By OBSERVER Newsroom
After visiting numerous prisons across the United States, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on racism says the country makes it way too easy for people to receive death-by-incarceration prison sentences, especially Black and Latino people and women.
The report, released in November, chronicles an independent human rights experts’ visit that took place Oct. 31-Nov. 14. The report also addresses persistent systemic racism and intersecting forms of discrimination.
“I observed that many from racially marginalized groups in the United States of America, particularly Black communities, continue to experience persistent systemic racism, defined as ‘a complex, interrelated system of laws, policies, practices and attitudes in state institutions, the private sector and societal structures that, combined, result in direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional, de jure or de facto discrimination, distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference on the basis of race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin,’” the statement reads.
The unnamed reviewer stated: “One individual I met with described systemic racism in the United States of America as ‘being in the air we breathe,’ another described it impacting the lives of those from racially marginalized groups ‘from cradle to grave.’ These quotes articulate the pervasive, pernicious, and unrelenting, nature of systemic racism.”
The report comes on the heels of a recent delegation to Geneva, where nearly two dozen advocates and attorneys, most directly impacted by death-by-incarceration sentencing, demanded the U.N. Human Rights Committee recognize such sentencing is cruel and inhuman, amounting to torture and racial discrimination in violation of international human rights laws. The committee agreed, calling on the United States for the first time to consider a moratorium on all life-without-parole sentences.
This is not the first time the issue has been brought before the United Nations. In 2014, when the United States last had its human rights record reviewed, the committee recommended that it abolish life-without-parole sentences for children and the mandatory and non-homicide-related sentence of life-without-parole for all. But international consensus is growing that the United States should stop sentencing people to die in prison altogether.
“It is incumbent on the United States to heed the call of multiple United Nations mechanisms to correct its violations of basic human rights in routinely sentencing people, at both the federal and state level, to death by incarceration,” said Stanley “Jamel” Bellamy, New York City organizer for the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign and a survivor of a death-by-incarceration sentence.
“Prison terms that exceed a person’s life expectancy are a form of torture. When I was sentenced at age 24 to die in prison, the state deprived me of the right to hope, and it was only through the extremely rare granting of clemency by our state’s governor that I was able to rejoin the community and attend the United Nations convening and advocate for the countless honorable women, men, and non-binary people I left behind,” Bellamy added.
The campaign joined with Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, DROP LWOP Coalition, the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration, the Visiting Room Project, and the Center for Constitutional Rights to file its original complaint with the special rapporteur on racism in September 2022. It followed up by engaging with the independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the Context of Law Enforcement, which called on the United States to end death-by-incarceration sentencing. The coalition then submitted this shadow report ahead of the human rights review in Geneva.
During the U.N.’s latest visit, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated coalition members met with officials in California and Louisiana to continue sharing testimony detailing the devastating impacts of death by incarceration. One of them was Ny Nourn, a member of California Coalition for Women Prisoners and co-executive director of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, who was sentenced to life without parole at age 21.
“Many of the issues being looked at by the U.N. – racism, xenophobia, gender violence, poverty, colonialism, etc. – intersected in my own life, making me and many incarcerated people who have survived domestic violence and state violence vulnerable to extreme sentences that target our marginalized communities,” Nourn said. “Death-by-incarceration does not make us any safer. It’s time for legislators, governors, and courts to do everything in their power to affirm that DBI is unconstitutional, provide commutations and parole-eligibility to those currently serving DBI sentences, and change policies that address racial injustice moving forward,” she continued.
This week marks the tenth installment of OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Genoa Barrow’s “Inside Out” series. Over the past few months, Barrow and others have highlighted the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals and their families, looked at efforts to improve local jail and prison facilities, and shared the perspectives of Black correctional staffers and attorneys who work on change from within and activists who have dedicated their lives to shining a light on the inequities of the criminal justice system. We hope we’ve sparked conversation, self reflection and motivated people to action.