Day 48: Appeal for hearing on California prisoners to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,

[annm4peace]

http://sfbayview.com/2013/appeal-for-hearing-on-california-prisoners-to-the-inter-american-commission-on-human-rights-organization-of-american-states/


by Peter A. Schey, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law

The following letter was sent Aug. 23, 2013, to Dr. Emilio Álvarez Icaza, executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Washington, D.C.:

Request for thematic hearing during the 149th period of sessions on grave human rights violations affecting people deprived of liberty in the United States, with a focus on people incarcerated in California prisons

Dear Dr. Álvarez Icaza,

In accordance with Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Rules of Procedure Articles 61-66, we respectfully submit this request for a thematic hearing on grave violations of human rights in United States (U.S.) custodial facilities, particularly in California. We submit this request on behalf of the following organizations working to secure human rights for people deprived of liberty in California and in the United States: National Religious Campaign Against Torture, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, California Prison Focus, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, The Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, Disability Rights Legal Center, Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, American Friends Service Committee (Western Region), ACLU National Prison Project, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes, Fair Chance Project, Center for Constitutional Rights, Justice Now, National Lawyers Guild, San Diego Committee for Prisoners Rights, The Real Cost of Prisons Project and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. Together these groups represent and work with thousands of people confined in prisons in the U.S.

Public policy debate in the U.S. has recently focused on the urgent need to reduce extended sentences for non-violent offenders, particularly those involving controlled substances. In August, the U.S. Attorney General publicly acknowledged the misguided nature of mandatory minimum sentences and stated the administration’s intention to reform these policies. While debate on this issue is salutary and continues in the spirit of the Declaration of Antigua Guatemala “For a Comprehensive Policy Against the World Drug Problem in the Americas” adopted at the 43rd General Assembly of the Organization of American States this past June, sentencing reform alone will not redress the grave and institutionalized violations of rights in California and U.S. prisons.

The undersigned would like to address before the Commission the widespread abuses that affect people deprived of liberty in the U.S. with a focus on California, the state with the largest prison population in which we have documented grave violations characteristic of national trends. We seek to present to the Commission updated information on racially-disproportionate prison overcrowding, widespread and unjustified extended use of solitary confinement, punitive responses to hunger strikers, mistreatment of juvenile detainees, and abuses faced by people in women’s prisons, including coerced sterilization. We propose to provide first-hand information on these issues as summarized below.

( click on link to read the issues)