address the many serious issues that we face as a country: namely, the unchecked spread of Covid-19, the ongoing economic distress, the brutality and racism in our criminal justice system, the lack of access to medical care for millions of our residents, the ongoing threat of climate change, and the crumbling of our infrastructure. The Republican Party is divided not about how to address the challenges we all face but how to hold onto power for power's sake. One faction believes in raising all kinds obstacles to people registering to vote such as possessing a special id, banning mail-in voting or making it exceedingly difficult, making it difficult to register, limiting the number of polling places---the list goes on and on.  

The other faction really does not believe in democracy or politics by questioning the integrity of elections, and by believing the opposition party is illegitimate. Too many critics of the Democratic Party and of Democrats believe that the Democratic Party is not legitimate. Too often they paint the Democratic Party and Democrats with a broad brush using such terms as "socialist", "communist", and the "far Left." Therefore, according to them a Democratic victory at the polls should not be possible or justified.  

All this has been laid bare by the election in Georgia of Rev Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and the attack on the Capitol the following day. The election of the two Senators from Georgia and the election of Joe Biden to the Presidency has revealed that the amount of fraud or mistakes in our national election is miniscule. All the Presidential recounts in Georgia, Wisconsin, and Arizona revealed a remarkably mistake and fraud free election. Electronic ballots were matched to paper ballots over and over again. Challenges to signatures came up mostly empty. Whatever mistakes that were revealed did not in any way change the final result of the presidential election.

The elections did reveal that when voters were given multiple ways to cast their ballot--early voting, mail-in voting, numerous and accessible polling places--the public responded in record numbers. We had one of the greatest turnouts in an election in recent American history. Access was expanded without compromising the integrity of the election.  

January 5, 2021

Sadly, we live in a time when our leaders are actually followers. Our so called leaders compete by seeing who can best indulge the fears and fantasies of the people they are supposed to lead and instruct. We see this playing out now with President Trump and many Republican leaders denying that Joe Biden won the presidential election fair and square. They seem to believe that it was not possible for President Trump to lose. Certainly, Trump himself, cannot believe he lost and thus makes up all kinds of fabulous and false stories of how he was robbed, how the election was stolen, or how there was massive fraud. A real leader would speak hard truths to his followers. He would describe how he and his supporters fell short and what they need to do to win another time.  

The corruption and bankruptcy of leadership doesn't affect only Republicans. It also affects Democrats and Independents. A glaring example is how poorly most Governors have responded to the spread of Covid-19 in their state prisons. Governors have been slow to release inmates who are elderly (over 60), who have serious pre-existing medical conditions, or are a year within release. State prison systems have failed in curtailing the spread of the virus; one in five prisoners has been infected. Over 1700 inmates have died because of Covid-19. 

Taking effective measures to curb the spread of Covid in prisons requires strong leadership. Many people believe everyone in prison is capable of committing terrible violent crimes. Many people believe that people in prison don't have any basic rights. They believe that people in prison should suffer. It takes strong leadership to teach the public that it is in their self-interest to curb the spread of the coronavirus in prisons. Prisons become hot houses for Covid and then it spreads to the rest of the community. It takes strong leadership to teach the public that the risk of releasing significant numbers of prisoners is relatively low. 

Now comes the question of whether incarcerated people and correctional officers should have higher priority to be vaccinated. Prisons are very similar to nursing homes and other long care facilities. Since so many staff and visitors come in and out, they breed the virus. If there is an Covid outbreak in the prison, then it can quickly spread to the surrounding community and further. So it makes sense to vaccinate correctional officers, other staff, and inmates along with front line medical personnel and nursing home residents.

Over the weekend, we read reports of how Governors and other state officials are having second thoughts about giving priority for vaccinations to prisons. In Colorado, Governor Polis (a Democrat) caved in to public outcries when it was announced that the prison population would have priority. Instead of standing up to the pressure and explaining why it was in everyone's interest to give priority to vaccinating prisoners and prison staff, Gov Polis caved and said that in "“no way” the limited supply of shots would “go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven’t committed any crime.”

December 21, 2020

We received some good news over the weekend. As part of its deliberations to pass the Covid-19 Relief Bill and pass a Budget, Congress lifted its ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated people. In the 1994 crime bill, Congress banned incarcerated people from applying for Pell Grants to pursue college education while in prison. This ban effectively ended the possibility of pursuing educational opportunities post high-school for most incarcerated people. Some colleges and universities introduced some college courses in selected prisons in their geographical area. For instance, Georgetown University, under the direction of Prof Marc Morje Howard, teaches a course at a Maryland State Prison in Jessup. 15 Georgetown students join 15 incarcerated men for a semester long course. Goucher College has a program at the Women's Prison in Jessup. These programs are not comprehensive and cannot reach most prisons because they are so many and because they are often in isolated regions.  You can read more about this in Politico by clicking here. 

The State of Maryland announced that incarcerated people and prison staff will have priority in being vaccinated against Covid-19. The online newspaper, Maryland Matters reported that former Health secretary Robert R. Neall, who retired on Dec. 1, listed “People in Prisons, Jails, Detention Centers and Staff” among six priority groups to receive the vaccine in Maryland’s Phase 1 distribution, according to a draft plan submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct. 16. The estimated population of the inmate and staff subgroup is 54,460. The Health Department did not provide an inmate-staff breakdown of the subgroup when requested. Click here to read the whole article.  

While Maryland has taken steps to limit the spread of Covid-19 in its state prisons and has announced that incarcerated people and staff would have priority in being vaccinated, Virginia has not done well in limiting the spread of Covid-19. According to a report in the Marshall Project, 1 in 5 incarcerated people have been infected with Covid-19 in Virginia Prisons. The State of Virginia has not stated that incarcerated people and staff will have priority in being vaccinated against Covid-19.  

We need more public pressure on Governor Northam to arrest the spread of Covid in Virginia prisons and to make staff and incarcerated people a priority in receiving the vaccine.