Glenn Youngkin as Governor of The Commonwealth of Virginia, as its Executive is just one person, with all the usual potentials, shortcomings and failures of humanness, in otherwards he's no more or less as all humanity average, as defined by either savagery or saintliness as extremes of our human condition, with neither extreme existing in itself without support, tacitly or overtly and self-serving interest from parts of a society which as this work is concerned, The institution that is Virginia's Society. What this means (and this counters the usual conventional gambit that corruption is implicit, when the truth is corruption is explicit, indicating a failing of society or the objective to exact accountability or resolution, even amelioration of cause because that which is corrupt is the determination and cognitive assertion of interest, at the expense of (take your pick) is simply this, Virginia's status quo has enabled Governor Glenn Youngkin in his retrograde antebellumism. During Virginia's 2024 Legislative session, Virginia Democrats, labored mightily to reform the practice and use of solitary confinement in Virginia's prison system, by The Virginia Department of Corrections, which resulted in the passage of HB1244, which matter of factly was a tame or de minimis effort in contrast to the honest reform of solitary confinement found in The United Nations, Mandela Rules. HB1244 was subsequently vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. Its, the veto and purported reasons that exposes, the sordidness and decrepit nature of Governor Youngkin's actions which then reveals the enabling corruption by Virginia status quo, because as I will show, Governor Youngkin's veto and his expressed reasons were not only disingenuous but a deliberate misrepresentation of Virginia laws, which all of Virginia's lawyers, its legal scholars, law students of its many Universities and Colleges knew and had reason to know were spurious and mendacious, yet by their silence, have endorsed it. Let me quote Governor Youngkin's reasons......"Designating mental health units as isolated confinement without consideration for the informed judgment of mental health professionals undermines effective prison management. Furthermore, imposing arbitrary timeframes for stays in restorative housing, including investigation time, restricts the staff's ability to maintain order and security. Attempting to legislate prison operational procedures carries inherent risks to inmates, staff,and the public. Corrections professionals are entrusted with oversight for a reason, as they must balance multiple interests while ensuring safety. Congregating individuals without proper management protocols is not a viable solution. Additionally, I have concerns regarding the budgetary implications of implementing this proposal. The allocated resources in this proposed Budget may not adequately cover the cost, potentially diverting funding from vital reentry programs and initiatives to reduce recidivism. Additionally, the proposal introduces unnecessary bureaucracy for facility administrators, detracting from the Department's ability to prioritize safety and inmate rehabilitation."...(I've quoted Governor Youngkin's reasons for vetoing reform of Virginia's use of solitary confinement, which The U.S Supreme Court in 1890 In Re Medley called out as .infamous, and I paraphrase served no social good with whatever penological justification claims).Now as the Chief Executive of The Commonwealth of Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin, not only is expected to know its laws, but most importantly defend it. So what are we to make of his misstatement and twisted construction of the law? What is sad, is its all in shortsightedness at the expense of the integrity of the human condition. So when Governor Youngkin, fiat like declares that and I quote, "Attempting to legislate prison operational procedures carries inherent risks to inmates, staff,and the public". We really have to say wait a minute, what dictatorial and anarchistic presumptions are emerging? Because first of all the only reason Virginia has a prison system is because of legislative action, for starters, VIRGINIA CODE TITLE 53.1-PRISONS AND OTHER METHODS OF CORRECTIONS, is one of the mechanisms that allows and permits the Virginia prison official to exercise authority. Here is where we find that Hydra-like, old reactionary antebellum world view, a repackaging of the reprobate 1871, Ruffin v. Commonwealth 62 va 790 appearing under the fraudulent and illegitimate Thought, of the prison official is irreproachable. Then Governor Youngkin continues with "Corrections professionals are entrusted with oversight for a reason, as they must balance multiple interests while ensuring safety. "You know what it'd have been, at least acknowledgeable had Governor Glenn Youngkin simply said, 'I don't have a problem with solitary confinement', at least, he could've taken his rightful place along with all of those other incorrigible anti-progress politicians we find littered across our human history. But to with a straight face as Chief Executive of The Commonwealth present as what is intended to be a valid reason in defense of a governmental practice, which as early as 1890,the highest court in the land, The Supreme Court of These United Sates had found to be without justification, is beyond incredulity. What we can glean from Governor Youngkin's action is this: it is dismissive of The Virginia Prisoner, it is dismissive of the families, loved ones, friends of The Virginia Prisoner, it is dismissive of those suffering, enduring the acts of The Virginia Prisoner, the victims of crime. When Governor Youngkin begins his veto explanation with, "Designating mental health units as isolated confinement without consideration for the informed judgment of mental health professionals undermines effective prison management."It really shows how off the rails and at the mercy of ad hoc reasoning our relationship with intellectual honesty is. Because first of all Governor Glenn Youngkin is stating that The Virginia Department of Corrections is detaining persons with mental health issues right? Shouldn't the issue be why are mental health persons in a prison? Has Governor Youngkin checked out the Virginia prison? And I'm not talking about a photo op at Sussex. So what Governor Youngkin is defending is this, first of all he's already admitted that the Department of Corrections is confining mental health persons as such the prison official should be left to their suppositions, sanctioned by a QMHP, as mental health professional right? To intern the mental health patient in solitary confinement as treatment right? Now in the 1890 In Re Medley case the U.S Supreme court determined, "A considerable number of the prisoners fell after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane others, still,committed suicide while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases, did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent .service to the community".That 1890 Court concluded that solitary confinement is "an infamous punishment".
So what we are confronted with is this, the crux. The Virginia prison official and ally in Governor Glenn Youngkin presenting us with the most convoluted and perfidious reasoning in defense of the barbarity and savagery of the practice of solitary confinement. Let's focus on this fundamental aspect of prison, which is its idealistic rules. Which to the best of persons is challenging. Now consider this, Governor Youngkin admits that mental health persons are confined in Virginia prisons. Now expand your thought to this what do you think goes on when the mental health person encounters the idealistic and ridiculous rules of Virginia prisons? Before you ponder that, I ask you get this case, a law suit brought by a Virginia prisoner calling to account actions and behavior by those "paragons"of professionalism, glorified by our Dear Governor in his veto of HB1244, the Solitary Confinement reform bill, the Virginia prison mental health worker or QMHP (Qualified Mental Health Professional) the case is CARTAGENA v. LOVELL 2024 U.S. App.Lexis 12566 and please pay attention to the dissent, by Judge THACKER. So if someone is already suffering from mental health issues and is having a time complying with the hard to follow and comprehend Virginia prison rules, to which the prison guard naturally reacts to as non compliance or rule violation, to which the mental health person is scurried off to a solitary confinement cage, which is what our Dear Governor Youngkin,is not only giving cover to, but in this "enlightened" milieu of 2024 defending as valid and legitimate treatment for mental health, all because, his executives at The Virginia Department of Corrections have fetishized solitary confinement, comparable to the discovery of the circle as understanding of and control of our human condition and regardless of the obvious, that the only certainty is certainty is an approximate. Virginia prison officials along with a Virginia Governor who sees antebellum sepia along with its delusions wherever he looks are incapable and unwilling of rejecting the type of administrative philosophy asserted by the use of solitary confinement, despite the fact a majority of political leaders and their prison official functionaries across the Nation have in one form or another, acknowledged that, solitary confinement just as the use of torture as a National Security application, is counter productive. Nothing of what I'm saying is a secret. All professional sectors of Virginia society are conscious of and aware that what is being done in their name by the Virginia prison official and condoned and defended by Virginia's Executive leadership (all Republican) along with the Republican Virginia Assembly person, the Think Tank provocateurs are specific and general violations of Law and compromises of no matter how its looked at, even by our neo-feudalist, the fact is antagonisms of social double standards that are nothing more than gratuitous violence are that idealistic cutting off the nose to spite the face. We see this nose cutting in every single indefensible point made by Governor Glenn Youngkin as doing nothing but undermining Virginia's laws. So when Youngkin states, "Furthermore, imposing arbitrary time frames for stays in restorative housing, including investigation time, restricts the staff's ability to maintain order and security", what we're being told and its simple, 'the Virginia prison official is above the law and if we're to quote Gov. Youngkin,the prison officials action and behavior is not to be determined, governed by law, meaning the prison official is a lawless element. This is the inevitable reductive conclusion, when social questions and problems are reacted to with the urge to repress, instead of resolve with consideration.
The criticism rendered by Governor Youngkin,that timeframes relative to solitary confinement is arbitrary and is a restriction on the prison official's ability to maintain order and security, is so jaw dropping that the only conclusion one can reach is, (1) he's term limited as such he doesn't have to face the Virginia voter to explain why if Virginia fought a war against the idea and practice of above the law-ism, he's resurrecting it in the prison official and (2) Virginia's media won't focus much on the lazy thinking and preposterousness of the reasoning because its prison and Prisoner related and the society has been so thoroughly and completely deluded and inured against reforming prison and Virginia's justice infrastructure that it will relatively be unseen. Because the idea that the Virginia prison official is outside of and unimpeached by the absolute authority of DUE PROCESS is nothing less than despotism, hell even King John had his MAGNA CARTA moment right? And if his "arbitrary", chide or is it slur, derision or whatever, is intended to express a form of supremacy of standing to question and slyly mock the "thinking" of those Virginia Democratic politicians who deliberated not only on the constitutionality and legality of timeframes, relative to solitary confinement reform, but on the most important factor, which is, HB1244 was a social good, then the mockery boomerangs on him and his Republican stooges and cabal. Because ridiculing timeframes on any Governmental action, which solitary confining prisoners, short of executing prisoners under Capital Punishment is penultimate reminds us that isn't the FOUR YEAR term of The Virginia Governor, just that a timeframe? which to endorse Our Dear Governor Youngkin's mockery of timeframes relative to solitary confinement, arbitrary? Hell what omniscience went into the establishment of the FOUR YEAR term for The Virginia Governor? Whatever logic that went into its adoption was generally accepted without sophomoric snides and now its a factoid of The Virginia Constitution. Before I speak to that old sleight, of budgetary concerns raised by Governor Glenn Youngkin as veto basis. I want to get a good laugh out of this reason, so Governor Youngkin as coup de grace tells us "Additionally, the proposal introduces unnecessary bureaucracy for facility administrators, detracting from the Department's ability to prioritize safety and inmate rehabilitation ".Let me start by saying this, lawlessness, which Governor Youngkin requires the Virginia prison official to be, is what generates an infinity of bureaucracy. All he has to do is ask his Attorney General Jason Miyares how mired in bureaucracy is the division of his office dealing with prison and Prisoner related court action, all because the Virginia prison official is corrupt and lawless. Then if our Dear Governor has the fortitude he should pay an unannounced visit to the various Department's Regional Directors and check the bureaucratic log of each offices Ombudsman, bulging with prisoner filed grievance complaints, alleging prison official misconduct and Governor Glenn Youngkin condoned lawlessness. We can't make this stuff up, but really what malaise ails Governor Youngkin that instead of insisting that the prison official who is in daily contact with persons imprisoned for allegedly behaving lawlessly, behaves lawfully and professionally, so the imprisoned just might see what lawful and professional looks like on a daily basis instead he endorses their lawlessness, then cliche like hurls the idea reform as if he doesn't get the paradoxical dissonance.
By William Thorpe
I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit
