THE POLITICS OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND OVERSIGHT OF THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS HAS EVERYTHING TO LEARN FROM THE SCHOLARSHIP OF NICOLE HANNAH JONES: HONESTY By William Thorpe

Awright, Nicole Hannah Jones isn't the first to remind us that, the colloquial, in the beginning was the word is all about, Honesty, which is what her 1619 PROJECT scholarship, unapologetically was. Despite and in spite of reaction and its revisionism, Nicole Hannah Jones simply reasserted what any elementary student of dialectics honestly understands, save for former President and adjudged rapist, Donald Trump, that American Freedom is built on the chattel enslavement and oppression of Black people and The 1619 Project simply gave us its Honesty. The Virginia Department Of Corrections more than any other American institution is legatee to those fundamental antecedents illuminated by the scholarship of The 1619 Project, consequently any and all reform efforts of its governance has to, needless I add, be honest. However and I will show that such isn't the case and the politics of accountability and oversight of Virginia's justice infrastructure and its prison system, is corrupt. During this 2024 Virginia legislative session all sorts of justice and prison reform bills were tirelessly pursued, which most were vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. One of the bills and its veto-demise, dealt with The Virginia Department Of Corrections use of solitary confinement, thereby exposing the corruption of the legislative system. Government, regardless of its Machiavellian impulses has to contend with honesty as the adage, the devil is in the details, requires. In otherwords, Government can lie to us, the people (because there are a lot the people or the public doesn't have a need to know) but it cannot and shouldn't lie to itself. Yet that is exactly what the executive branch of Virginia's Government, per The Office Of The Attorney General Of The Commonwealth Of Virginia done over the potential solitary confinement in Virginia prisons reform law that was vetoed. Virginia's Attorney General inexplicably presented dishonest arguments against reforming, the use of solitary confinement by The Virginia Department of Corrections, by contending that Virginia's use of solitary confinement is currently being challenged in federal courts as such the legislature, shouldn't legislate its reform. Now here is why the argument not only was wrong, but it was corrupt. The Attorney General knew and was well aware that Courts had encountered over and over the issue of solitary confinement in Virginia's prison system and had relatively ruled, that it was unconstitutional and a violation of law. See Smith v. Collins 964 F.3d 260 (2020),Lee v.Va .Dept.of Corr. 2020 U.S Dist. Lexis 231921, Porter v. Clarke 923 F.3d 348 (2019), Rivera v. Mathena 795 Fed.Appx.169 (2019), Reyes v. Clarke 2019 U.S Dist. Lexis 150854.These cases, all dealing with solitary confinement are just a drop in the flood of 4th Circuit rulings, of which Virginia is under jurisdiction and The Attorney General not only was well aware, but way back in the late 1800's,The Supreme Court of The United States had already determined that solitary confinement was (and I paraphrase) detrimental to the prisoner driving him insane. A government is obligated to secure what is conducive to the life of its people including prisoners, particularly prisoners, but what we see is Attorney General of The Commonwealth of Virginia Jason Miyares, betraying it, under the specious logic of ongoing adjudication of an obvious evil.

By William Thorpe

I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit