Church members oppose solitary confinement

About 20 people gathered in the parking lot of Annandale United Methodist Church Sunday afternoon to advocate for an end to solitary confinement in Virginia prisons and offer prayers for prisoners held in isolation.

Similar events were held at faith institutions across the state, including Peace Lutheran Church in Lincolnia and Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church.

The organizer, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, calls solitary confinement “a relic of slavery and a reminder of Virginia’s dark history.” Solitary confinement is a “dehumanizing and barbaric practice” that disproportionately affects people of color.

More than 7,000 incarcerated persons were placed in solitary confinement, known as “restrictive housing,” between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, the Virginia Department of Corrections reports. That doesn’t include jails, juvenile detention facilities, or other types of prison housing.

According to the United Nations, keeping someone in prolonged solitary confinement, defined as more than 15 consecutive days, is a form of torture.

Isolating someone for just 15 days “can be enough to cause permanent psychological damage,” the interfaith center states.

The center supports Senate Bill 108 in the Virginia General Assembly, which would require Virginia prisons and jails to consider humane alternatives before locking someone up in solitary confinement.

At the gathering at Annandale United Methodist Church, the participants stood in a circle outlined in orange cones marking the dimensions of a typical isolation cell. “As people of faith and goodwill,” they prayed, “help us be advocates for Your people – to stand with those incarcerated, relegated to isolation and torture, and too often forgotten.”