IAHR June 2022 Newsletter
The June Newsletter highlights three upcoming programs that will take place this summer. We also have included a short video highlighting IAHR's activities and accomplishments over the last seven years. Finally, we have included a very troubling essay from the Marshall Project about the high number of deaths at the federal prison in Thomson, IL. Several of our pen pals are incarcerated at Thomson.
Returning Citizens Speak: Steve Gantt
InJustice: Hidden Crisis in Virginia’s Prisons
End of Isolation Tour Will be in Baltimore & D.C.
Video: Recap of IAHR
How the Newest Federal Prison Has Become one of the Deadliest
Returning Citizens Speak: Steve Gantt
Thursday, June 9 at 3 p.m. Click Here to RSVP!
InJustice: Hidden Crisis in Virginia’s Prisons
ACLU-VA has produced a documentary, InJustice: Hidden Crisis in Virginia’s Prisons, which will premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival which runs from June 7 to June 12, 2022. 
This film, made in collaboration with Narrative Arts, is a layered account of the conditions in Virginia state prisons using the voices of formerly incarcerated people, community organizers, legislators, and issue area experts. The documentary is anchored by the lived experience of three community activists that share how the prison system has fueled their advocacy work. Issue area experts, faith leaders, and legislators share facts, figures, and perspectives that highlight the systemic problems with mass incarceration, while the voices of those who are currently incarcerated describe the inhumane conditions of their imprisonment. Injustice is a compelling and informative story about the brokenness of our state prison system that's sure to change the hearts and minds of Virginians about mass incarceration.
You can learn more about the film and watch the trailer here.
Click here to order tickets and read more about the film festival.
End of Isolation Tour will be in Baltimore & D.C.
Many of us are now coming out of isolation, but prisoners are not. For many of us, our fundamental beliefs have shifted during the pandemic, but many policies and structures remain the same. IAHR is a proud supporter of the End of Isolation Tour which uses legislative art to impact unjust policies and structures.
In July, The End of Isolation Tour (EIT) is launching a national, 10-city tour, presented by The Pulitzer Center, to bring immersive, transformative theater to communities across the country on the frontlines of imagining a world without prisons and the torture of solitary confinement. EIT centers around The BOX: a play about solitary confinement written by a survivor in collaboration with other survivors. Nearly half the cast are survivors of incarceration and torture. This tour is how we get these stories into the hands of people who are penning laws. It is how we connect survivors with legislators all across the country.
“Nearly ten years ago, I collected stories from people trapped
in the hellish deep end of prisons across the country.
Now, in a cruel twist of history, there could not be a more powerful
moment to bring these stories back.”
End of Isolation Tour founder, playwright of The BOX, and survivor
We invite you to join us in our support of this powerful project as we prepare for EIT’s tour bus to arrive in Baltimore at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum on August 17 and 18 and in D.C. at the Anacostia Playhouse on August 20 and 21.
Tickets go on sale on June 15! You can use the QR code embedded in the images above to order tickets.
Click here for EIT's facebook page listing each performance.
Video: Recap of IAHR
Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass, IAHR's past chairperson and current vice-chair, has created a video highlighting IAHR's mission and programs. Kimberly has gone into IAHR's photo library and selected different photos from the last seven years that feature different aspects of our work. The video is 93 seconds. Many thanks to Kimberly for this labor of love! Click on the image below and enjoy!
Click on the image and enjoy!
Marshall Project: How the Newest Federal Prison Has Become one of the Deadliest
Fatal beatings. A “torture room.” Pairs of men held around the clock in tiny cells, tempers rising. “They’re literally afraid for their lives,” one lawyer said.
Bobby “AJ” Everson was killed at the U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois in December 2021. Everson had been writing letters to his family for months describing dangerous conditions.
By CHRISTIE THOMPSON, The Marshall Project and JOSEPH SHAPIRO, NPR
(This article was published in partnership with NPR.)
Bobby Everson was nearing the end of his decade-long federal prison sentence, but he feared he wouldn’t make it home alive.
In July 2021, he was sent to the Special Management Unit at the new U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois — a program meant for some of the most violent and disruptive prisoners, though many have ended up there who don’t fit that description. Everson, who was serving time for drug and weapon charges, had recently been written up for “threatening bodily harm” and “assault without serious injury,” but prison records don’t provide details. After his transfer, his letters home to his family in New York state grew more desperate with each passing week.
Everson, who the family called AJ, told them he was locked down nearly 24 hours a day with a cellmate, in cells so small that the toilet was crammed next to the bottom bunk. He was let out only for occasional medical appointments, showers or an hour of exercise in an outdoor cage. He could hear guards in riot gear blasting men on his tier with pepper spray and locking them in hard restraints. His own wrists, ankles and abdomen were scarred from these shackles — prisoners called it the “Thomson tattoo,” according to attorneys.
The U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois. There have been five suspected homicides and two alleged suicides at the penitentiary since 2019.
But the most pressing threat came from the men officers chose to put in his cell. “I feel the staff here is purposefully trying to put me in situations of conflict,” he wrote to his cousin Roosevelt in late October. “Pray for your lil cousin, man, that I get through this unscathed.”
In late November, Everson got in a fight with his new cellmate. “I’m doing my best to bob and weave these incidents,” he wrote. “Keep calling up here, inquiring on me any lil free time you get.”
Seventeen days later, Everson, 36, was found dead in his cell. It was a homicide caused by “blunt trauma” with an object, according to prison records. Federal prosecutors have yet to file charges against anyone in connection to his death, which is still under investigation.
Click here to read the rest of the essay.
IAHR's May 2022 Newsletter
IAHR'S May Newsletter presents information of two upcoming events: a presentation by Patrice Sulton, Director of the DC Justice Lab on "Criminal Justice in DC" and information about a play, "The BOX", that will be coming to Baltimore and Washington in August as part of the End of Isolation Tour. We also have information and links to our pen pal project. Finally, we have included an important article from the Prison Policy Initiative about state prisons.
Criminal Justice in the District of Columbia
"THE BOX" and the End of Isolation Tour
IAHR'S Pen Pal Project
PPI's New Report on State Prisons
Criminal Justice in the District of Columbia
Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 5:30 p.m.
Click here to RSVP.
"The BOX" and the End of Isolation Tour is Coming to Baltimore and D.C.
August 17 and 18 in Baltimore at the Reginald Lewis Museum
August 20 and 21 in Washington DC at the Anacostia Playhouse
The End of Isolation Tour is a theatrical production touring the United States, using immersive theater to make an impact.
As a means to reach audiences to enact political change (legislative art) and to engage people to promote healing through drama and artistic ritual (therapeutic theater), the END OF ISOLATION Tour centers around a play, The BOX, which underscores both the horror of solitary confinement and the humanity of people subjected to it, employing stories inspired by true events to bring awareness to the state sponsored atrocities occurring in correctional institutions across the country.
The BOX is written and directed by Sarah Shourd, who was held in solitary confinement for over 400 days as a political prisoner in Iran. After discovering the prevalence of solitary confinement in the United States, she collaborated with other survivors and together they have brought this project to life.
Click here to view a short video (less than 5 minutes) about the End of Isolation Tour.
More information about tickets for performances will be forthcoming in the June and July IAHR newsletters.
IAHR'S Pen Pal Project
Click here for more information on the IAHR Pen Pal Program.
Prison Policy Initiative
New report, Beyond the Count, uses demographic data to show the social disadvantage of people locked up in state prisons
People in prisons have endured disadvantage and poverty all the way back to childhood, the Prison Policy Initiative's new report shows.
April 13, 2022
This morning, the Prison Policy Initiative published Beyond the Count, a report that examines the most recent and comprehensive demographic data about people in state prisons and provides a groundbreaking view of the lives of incarcerated people before they were locked up. The report’s findings make clear that solving this country’s mass incarceration crisis will require policy changes that begin outside the prison walls and tackle the inequities and disadvantages incarcerated people face early in their lives.
The report analyzes data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ “Survey of Prison Inmates,” collected in 2016 and released in late 2020. The data show what many in the criminal justice reform movement already know: that the U.S. criminal justice system today locks up the least powerful people in society. Key takeaways include:
- Many, if not most, people in prison grew up struggling financially. 42% of survey respondents said their family received public assistance before they were 18. Respondents also reported uncommonly high levels of homelessness, foster care, and living in public housing before the age of 18.
- Most individuals in state prisons report that their first arrest happened when they were children. 38 percent of the people BJS surveyed reported a first arrest before age 16, and 68% reported a first arrest before age 19. The average survey respondent had been arrested over 9 times in their life.
- The typical person in state prison is 39 years old and has a 10th grade education, a fact that is most likely linked to youth confinement, which disrupts a young person’s life and schooling.
- Half (49%) of people in state prisons meet the criteria for substance use disorder (SUD), and 65% were using an illicit substance in the immediate lead-up to their incarceration, suggesting that many people who are not locked up for drug offenses are still victims of our country’s choice to criminalize substance use rather than treat it as a health issue.
The Prison Policy Initiative’s report includes more than 20 detailed data tables that allow readers to better understand the people who are in state prisons and the challenges they have faced in their lives. Beyond the Count also includes a section diving into the data on the race, age, gender identity, and sexual orientation of people in state prisons, explaining that a disproportionate number of incarcerated people are racial minorities, very young or very old, or LGBTQ. Many of the key demographic findings in Beyond the Count (such as incarcerated people’s age at first arrest) are also broken down by race or gender.
While the data in this report is about people in state prisons, it does not allow statistics to be broken out for individual states.
“What the data in our new report show is that this country is locking up the same people it has failed by not investing in things like good healthcare, housing, and education for all,” said report author Leah Wang. “What’s worse, the data show that most disadvantaged people’s encounters with the justice system begin during childhood, when they are arrested rather than given the care and attention they need as young people.”
Click here for the full report.
April 29, 2022
IAHR'S Interfaith Holiday Newsletter
We are now in the middle of the month celebrating Ramadan and we are about to celebrate, Good Friday, Passover, and Easter. To mark these special holidays which overlap infrequently, IAHR is sponsoring a special holiday edition. We are publishing short essays from Rabbi Feinberg and five religious leaders who are on IAHR's Council of Advisors. We asked each of the religious leaders to write on the connection between human rights and the message of the holiday each is celebrating.
There are three essays from Christian leaders, two essays from Jewish leaders, and one essay from a Muslim leader. We hope that these essays will add to your spiritual understanding of the three holidays and their importance for human rights.
We are also highlighting our very recent legislative success in the Maryland Legislature.
On behalf of the IAHR Board, I wish you and your loved ones meaningful and satisfying holiday celebrations.
IAHR'S Maryland Legislative Success
List of Essays
Resurrection Sunday and the Need for Criminal Justice Reform
Passover: Outrage in Action
The Observance of Ramadan in Prisons
New Life
Interfaith Perspectives on Community and Isolation
Fear of God
IAHR’s Maryland Legislative Success
Delegate Jazz Lewis (D.24th District) sponsored IAHR’s 
legislation, HB67, that would mandate the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide transitional services to anyone in solitary confinement six months prior to their release. IAHR has promoted the bill as safeguarding public safety as well as providing needed services to incarcerated people soon to be released.
On April 8, with Senator Susan Lee's leadership, the Maryland Senate passed HB67/SB977 without opposition. The bill is now on the Governor's desk for signature. IAHR is hopeful that the
Governor will sign the bill.
This is a significant victory for incarcerated people in Maryland prisons. No one will be released directly to the community from solitary without any guidance or access to reentry resources. IAHR will take some time to assess this legislative victory before we set our goals for next year's session.
IAHR thanks Delegate Lewis and Senator Lee for their leadership on this issue and for being the sponsors of HB67/SB977.
Special thanks goes to Kimberly Haven, IAHR's Legislative Liaison
for Maryland, for shepherding the bill through the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
Resurrection Sunday and The Need for Criminal Justice Reform
Rev. Dr. Wanda Thompson, Ambassador Baptist Church
Click here to read the rest of the essay.
Passover: Outrage in Action
Rabbi Jeffrey Saxe, Temple Rodef Shalom, Fairfax, VA
The Pesach, or Passover, holiday was created to pursue two very
different imperatives: celebrating freedoms gained thousands of years ago and, at the same time, inspiring us to act on injustices that exist today. The one is easy to accomplish. The other, not so: there is little urgency garnered by reclining on pillows, drinking to four cups of wine, and singing songs late into the night, although these things make for an enjoyable and meaningful holiday.
The urgency must come from telling the story itself. The rabbis call on each person to hear the story of Passover as if it were they themselves, not their ancestors, who came out of Egypt. This is the same empathy one needs to more fully appreciate and react to injustices in our own generation.
In recent years, I have found myself comparing the bondage of the Israelites to the inhumane treatment of too many people currently incarcerated in America’s jails and prisons. The experiences of suffering within our criminal justice system may not be happening to us, but we have an obligation to see ourselves in this story as well.
Click here to read the rest of the essay.
The Observance of Ramadan in Prisons
Ramadan is the holiest month on the Islamic calendar. It’s a
period of increased introspection. Muslims deprive our bodies of water and food during the 14+ hours long fast in order to nourish and strengthen our spirit. This brief time is an opportunity to recalibrate our focus and priorities, practice increased God-consciousness, and engage in community service and charitable giving. Click here to read the rest of the essay.
New Life
The Rev. Ann Moczydlowski, Episcopal Church
In the Christian tradition, the celebration of Easter is one of new life rooted in the story of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. After witnessing his trial and horrific crucifixion, his family and other followers were left bereft, frightened, totally unsure of their future. A few years prior to his arrest, they had been captured by his message of God’s enduring and unlimited love for all, experienced power and new life through his teaching and healing ministry and now, he was gone.
But mysteriously, he came to them several days later, assuring them that loving God and neighbor was the key to experiencing new life, even in the face of suffering. We don’t know what this resurrection, this new life was to Jesus but we do know that to his followers it was everything.
He urged them to live as he had, not focused on resurrection after death, but on offering the possibility of new life for others who are suffering, through the followers’ compassion and acts of non-sentimental love. Our word solidarity speaks to his message.
Episcopal priest, Stephanie Spellers shares: “Solidarity is love crossing the borders drawn by self-centrism, in order to enter into the situation of the other, for the purpose of mutual relationship and struggle that heals us all and enacts God’s beloved community.
Solidarity is the voice that finally comprehends: ‘You are not the same as me, but part of you lives in me. Your freedom and mine were always inextricably entwined. Now I see it, and because of what I see, I choose to live differently , I will go there, with you, for your sake and for my own.”[1]
Click here to read the rest of the essay.
[1] Stephanie Spellers, The Church Cracked Open :Disruption, Decline and New Hope for Beloved Community (New York: Church Publishing 2021), 107,109.
Interfaith Perspectives on Community and Isolation
Rev. Dr. David B. Lindsey, Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington
Faith traditions across the world have a variety of specific beliefs
and practices, yet they often hold major values in common. One such value is that people are designed to live in community with one another. In Jewish and Muslim traditions, this often means shared food practices and gathering together on Fridays for prayer and reflection. The majority of Christians regularly get together on Sunday mornings for worship and fellowship, whether they are Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, or part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. South Asian religious traditions like the Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian communities bring people together for meals, festivals, and holy days. Even the monastics among the world’s faith traditions who enter into solitude often enter that solitude with a community of peers, gathering in monasteries and convents. And when such solitude occurs, it is always by choice on the part of the monastic, not by force.
This core human belief in the importance of community stands in stark contrast to the practices of isolation and segregation in the U.S. prison system. The Federal Bureau of Prisons estimates that over 15,000 prisoners are in isolation at any given time. Among them, prisoners regularly experience such isolation for up to 23 hours per day. Brief breaks to shower or encounter other prisoners are often highly supervised, and when an emergency or staff shortage occurs, a prisoner who is already unwillingly in isolation may experience solitary confinement for days or even weeks. The level of psychiatric illness is already higher in the prison population than in society as a whole and segregating a prisoner in isolation can cause such stress that even a psychologically healthy person may start to evince symptoms of mental illness. All of this runs contrary to the world’s religions and their shared understanding that people are meant to live in regular connection with each other in authentic communities.
Click here to read the rest of the essay.
Fear of God
Rabbi Charles Feinberg
summons Moses and Aaron and orders them to leave Egypt. The Israelites leave in the middle of the night. The next morning Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues the Israelites to the edge of the sea. Just before the Israelites sing their triumphant song of redemption and freedom, the Torah states, “the people feared God, believed in God and Moses his servant.”They saw they feared, and then they broke into song. The fear engendered the song. What did they fear about God? A key to interpreting this question is the phrase “They were walking on dry land in the midst of the sea.” This phrase occurs four different times in the narrative leading up to the song at the sea. When did they sing the song? When they were walking on dry land in the midst of the sea. Four times the Torah mentions that the children of Israel are walking on dry land in the midst of the sea or that they are coming in the midst of the sea on dry land. They feared that Pharaoh would catch up to them before they crossed the sea. They feared that they would drown and not make it to the other side. At the same time, they knew that they had to cross the sea to live and be able to sanctify God’s name. The choice they faced was death/enslavement or life/freedom-redemption. They realized that they might die trying to realize the promise of life and redemption. But they also feared whether they can sanctify God while fighting their enemies.
Can they still have compassion for the Egyptians even though the Egyptians are trying to destroy them?
Click here to read the rest of the essay.