A few teachings on torture (and incarceration) —
Human rights apply to all humans. The rights people have are theirs by virtue of being human, made in God’s image. Persons can never be stripped of their humanity, regardless of their actions or of others’ actions toward them….Consider the way in which even Cain was protected by the divine “mark,” and legal provision to protect the rights of killers was made in the Old Testament through the cities of refuge and the processes of judgment required there (Num. 35:9-34).
Human rights place a shield around people, even when (especially when) our hearts cry out for vengeance. It is precisely when we are most inclined to abandon a commitment to human rights that we most need to reaffirm that commitment….
— National Association of Evangelicals, statement against torture, 2007
By his cross we are saved. The instrument of torture which, on Good Friday, manifested God’s judgment on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace. For on this cross, Jesus took upon himself the weight of all the sufferings and injustices of our humanity. He bore the humiliation and the discrimination, the torture suffered in many parts of the world by so many of our brothers and sisters for love of Christ.
In the teaching of the church, the suffering of Christ and of the saints, especially that imposed by torture, testifies to the reality of evil in the world. This testimony is not an acceptance of evil, but rather a call to overcome it. Catholics believe the cross leads to resurrection. Death does not have the final word. The victim on the cross was ultimately the victor. Life triumphed over death, good over evil.
— NRCAT (Stephen M. Colecchi, then director, Office of International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops)
Prisons [are not] solutions for poverty, for a growing mental health crisis, for our failed public education systems.
— Rev. Dr. Willie D. Francois III, Union Theological Seminary
“Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.” — Hebrews 13:3
We believe in the worth of every individual as a child of God, and that no circumstances whatsoever can justify practices intended to break bodies, minds and spirits….Both tortured and torturer are victims of the evil from which no human being is immune. Friends, however, believe that the life and power of God are greater than evil, and in that life and power declare their opposition to all torture.
— 1976 Minute, Friends World Committee for Consultation Triennial Meeting
See also multi-faith sources
Rereading Torah Towards Liberation 