Opportunism and its exploitation by politicians is nothing new and society is equally jaded to expect and naturally accept it. Nonetheless, if governance in the Commonwealth of Virginia isn't to be reduced to a speculative exercise, then certain instances of its display have to be highlighted and for the purpose of this work scrutinized.
WHO OWNS THE VIRGINIA WOMAN'S BODY
A little over a fortnight ago Brian Moran, Secretary of Public Safety Homeland Security and executive elements of the Virginia Department of Corrections intimidated at an opening of a new collaborative front with Virginia Conservatives and the effort at controlling women's bodies. Specifically the bodies of Mothers, Wives, Daughters, Sisters, Aunts, the Women of Virginia Prisoners, under the guise of responding to illicit drugs within the state's prisons. The Department of Corrections weirdly determined that focusing on the menstrual function of Women visitors to its prisons was the correct response because it targeted bloody tampons and menstrual cups.
OPPORTUNITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Consequently, 28 Democratic lawmakers presented a letter to the elements responsible for the state's reprehensible focus on the menstrual functions of Women, stating their misgivings and in extension, their constituents. The classic definition of political opportunity is a politician's reflexive exploitation of the low hanging fruit of contradictions within the society and prison and its issues are always low hanging fruit for politicians and their pursuit of speculative power. What however is troubling in this context: The state and condition of Virginia prisons it's problems and official misconduct have been well documented by the tireless work of Virginia Reform advocacy. Despite the focus on the state's Red Onion State Prison and it's extrajudicial propensity, the Virginia prisons system is a rug well cushioned with the dirt of it's prison officials malfeasance swept under it due to the lack of accountability and political apathy.
If the standard for accountability and focus on the state of Virginia prisoners by Virginia politicians is "Drug overdose.....that are.....preventable "as stated in 9/26/18; democratic lawmakers letter to the Director of the Department of Corrections. Which implies and rightly so, that Virginia citizens are not sentenced to its prisons to die, whether by prisoner suicide or the indifference to prisoner health and nutrition. Then those 28 Democratic lawmakers who correctly reminded elements within the Virginia Department of Corrections, purveyors of the tampon and menstrual cup fight over a Woman's body and it's antebellumesque backwardsness and its Conservative myopia, of once again, another attempt at controlling a Woman's body should recognize that what the effort by those responsible for the tampon menstrual cup policy tells us in that tip of the iceberg manner is the state of the Virginia prison system. Notwithstanding Brian Moran's exhortation that Virginia Department of Corrections Director Harold Clarke has "changed" and reformed the culture. Which we are expected to accept as euphemism for its officials and rank and file guards are now following U.S. and Virginia Law and Department s own procedures and policies. Actions like the tampon and menstrual cup policy that are perverted and morally wrong, even bordering on the sadistic exposes to the Virginia taxpayer that it's prison officials lack the common decency to fundamentally respect Women and if this behavior exemplifies a cultural change, then what exactly preceded it? Case in point at the Virginia Department of Corrections, Red Onion State Prison, not a single Woman has been promoted beyond rank of Sergeant since its 1998 opening, for all practical purposes.
So if those 28 Democrat lawmakers are not petty machiavellian exploiters of the #MeToo political emergence, then concerns about the Virginia prison condition isn't limited to drug overdoses.
THE HYPOCRISY OF DUE DILIGENCE
Have any of the 28 Democratic lawmakers went into, Red Onion, Wallens Ridge, Sussex I, and Sussex II State Prison and spoken to prisoners, actually paid attention to what Virginia Department of Correction proclaims in its press releases with what it does?
By William Thorpe who is held in Solitary Confinement at Red Onions State Prison.
References
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