wfn.org | UCC/Church leaders urge end to prisoner's solitary

["Barb Powell"<powellb@ucc.org>]

confinement

Oct. 21, 1997
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ                       
Hans Holznagel, (216) 736-2214
holznagh@ucc.org
Laurie Bartels, (216) 736-2213
bartelsl@ucc.org
C. Nozomi Ikuta (216) 736-3280
ikutan@ucc.org
On the web:  www.ucc.org

Church leaders urge U.S. to end prisoner's solitary
confinement
    
     CLEVELAND -- Leaders of a North American church today
called upon the United States government to end the solitary
confinement of a political prisoner.
     Appealing to biblical themes of justice and compassion,
leaders of the 1.5-million-member United Church of Christ
called for the immediate transfer of Oscar López Rivera,
currently held in a federal prison in Marion, Ill., to the
general prison population.
     They said that López Rivera is serving a 70-year sentence
for his involvement in the movement for the independence of
Puerto Rico, that he has spent the last 11 years in solitary
confinement, and that he is receiving excessively harsh
treatment because of his political beliefs.
     López Rivera is one of 15 Puerto Rican women and men
imprisoned across the United States who are part of a movement
for Puerto Rican independence.  In 1981, he was convicted of
seditious conspiracy.  None of the 15 prisoners was charged
with or convicted of murder or any act of bloodshed.
     The news conference took place in the Holiday
Inn-Lakeside Hotel in downtown Cleveland.
     Appearing at the press conference were the Rev. Linda S.
Gruber of Phoenixville, Pa., chair of the United Church of
Christ Executive Council; the Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry,
president of the Cleveland-based denomination; Luis A. Mendoza
Gómez, representing its Council for Hispanic Ministries and a
member of Iglesia Buenas Nuevas, located on Cleveland's west
side; and the Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Dipko, executive
vice-president of the denomination's United Church Board for
Homeland Ministries.
     "Our church has a long-standing history of concern
regarding the conditions at the penitentiary in Marion and
other prisons like it," said Sherry.  "Our General Synod first
expressed concern about Marion in 1975.  My predecessor
appointed an investigative team to look into the conditions of
the imprisonment of Alejandrina Torres."  He added that Torres
is a member of the UCC and is serving a 35-year prison
sentence because of her involvement in the Puerto Rican
independence movement.
     "With persons of goodwill in leadership throughout the
world and as a person who has visited with four of the Puerto
Rican prisoners of conscience on several occasions," said
Dipko, "I call on the authorities at the Marion Federal Prison
to release Oscar from solitary confinement immediately."
     "Besides being a community leader, Oscar is a person of
great heart, full of life and love," said Mendoza.  "Through
his leadership, he helped many people to find jobs ... [and]
gain access to higher education."  Mendoza also referred to
the prisoner's paintings, which were displayed at the
conference.
     "Our General Synod has spoken emphatically of its support
for the release of Mr. López Rivera and the other fourteen
Puerto Rican political prisoners," said Gruber.  "However, at
this time, we are making a much more modest request:  that
pending the consideration of the amnesty request, Mr. López
Rivera's confinement in solitary conditions be brought to an
end and that he be placed in the general population of a
lesser security prison, such as the U.S. penitentiary in
Lewisburg, Pa.  It is time for Mr. López Rivera's torture to
be brought to an end."
     The United Church of Christ has 6,100 congregations in
the United States and Puerto Rico.  It was formed by the 1957
union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the
Evangelical and Reformed Church.

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