Payne Students Working for Justice
By Rev. Leslye Dwight, 2nd Episcopal District
On February 14, 2018, six students from Payne Theological Seminary walked out of the plenary session of the Samuel D. Proctor Conference on Social Justice, which convened in Memphis, Tennessee. They went to stand in solidarity with 16-year-old Teriyona Winton, who is being held in solitary confinement, 200 miles away from her family. She is the only person in the women’s prison under the age of 18 and was moved without notice and legal representation.
The juvenile was originally housed in the juvenile detention center when the prosecution decided to try her as an adult for first-degree murder. For over 100 days, she has sat unconvicted of any crime and in solitary confinement. The Shelby County Sherriff determined that it lacked the necessary facilities to detain the youth and compared solitary confinement to the youth having a “private room.” However, the youth’s legal team argued that Tennessee was in violation of the Sight and Sound Separation Rule (42 U.S.C. 5633 (a)(13)(A)and(B)) because the youth has contact with adult inmates due to structural issues of the facilities. The impact of solitary confinement on youth can cause permanent damage in the areas of brain development as well as the emotional and psychological development.
On February 23, 2018, the Rev. Leslye Dwight, a Payne student, met with Governor Bill Haslam in Washington, DC, to further discuss this case in relation to his plan for juvenile justice reform. When asked how keeping youth in solitary confinement aligned with his plan for juvenile justice reform, Gov. Haslam went on record to state that he disagreed with youths being put in solitary confinement. He committed to doing his research on the policy and working to find a resolution as there were other youths impacted. When asked, in the same setting, about the case of Cyntoia Brown and its alignment to his juvenile justice policy, he acknowledged that the paperwork requesting clemency for Ms. Brown was en route to his office. Brown is a young woman serving a life sentence for the murder of a man who solicited her for sex as a teenager, who will be ineligible for parole until she is in her 60s. While he would not comment on how he would address the request for clemency, he did acknowledge her as a victim of human sex trafficking. Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, legal defense to Teriyona Winton, stated that both cases have similarities stemming from some form of sexual assault and the likelihood that Brown would have experienced time in solitary confinement while she was awaiting her trial under the current policies and practices of Tennessee.
Students learned that this systemic practice of keeping unconvicted youth in solitary confinement for a significant period of time is widespread in Tennessee and is called safekeeping. Inherent in this practice is gender bias that Tennessee continues to let go unaddressed. Boys who are charged as adults have appropriate facilities that prevent them from being sent to solitary confinement in prisons with adult inmates as they await trial. These facilities do not exist for females.
Payne students ministered to the mother of the incarcerated youth as she sat with tears in her eyes when Judge Mark Ward gave the imprisoned youth the choice of moving to a closer prison without cable in her cell or remaining in the solitary confinement facility with a cable box and be 200 miles away from home and access to family. Payne students prayed with her, family, friends, and the legal team of the youth.
Spickler met with Payne to discuss the efforts of attempting to move the teen from the Tennessee Prison for Women to an appropriate youth facility. Payne students are working to send care packages to the youth as they continue to fight for justice. More importantly, Payne students are issuing a call for immediate action to all churches to write to the Governor of Tennessee requesting clemency for Brown. Payne students who participated in the demonstration included Rev. Leslye Dwight, the Rev. Catrinka Johnson, the Rev. Ronnie Clark, the Rev. Bryan McAllister, the Rev. Steve Wright, and the Rev. Kabrielle Baker.
