Contact: Max Rosenblum or Adam Waters
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org
Washington, D.C., January 26, 2016 – In response to President Obama’s executive order to limit the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Director Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner has issued the following statement:
“We commend the important steps taken by the President yesterday to make the U.S. criminal justice system more just and humane. The physical and psychological trauma caused by solitary confinement is well documented. Under the President’s new executive orders, juveniles, prisoners with mental illnesses and low-level offenders in federal facilities will hopefully no longer face the constant and horrifying threat of being subjected to complete social exclusion for up to 23 hours per day. We call on Congress to codify the announced ban on juvenile solitary confinement into law and to undertake further reform of the federal criminal justice system through swift passage of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S.2123).”
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The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose nearly 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 2,000 Reform rabbis. Visit www.rac.org for more.