Some stay there indefinitely.In 2011 Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, called for an end to solitary confinement of periods longer than 15 days.
Asked if the prospect of an end to his confinement came as any relief, he said, "In a way it does".
The church's senior warden, Liane Rozzell, said the goal of the project is to encourage visitors to reflect on what they see and take action to push for an end to solitary confinement.
First on this list, Downton said, is putting an end to solitary confinement, which has been found to cause lasting mental damage in prisoners after just a few days of exposure.
One of those 100, de la Cruz, who had been working as a barber in Miami to provide for his two American-born children, said he continues to struggle inside BTC, with no end to his confinement in sight.
Over time, the group's purpose broadened to include advocating for prisoners' right to vote, abolition, running education programmes for prisoners, and advocating for an end to solitary confinement practices in prisons.
In 2016, the main New York City jail complex, Rikers Island, ended the use of solitary confinement for 16- to 18-year-olds, and Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced an end to punitive solitary confinement for people under age 21.
The core demand is an end to indefinite solitary confinement in Security Housing Units, known as SHUs.
Ocalan is in prison himself, on an island in the Marmara Sea originally sentenced to death, he is now serving a life term after the death penalty was abolished, in 2002 and the strike was in part about him: the top demand was an end to his solitary confinement.
