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.
April 14, 2022
IAHR April Newsletter
The April edition of the IAHR Newsletter includes three different reports on our legislative advocacy in Virginia and Maryland, along with a video of the special award that Natasha White, IAHR's director of community engagement, received from the National Association of Social Workers.
I urge you to read the report called Mass Incarceration: the Whole Pie. It is an annual report that the Prison Policy Institute publishes on the state of incarceration in the United States. The report includes many graphs that present visually how many people are incarcerated, where they are incarcerated, categories of crimes incarcerated people have been convicted of, and the number of crimes in each category.
Of special interest is the section called Eight Myths About Mass Incarceration. Myths about the prevalence of private prisons, drug offenses, and what constitutes a violent crime are examined and debunked.
In April, the three Abrahamic faiths will be celebrating Ramadan, Passover, and Easter. Next week I will be sending out a special edition of the newsletter on these three holidays.
IAHR'S Virginia Solitary Legislation: Partial Successes
IAHR'S Maryland Legislation: Almost There
IAHR'S Virginia Attack Dog Legislation
Natasha White Receives Special Honor
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022
IAHR’s Virginia Solitary Legislation: Partial Successes
During the 2022 Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Coalition on Solitary Confinement wrote and found sponsors for two pieces of legislation. SB108ended long term solitary confinement by limiting isolating incarcerated people to no more than 15 consecutive days within a 60 day period. Our Senate sponsor was Joe D. Morrissey who has been an effective advocate for ending prolonged isolation in Virginia Prisons.
On February 4, the Senate voted to pass SB108 by a vote of 21 to18. This was the second year in a row that the Virginia Senate voted to limit solitary confinement to no more than 15 consecutive days.
The bill was then passed over to a subcommittee of the House of Delegates Public Safety Committee. Natasha White, coordinator of the Virginia Coalition on Solitary Confinement and David Smith, the coalition’s chairperson both spoke in support of the bill at a public hearing of the subcommittee. Members of the subcommittee did not speak in opposition to the bill. However, they had more questions that they wanted answered. They wanted a delegation of legislators to visit Red Onion, one of Virginia’s maximum-security prisons. Other members of the subcommittee wanted more time to study the issue.
By a unanimous vote, the subcommittee voted to replace the text of SB108with a substitute that would establish a work group to study the use of restorative housing (solitary confinement) within state correctional facilities and juvenile correctional centers. The group will look at length of time each inmate is kept in restorative housing and the purposes for which inmates are placed in restorative housing. As part of the study, the working group will be able to conduct confidential interviews of at least people currently incarcerated in state prison facilities and who have been placed within the last 12 months in restorative housing units.
The work group shall make recommendations of its findings, including how to safely end the use of restorative housing that lasts longer than 14 days. The work group shall be composed of at least one licensed clinical psychologist, at least three formerly incarcerated individuals, each of whom was placed in restorative housing during his term of incarceration, and at least three representatives from each of the following agencies or groups: (i) the Department, (ii) the Department of Juvenile Justice, and (iii) the Virginia Coalition on Solitary Confinement.
The work group shall report its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Public Safety and the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and 24 Social Services by December 1, 2022
While the Coalition strongly believes there is no need to commission another study of solitary confinement, we also took heart that the House of Delegates did not vote down SB108. Indeed, the Coalition has several new opportunities. By assuring representation in the work group, we will have some say in the final report that will go the Legislature. Moreover, we have another year to advocate on behalf of ending prolonged isolation (solitary confinement). During the rest of this year, we have an opportunity to build more support in key legislative districts for ending solitary.
The Virginia Coalition consists of IAHR, S.A.L.T. (Social Action Linking Together), ACLU-VA, the Virginia Interfaith Center on Public Policy, VACURE, Bridging the Gap Virginia, and many engaged Virginia residents.
Special shout out to David Smith, outgoing Coalition chairperson, who tirelessly advocated for SB108 in the Legislature and to Natasha White,Coalition Coordinator, for all her efforts to raise awareness of the issue at the Legislature and in different Virginia Communities.
IAHR welcomes McGennis Williams as the new chairperson of the Coalition. We wish McGennis much success!
IAHR’s Maryland Legislation: Almost There
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 March 17, the bill was voted out by the House of Delegates Judiciary and was passed on the floor of the House the next day on March 18. The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee held a hearing on the bill on March 30. At the hearing there was no opposition to the bill. IAHR is hopeful that the bill will be voted out by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in the next few days. IAHR is hopeful that the Maryland Senate will pass the bill and send it to the Governor by the end of next week.
IAHR'S Virginia Attack Dog Legislation
In February, IAHR introduced into the Virginia House of Delegates HB908 that would prohibit the use of attack dogs in Virginia State Prisons. The bill’s sponsor was Delegate Alfonso Lopez of Northern Virginia. IAHR arranged for a returning citizen, Linwood Mathias, who had been seriously mauled by a dog in prison, to speak at the hearing. Linwood has great difficulty walking and standing due to his being severely bitten by a dog. At the hearing, Linwood was only given two minutes to speak about the circumstances that led to his being attacked.
The Committee voted to lay the build on the table and come back to it at next year’s session. IAHR is hopeful that we can build more support for this important legislation during the rest of this year.
IAHR commends and is grateful to volunteer, Brian Hess, for writing the legislation, persuading Delegate Lopez to sponsor it, and for being such a strong advocate.
Natasha White Receives Special Honor
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) recognizes leaders in the profession and in communities who fully embody social work values and ethics. Past award recipients have accomplished the extraordinary and NASW has been honored to recognize them.
At The Time is Right for Social Work 2022 Award Ceremony, Natasha White,IAHR's Director of Community Engagement, was awarded Public Citizen of the Year for being an individual who has gone above and beyond in her community. Here is the video of the presentation and Natasha’s acceptance speech.
Natasha also gave an extensive interview that was broadcast on PBS on a program called "The campaign to end solitary confinement in Virginia."
Click here to view the interview.
Prison Policy Initiative
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022
By Wendy Sawyer and Peter Wagner Tweet this
March 14, 2022
Can it really be true that most people in jail are legally innocent? How much of mass incarceration is a result of the war on drugs, or the profit motives of private prisons? How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed decisions about how people are punished when they break the law? These essential questions are harder to answer than you might expect. The various government agencies involved in the criminal legal system collect a lot of data, but very little is designed to help policymakers or the public understand what’s going on. As public support for criminal justice reform continues to build — and as the pandemic raises the stakes higher — it’s more important than ever that we get the facts straight and understand the big picture.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the U.S. doesn’t have one “criminal justice system;” instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold almost 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 2,850 local jails, 1,510 juvenile correctional facilities, 186 immigration detention facilities, and 82 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.
This report offers some much-needed clarity by piecing together the data about this country’s disparate systems of confinement. It provides a detailed look at where and why people are locked up in the U.S., and dispels some modern myths to focus attention on the real drivers of mass incarceration and overlooked issues that call for reform.
Sections
8 Myths about mass incarceration
High costs of low-level offenses
Youth, immigration & involuntary commitment
Beyond the Pie: Community supervision, poverty, race, and gender
Click here to read the whole report
We pray for peace with justice for Ukraine!
May there be joyous and thoughtful celebrations of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter
April 04, 2022
IAHR March Newsletter
A lot has happened and is happening in our region! Please join our press conference on March 9 at 11 a.m. as we push our legislation HB67 which provides transitional services to people in solitary six months prior to release. At the press conference, we will review the legislation and share its prospects for passage. See below for more details about the press conference.
We are sad to report that our bill in the Virginia Legislature SB108 to limit solitary to 15 days has died in the House of Delegates Public Safety Committee. Read more below about the fate of this bill.
There are two important articles about the District. One describes how a correctional officer was arrested for smuggling drugs and weapons into the DC Jail. The other is a thoughtful article on how a relatively small group of people are responsible for many of the violent crimes in the District.
Finally, we bring you an article from Justin Johnson who is incarcerated in a South Carolina Prison. He gives a very insightful analysis of the shortcomings of the First Step Act.
Maryland Legislative Press Conference
Virginia Legislative Committee Votes for a Study!
DC Corrections Officer Arrested for Smuggling Drugs, Weapons
DC's Gun Violence is Driven by a Small Number of People
First Step Act Falls Short
Maryland Legislative Press Conference
Join us Wednesday March 9, 2022 at 11:00 AM for a virtual press conference with Delegate Jazz M. Lewis Democrat, District 24, PG County.
Kimberly Haven Delegate Jazz Lewis
. 
Rev. Stephen Tucker Rev. Dina van Klaveren
Delegate Jazz Lewis is the sponsor of IAHR's legislation HB67 which mandates the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide transitional services to all incarcerated persons in solitary confinement six months prior to their release.
In addition to Delegate Lewis, Rev. Dina van Klaveren, Rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Glenwood, MD and Rev Stephen Tucker, President of the National Baptist Convention of DC and Vicinity as well as the senior pastor of the New Commandment Baptist Church in Columbia, MD will be making statements along with Rabbi Feinberg.
Kimberly Haven, IAHR's liaison to the Maryland Legislature, will be giving an update on HB67.
Please make an effort to attend the virtual press conference on March 9 at 11 a.m. by clicking the RSVP button! After you RSVP, you will be receiving the zoom link.
Dear Delegates Clippinger and Moon, Senators Smith and Waldstreicher:
Direct release from restrictive housing is a public safety concern and will again come before the General Assembly this year. Because of the effect of the pandemic on our prisons, reforming this practice has become even more imperative than ever before. I am asking you to support HB 67 which will end direct release from restrictive housing.
Dear Delegates Clippinger and Moon, Senators Smith and Waldstreicher:
Direct release from restrictive housing is a public safety concern and will again come before the General Assembly this year. Because of the effect of the pandemic on our prisons, reforming this practice has become even more imperative than ever before. I am asking you to support HB 67 which will end direct release from restrictive housing.
Click here to read the rest of the letter and to sign.
Virginia Legislative Committee Votes for a Study!
SB108 which limits solitary confinement in Virginia to 15 consecutive days within a 60 day period passed the Virginia Senate by a vote of 21-18. After it was sent to the House of Delegates, the House Public Safety Committee voted to change the bill entirely to study solitary confinement in Virginia. In addition, the Public Safety Committee said that they would visit Red Onion, Virginia's maximum security prison sometime this spring or summer.
Needless to say, advocates, returning citizens and their families were dismayed by the action of the Public Safety Committee. As Gay Gardner, IAHR's Advisor on Virginia, wrote to Delegate Glenn Davis of Virginia Beach, a member of the Public Safety Committee,
"I was deeply disappointed that SB 108 was turned into a study. This is the VADOC's way of defeating any meaningful action on this issue. They deny that they use solitary confinement at all, so I don't understand why it makes sense to put them in charge of a study of their own use of it. I am glad that you and other legislators plan to visit one or more prisons over the summer, but the prison administrators will know you're coming and will make sure you see only what they want you to see. It's absolutely essential that you speak privately to as many people as possible who have experienced life in the "restorative housing" units."
For this session, our attempt to limit solitary confinement in Virginia state prisons has been stymied. We are committed to continue our fight to end this brutal practice.
In the coming months, we will share with you our strategies for ending this terrible practice.
IAHR thanks David Smith, the chair of the Virginia Coalition on Solitary, Natasha White, the coordinator of the coalition, IAHR vice-chair, Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass, and all the coalition partners for their hard work in trying to get SB108 passed this year.
D.C. Corrections Officer Arrested For Allegedly Smuggling Drugs, Weapons Into The Jail
By Jenny Gathright, Reporter, WAMU
The officer has been charged with two federal offenses: bribery and providing or possessing contraband in prison.
The D.C. Jail. Jenny Gathright / DCist/WAMU
A D.C. Corrections Officer was arrested Thursday (February 24) for allegedly accepting bribes to bring knives, drugs, and cellphones into the D.C. Jail to distribute to people detained there. The officer, 31-year-old Johnson Ayuk, has been charged with two federal offenses: bribery and providing or possessing contraband in prison.
Ayuk has been a corrections officer working in D.C.’s Central Detention Facility since April 2021. He allegedly took part in a “smuggling operation” and accepted money from the girlfriend of a man incarcerated in the D.C. Jail in exchange for bringing the prohibited items into the facility, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The FBI and the D.C. Department of Corrections’ Investigative Services Branch are both investigating the case, according to a press release from the USAO.
Ayuk has been released on high-intensity supervision as he awaits a preliminary hearing scheduled for March.
Click here to read the rest of the news article.
A Majority Of D.C.’s Gun Violence Is Driven By Small Number Of People, Says A New Study
"Their violence is predictable and therefore it is preventable," it says.
FEB 18, 12:03 PM. dcist
A Stop the Violence poster sits on a table at a Guns Down Friday pop-up event at Cedar Gardens. Dee Dwyer / DCist
Every year, about 500 identifiable people in D.C. drive as much as 70% of the city’s gun violence, according to a new report commissioned by the city.
The study was authored by the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, which has been working with the District to come up with a strategic plan for reducing gun violence. It found that a relatively small group of people — likely as little as 200 people at any one point in time — are driving a majority of homicides and shootings in the city. And the study echoes an argument that community leaders in the neighborhoods most affected by violence have long put forward: If the government and community groups can come together to reach those high-risk people, invest in them, and make intensive intervention efforts, the city can reduce homicides and help save lives.
“In Washington, D.C., most gun violence is very tightly concentrated on a small number of very high risk young Black male adults that have a shared set of common risk factors,” says David Muhammad, the executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. “This very small number of high risk individuals are identifiable. Their violence is predictable and therefore it is preventable.”
Using interviews and data from the Metropolitan Police Department and other law enforcement and supervision agencies, researchers examined 341 homicides in 2019 and 2020, as well as nonfatal shootings that injured people in 2020. The study excluded police shootings, accidental self-inflictions, and “cases of justified self-defense.” Its goal was to establish a “common understanding of the local violence problem,” with the idea that once people can agree on why the shootings and killings are happening, leaders can tailor their solutions to the problem.
According to the study, there is significant overlap between victims of homicides and the suspects who commit them, in terms of life circumstances and risk factors. Many are involved in groups, which the study defined as a neighborhood crew, clique, or gang with varying levels of organization. Many have history with the criminal justice system, and a significant number have previously been the victim of a shooting or connected in some way to a recent shooting.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
In Prison, We Celebrated the First Step Act. We Realized It Falls Far Short.
A long list of individuals is excluded from the First Step Act’s offer of release to home confinement or community halfway houses. JARED RODRIGUEZ / TRUTHOUT
BY
PUBLISHED. February 19, 2022
When the U.S. Department of Justice published a rule finally spelling out how the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) would implement the First Step Act of 2018, the headlines trumpeted that thousands of people in federal prisons were now eligible for release. The news spread quickly among the 153, 053 Americans incarcerated in federal prisons, first sparking hope and jubilation, then quickly followed by disappointment and confusion.
I know, because I live behind bars in one of the U.S.’s 122 federal prisons. And while I am among the fortunate ones who will (hopefully) be released early to the community where my four kids and numerous nephews, nieces and cousins live, the anticipation is bittersweet. I look around and see so many other good men who deserve a second chance, yet are denied because the First Step Act (FSA) was written to specifically exclude them. So, while it’s good news that the BOP stopped its foot-dragging and is finally moving to enforce this critical aspect of the act, what we really need is a second look at the law itself.
Click here to read the rest of the essay.
We pray for peace with justice for the people of the Ukraine!
Blessings,
March 30, 2022