In 2018, there were 40,000 solitary confinement sanctions in New York state, including about 30,000 in special housing units (SHU) and another 10,000 keep-lock sanctions where people are confined to their cells for up to 23 hours per day, according to a report by the New York Civil Liberties Union. (Unsplash/Marco Chilese)
He used to imagine he was in a park, sitting by the water, basking in the sunlight.
In reality, Victor Pate was in solitary confinement alone in a 6-by-9-foot prison cell with no windows, the fluorescent lights flickering harshly around the clock.
All around him, he could hear other men screaming, crying, wailing calling for help. It wasn t long before he started seeing things, hearing voices that weren t there.
This new year brings more frustration over the prisoners euphemistically called detainees still housed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and more pain for 9/11 families, including mine, as we prepare to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
It’s long past time to bring the alleged 9/11 conspirators to trial and either release the others still held there or move them to U.S. prisons and try them in U.S. courts. All that should be high on President Joe Biden’s agenda.
So where are we with Gitmo?
Forty prisoners remain there, among them five men accused of planning and supporting the 9/11 attacks. Those five are being tried before a military commission, but so far the start of the trial has been repeatedly delayed often for acceptable reasons, including pandemic considerations. The rules of the proceedings generally have reflected basic American values about innocence and guilt, but the delays have become enormously frustrating, especially for 9/11 families monitorin
Coalition Urges Congress Not to Expand Domestic Terrorism Charges
151 Organizations Call on Congress to Oppose the Expansion of Terrorism-related Legal Authority
January 19, 2021
Dear Members of Congress:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (The Leadership Conference), a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect civil and human rights in the United States, and the undersigned
151 organizations, we write to express our deep concern regarding proposed expansion of terrorism-related legal authority. We must meet the challenge of addressing white nationalist and far-right militia violence without causing further harm to communities already disproportionately impacted by the criminal-legal system. The Justice Department (DOJ), including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has over 50 terrorism-related statutes it can use to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct, including white
Jan. 11 marks 19 years since the first prisoners landed in Guantanamo. At that time, we were informed that these were “enemy combatants,” which meant that they somehow had no rights under the Geneva Convention, and in fact no rights at all, and so they were being sent to a place where th
Survivors of solitary confinement
As many Americans experience the holidays alone for the first time, formerly incarcerated share how they got through isolation
Johnny Perez, Jack Morris, Pamela Winn
Opinion contributors
Introduction by Johnny Perez
There were significantly fewer mouths to feed in my apartment this Thanksgiving as my family followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s recommendation not to travel and not to gather in groups. I ll be doing the same thing for Christmas. And yet, having spent a total of three years in solitary confinement, I am more grateful for the family I can be with than I’ve ever been.