Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only
The organization of our Human Condition as Society on the mechanism of the Social Contract, has as its attention, the business of being human, or its encompassing character, Work. This supremacy appearance of Work begins its assertion also from the Religious Genesis 2:2 "And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done". Then its Human Condition directive begins at Genesis 3:23 "therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken". To its bookend emergence as legend on the entrance to the Nazi Death Camp Auschwitz," Work Shall Set You Free", where its definition was the administration of the extermination of the human being. The killing and extermination of the human being as Work, had of course preceded its Auschwitz practice, but to my knowledge Auschwitz, had the unique temerity to appropriate the aphorism "work shall set you free", as organizer. I've given this illustration of "work" to show it's primary basis, which then enables me to now say this, if "work" is that activity of life, but as it concerns this work, human life, then all organizing aspects and constructs of the human condition, as revealed as society on the dicta of the social contract are all and only about work. As such it has two diametric 1) that which permits its unimpeded motion and (2) and its maintenance. With its maintenance, we encounter the various forms and types of it's governance or a Government. For a quick definition of government, BLACK'S LAW defines as:The structure of principles and rules determining how a state or organization is regulated. 2, The sovereign power in a nation or state. So let's get a basic understanding of what is this, "sovereign power". Again BLACK'S LAW defines it as: Police Power, The inherent and plenary power of a sovereign to make all laws necessary and proper to preserve the public security, order, health, morality and justice. It is a fundamental power essential to government, and it cannot be surrendered by the legislature or irrevocably transferred away from government. I BEGIN: No one argues, not even the conceited addled among us that the only function of Life, more specifically, human life, isn't that of WORK, which I'll define as idea (conclusion, formulation) +intent (urge)= act, action (production, create).Work which is all and only about the business of being human, meaning securing sustenance and supporting circumstances for human life existence is the organizing focus and attention or purpose of our human condition. As such it brings out the best and worst in us. The worst, is what I want to focus on, because that "worst", is what impels and creates the need for reform, because fundamentally, that worst, has as its psychology, an antagonistic existence or a corrupting effect on relationship terms and values of the social contract which then seeps into the common daily interaction of social existence, which means its impact is squarely and directly on "work", which in society is organized as Labor. This work isn't to instruct Labor on course of action, but this work is clarity on the fact that, the essential purpose of the Police Powers and its state organized violence, existing also as the Justice Infrastructure, with prison as administrator, has a purely coercive and punitive function, that of ensuring Labor is subordinated.
By William Thorpe
I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit and if you feel any kinda way about this work contact me by Securus email using the Texas prison number #2261982
Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only
Candidate Abigail Spanberger, if I'm to use the parlance of the World of Virginia's Tennis Icon Arthur Ashe, feted with base on Richmond's Monument Avenue, "aced" the servings of the political issues and questions of her 2025 gubernatorial Campaign to become Governor of The Commonwealth of Virginia. An accomplishment, notwithstanding it's historic nature of her emergence as First Female and Woman Governor of The Commonwealth of Virginia was already at Match Point, considering the fundamental, again to use the tennis parlance, straightforward serving of the issues and questions, which were, the affordability of life and existence in the Commonwealth. In other words the Politics of the moment was a straightforward serving and all she had to do was ace it by speaking to it. This recognition and capacity to articulate it has nothing to do with Leadership and in no way, form or manner does it indicate such. Candidate Spanberger's capacity to articulate or humanize the circumstances of affordability confronting the Virginian, wasn't in itself as I've pointed out indicative of leadership, which its expression would require a willingness to excavate the fact for the people of Virginia, that the issue and question of affordability of life and existence required and requires a more systemic and structural scrutiny and revelatory analysis, and that will require the originality of and ability of leadership, because unraveling the nature of "affordability", requires the courage to confront its orthodoxy and status quo underpinnings. I BEGIN: Just because Candidate Abigail Spanberger gave us the PG-13-articulation of "affordability" doesn't mean its more mature and primordial nature disappeared, because it now stands arrayed in all of its inexorability demanding the husbandry of leadership, which Governor Abigail Spanberger with her selection of Joseph W. Walters as the next Director of The Virginia Department of Corrections, is showing she hasn't found and lacks. The PG-13-affordability critique, on whose sails Governor Spanberger glided into history as Virginia's First Female Governor, was an end of a more diabolical phenomenon, that of the destruction of the process and terms of the Social Contract in two aspects, Nationally and State, which Abigail Spanberger clearly recognized because even though she wasn't explicit in stating such, its intimation was a latent backdrop because, what is affordable life and existence if there isn't any fair administration of law, as Social Contract terms, giving process to the necessary transactions of value exchange and its stability. So Ms. Spanberger was well aware that without that respect and subordination to the rule of law and its process, any discussion, debate and critique of affordability was moot, tantamount to that proverbial fiddling while Rome burned. Candidate and now Governor, Abigail Spanberger knew that the primary and only significant and relevant question facing Virginia as well as the Nation was and is IMPUNITY and its DICTATORSHIP. In Virginia its most prevalent and pernicious existence is in the form and professional behavior of the Virginia Prison Official and if Abigail Spanberger as Governor of Virginia is expected to and would be able to confront, that more basic impunity and it's dictatorship careening with its National aspect, how in the hell can she do so when not only is she affirming but endorsing it by selecting a cog in its Virginia machinery for Director of Virginia's Department of Corrections.
By William Thorpe
I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit and if you feel any kinda way about this work contact me by Securus email using the Texas prison number #2261982
I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit and if you feel any kinda way about this work contact me by Securus email using the Texas prison number #2261982
A physical altercation last summer at Red Onion State Prison, where he is incarcerated, left them deeply concerned for his safety, his brother Dominic said in an email.
Ebron alleges that officers used excessive force on him last July, but the complaint he filed was deemed “unfounded.” Copies of paperwork he mailed to The Mercury confirm that he was sprayed with mace and force was used on him, though he disputes the details of what the document says happened.
According to Ebron’s complaint, correctional officers assaulted him by spraying mace into his cell and bending his arm and fingers through the cell’s tray slot. After officers escorted him for medical attention, he alleged that he wasn’t given water to rinse off the mace and that an officer tripped him, slamming his face to the ground.
Prison paperwork tells a different story. The official report states that force was appropriately used because Ebron’s arm had been “out of the tray slot.” It also claims that he was “offered decontamination” but refused. As for the body slamming, the report says it happened because Ebron “pulled away from staff and attempted to spit.”
But Ebron, in a letter to The Mercury, says that’s not what happened, and that he was “spitting because they maced me and never let me get any water.”
He’s since asked for security camera footage of the incident to be preserved, believing it will confirm his version of events as well as the officers’ actions.
“Speaking for myself, I know I haven’t been nowhere near perfect, but that doesn’t mean my rights as a human should be discarded,” he wrote.
Ebron is serving a 30 year sentence for a murder he committed during an armed robbery in 2005 when he was 20 years old.
He is one of several Red Onion inmates who have spoken with the media or prison reform advocates over the past year, sharing stories of mistreatment and poor living conditions. Allegations range from excessive force and prolonged isolation to delayed medical care. Accusations of racism and religious discrimination have also surfaced.
Last fall, the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) confirmed that at least six inmates burned themselves — though advocates claim that number is higher. Some inmates and advocates say the burns were acts of protest, desperation, or attempts to secure transfers to other facilities.
Speaking at a December 2024 meeting of the state legislature’s Public Safety Committee, VADOC Director Chad Dotson dismissed the idea that self-harm was a form of protest.
“There’s no evidence whatsoever that there was any kind of a plot or a protest,” Dotson said. “All the inmates involved said they did it because they wanted to get away from Red Onion. Two of these have a history of self-harm.”
Red Onion inmate Ekong Eshiet, who is serving time for a 2018 malicious wounding charge, said in an audio recording by Prison Radio — a group that amplifies the voices of incarcerated people — that he was among those who set themselves on fire.
He hoped the act would force a transfer out of the facility and said he had also protested his treatment through a hunger strike. Eshiet has described discrimination from officers.
Eshiet also described his situation as being “in fear for my life.”
In a separate message to The Mercury sent via JPay, an email service for incarcerated people, he raised concerns about continued access to email and the potential for retaliation against those speaking out amid the growing scrutiny on the prison.
An investigation into Red Onion by the state’s new corrections ombudsman is pending, while an internal review is also underway at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center in Chesterfield County, where a fire broke out during an outbreak last month. However state reports have already identified one issue that may be contributing to problems across Virginia’s prison system: staffing shortages.
‘Critically and dangerously understaffed’
A November 2024 report to state lawmakers confirmed that staffing levels in Virginia’s correctional facilities remain dangerously low, with “very few” educational programs operating and some facilities unable to provide the legally-required out-of-cell time for inmates. The consulting firm CGL concluded that many of the VADOC’s facilities are “critically and dangerously understaffed.”
While Dotson said that Red Onion specifically had a staff vacancy rate of 9% in late December, the November report from CGL indicated widespread staffing issues in VADOC.
“This lack of staff impacts every aspect of facility operations and results in facilities that are unsafe,” the report stated.
While Virginia doesn’t technically use the term “solitary confinement,” it has what state code refers to as “restorative housing.” This form of Isolation is intended for inmates who pose a threat to themselves or others, but advocates have long raised concerns about its prolonged use.
A 2023 state law requires that inmates in restrictive housing receive four hours per day out of their cells — something that, according to the report, is not always happening. Without identifying the facility, the report noted: “Effectively, at one site visited, nearly the entire population had been in Restricted Housing status for an extended period of time at the time of our site visit.”
At Red Onion, the “Step Down Program” is designed to help inmates transition out of restrictive housing. According to Dotson, more than 120 people were enrolled in the program by the end of last year, and over 300 have completed it in the past six years.
“I’m giving you a way to get away from Red Onion — behave,” Dotson said during a presentation at the December committee meeting.
However, a class action lawsuit filed by the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union argues that despite the program’s stated purpose, inmates are still being confined longer “than is justified.”
Current and formerly incarcerated individuals have told The Mercury that lockdowns are a frequent occurrence in Virginia prisons — sometimes triggered by fights for security reasons, other times seemingly used as a method of population control when staffing is low.
During a late January phone call with The Mercury, Kevin Rashid Johnson appeared to experience one firsthand. As he spoke, sirens blared in the background, signaling the start of a lockdown he said before the call ended.
Johnson, who previously led a hunger strike at Red Onion, is now incarcerated at Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Oakwood and has been in several facilities around Virginia amid his life sentence for murder. He was one of the first to alert reporters and activists about the men who burned themselves last year and has been vocal in his dissatisfaction with Dotson’s response.
“This man goes in the media, ‘Oh, it’s just (inmates) being manipulative,’” Johnson paraphrased. “Who the hell is going to set themselves on fire trying to be manipulative? That goes to one of the most primal fears in man — fire.”
Without naming Johnson or specific advocates, Dotson dismissed their pushback when confirming the burnings, calling them “bad-faith efforts to try to score cheap political points by advocacy groups.”
Johnson, however, urges people to consider what drives someone to harm themselves in the first place. A Black man incarcerated in Southwest Virginia, Johnson says his time in prison has been marked by racism from a system largely staffed by white officers.
With a formal investigation into Red Onion on the horizon, Johnson remains skeptical of what, if anything, will change.
Corrections Ombudsman Andrea Sapone stepped into her role last September, and by December she was already hearing from members of the legislature’s Corrections Oversight and Public Safety committees, as well as members of the public advocating for their incarcerated loved ones. In response, she announced plans to streamline the complaint process for future investigations and plans to launch an inquiry into Red Onion. As of late February, her office has filled four of the five positions needed to carry that investigation.
However, Johnson sees an inherent conflict of interest in the process. Since Sapone works for the state, he believes an independent third party should handle the investigation.
Others, meanwhile, see Sapone’s position — created through legislation — as a step toward meaningful oversight and accountability in the prison system.
A crowd gathers near Virginia’s Capitol on Jan. 8, 2024 for a rally about allegations of abuse stemming from some Virginia prisons. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)
‘High rehabilitative needs’
Flames appear to have quite literally ignited at a juvenile facility in Virginia.
Transcripts from a 911 call obtained by The Richmond Times-Dispatch detail a chaotic scene on Feb. 9 at Bon Air Correctional Center, where a “jailbreak of sorts” unfolded. A group of minors gained control of their housing unit and started a fire, while the sole guard on duty barricaded herself in her office to call for backup. State police responded with pepperball guns to regain control of the situation.
An internal investigation is underway, and “charges are pending,” according to Department of Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Melodie Martin. She noted that many youth housed at Bon Air have committed violent crimes.
“This is a very challenging population with high rehabilitative needs. Occasionally, some of the behavior exhibited in the community repeats itself in the facility,” Martin said in an email. “This is to be expected through the therapeutic process, and we support and thank the dedicated staff who invest in this high need population.”
But advocates argue that incidents like the one on Feb. 9 might also stem from persistent concerns about living and working conditions that they have warned about for years.
Martin declined to disclose specific staffing numbers but said vacancies at Bon Air dropped by 39% between January and June of last year. She added that the Feb. 9 call for assistance was “not based on staffing,” but rather the department’s protocol prohibiting the use of “chemical agents or other law enforcement tools” on facility residents — leaving state police to deploy pepperball guns instead.
But, much like VADOC, allegations have surfaced that low staffing levels may contribute to unsafe conditions for both employees and residents, as well as reduced access to rehabilitative programming.
Staff exit surveys obtained by the Legal Aid Justice Center and advocacy group Rise For Youth reveal mounting frustrations among former employees.
“Y’all ask for too much being that we’re always on single coverage,” one survey from Feb. 22, 2024, read. “(I am) tired of getting drafted everyday.”
Another former employee expressed concern about how staffing shortages impact the youth at Bon Air.
“Residents on the existing side of campus are constantly locked down due to staff shortage which is completely inhumane. If my child were locked up at this facility, as a parent, I would be extremely upset about the dynamic,” a respondent wrote in a survey dated March 11, 2024.
They added that staff are “overworked and underpaid” and that the staffing crisis poses a direct security risk.
Interviews conducted by the Legal Aid Justice Center with some Bon Air inmates revealed that school has not always been available to them and many feel they are frequently in a state of “lockdown.”
Both staff and incarcerated youth “are hurting,” said Valeria Slater, director of Rise For Youth. She wasn’t surprised by the February outbreak of violence among some.
“If you are not providing all that’s necessary for these young people to truly be successful, then there is going to be deterioration — it’s a natural consequence,” she said “So when the fire broke out, I mean, how was it not anticipated that eventually it would boil over?”
For former Department of Juvenile Justice Director Andrew Block, the situation is troubling.
“My heart goes out to the staff and kids who I’m sure are incredibly stressed and scared and exhausted,” he said.
Del. Rae Cousins, D-Richmond, has been gathering feedback from families of incarcerated individuals in both adult and juvenile facilities since taking office last year. When it comes to the Department of Juvenile Justice, she said the response from officials does not seem to align with the concerns raised by families or the documented complaints from former staff.
“It’s sort of like two different accounts,” Cousins said, adding that she wants to get to the bottom of the discrepancies.
Both Cousins and Block believe the Commission on Youth could play a role in addressing these issues, whether through focused hearings or a formal study to explore legislative or departmental actions.
“I am gathering information from advocates and plan to speak with the commission members in the next month or so,” Cousins said.
Potential solutions so far
While targeted reforms for facilities like Red Onion and Bon Air may be on the horizon, broader legislative efforts to improve conditions in Virginia’s correctional system are also underway.
Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, and Del. Karen Keys-Gamarra, D-Fairfax, sponsored measures aimed at reforming how facilities handle restrictive or solitary housing. The legislation requires that before an individual is placed in a restrictive setting, they must first be considered for a less-severe alternative. If isolation is deemed necessary, they must undergo both physical and mental evaluations.
Del. Holly Seibold, D-Fairfax, a co-patron on the bill, voiced concerns that restrictive housing often perpetuates itself — trapping people in a cycle where declining mental health makes it even harder for them to adjust their behavior and transition out of isolation.
During a visit to Red Onion and Wallens Ridge facilities last summer, Seibold was “shocked” by the numbers of people held in solitary conditions. While state law mandates that such incarcerated individuals receive time outside their cells, she was troubled by the way the policy was being applied.
“They were technically outside, but in cage-like structures,” Seibold said. “That was really disturbing. Yes, they’re outside, but they’re still isolated in a cage. So to me, that’s still a continuation of solitary.”
The current law requiring out-of-cell time was signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2023. Now, the new bill aimed at expanding solitary reforms awaits his decision.
If signed, advocates say, the law would impact both youth and adult correctional facilities.
“It says ‘persons in correctional center centers’ — that means Bon Air counts,” Slater said.
Another measure from Bagby, which passed with bipartisan support, seeks to prohibit the shackling of youth during court proceedings. Under current law, juveniles can be restrained in court regardless of their behavior or the nature of their offense — a practice that several states have already outlawed.
As young people first enter the criminal justice system, some advocates argue that keeping them out of incarceration altogether could reduce the likelihood of future offenses.
Tom Woods, an associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, believes Virginia could reinstate criminal justice reforms he helped shape more than a decade ago.
A decade ago, then-Department of Juvenile Justice Director Andrew Block consulted with Woods to reform how long certain offenders were confined in correctional facilities, diverting some to probation programs that allowed them to remain with their families.
The goal, they explained, was twofold: to prevent unnecessary incarceration and to create a more manageable staff-to-resident ratio in facilities.
“Every day and every hour” in juvenile facilities needs to be directed towards rehabilitation and preparing those in custody to leave, Woods said.
Since then, leadership changes have brought policy shifts, moving away from those reforms. But Woods argues that reinstating them could not only improve outcomes for youth but also help ease Bon Air’s staffing struggles.
“It takes a certain kind of person and time to get the right people in the right positions,” Woods said. “If you’re already feeling the pressure in terms of the population as it is, you need to look for ways to reduce that pressure quickly.”
Virginia's new corrections ombudsman will prioritize investigating Red Onion State Prison, where allegations of mistreatment, prolonged isolation, and self-harm have sparked concern. Andrea Sapone, the state's new corrections ombudsman, announced that her office will prioritize investigating conditions and safety at Red Onion State Prison, which has faced scrutiny after a 2023 hunger strike and six self-immolations this year.By vapac
Men at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia are setting themselves on fire in protest of racism and abuse.
On The Take,
hears from Noel Hanrahan, co-director of
Prison Radio
, about the abuses imprisoned men are facing:
In this episode:
Noel Hanrahan, legal director for Redwood Justice Fund and co-director of Prison Radio
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Amy Walters, Sonia Bhagat, and Ashish Malhotra with Sarà el-Khalili, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Duha Mosaad, Khaled Soltan, Hagir Saleh, Cole Van Miltenburg, and our host, Malika Bilal.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Let me begin by calling some of 'em out. So we have THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, BLACKSBURG,COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY, OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY, HAMPTON UNIVERSITY, MARY BALDWIN,VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY, VIRGINIA UNION,VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND these are some of Virginia's pride and joy, purported witnesses to the world of The Commonwealth Of Virginia's civilization and progressiveness. Then there are those on paper only "RELIGIOUS" schools, i.e LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, RADFORD something and their ilk. Then we have, The Churches, CATHOLIC,PROTESTANT (their variegatedness) ORTHODOX, COPTIC, Then,the various Religious Faiths, ISLAM, BUDDHIST, JUDAISM, HINDI, RASTAFARIAN. Then The Business Community, who sell themselves to their customers and employees as reflective of and representative of "values" of VIRGINIA society. Then we have ORGANIZED LABOR, then it's sellouts NON-UNION. I've just listed a cross section of the foundation, basis and fundamentals of VIRGINIA'S SOCIAL CONTRACT. The Face that Virginia presents to the world that not only is it worthy of membership into the community of our human condition but it has much to contribute on the medium of RESPECT and RESPECTABILITY. I'm not polemicizing that The Commonwealth of Virginia is only a fraud and reprobate, what I'm calling to account is,just as Virginia's ancestry (of all its people, even the reprobates and reactionaries) engaged in the work and struggle of relatively redeeming Virginia from it's reprehensible human past, to where no where within this present Commonwealth is that past, legitimately defended as constructive speech and political activity. As such we see that this center of Virginia's Justice Infrastructure and its expressed scheme of imprisonment isn't holding to which we have as example our past work of redeeming Virginia from its antebellum ills. Virginia's current Establishment as structured, which I indict by critique, cannot claim any sort and type of enlightenment, insight and proclamation of anything, while continuing to avert its collective eyes and gaze from the existential savagery of its prison official towards the imprisoned Virginian. Much mental and manual labor are spent towards affirming, materializing and securing a/the future of and for our Commonwealth, but despite and regardless of the fact that circumspectively some of it occurs oblivious of the savagery of the Virginia prison official isn't absolution. A Social Contract, Society is an existence of omniscience, meaning society is obligated to pay attention and understand its nature. Whether or not Virginia Professors and their wards are aware and cognizant that savagery isn't a past tense, only to be sanctimoniously scrutinized and speculated upon the hypocrisies and schizophrenia of history, but are FACTS playing out in Virginia prisons between prisoner and official, again doesn't absolve them and the organic interactions of Society that birthed the sanctimonious presumptions. In other words, if what a typical and approximate Virginian is imprisoned for is fundamental and historical Virginia behavior and if there isn't an actual "other" in humanity, then the practical dismissiveness of Virginia's prison infrastructure by its Status quo, its Learning institutions, Religious organizations, Business and Labor groups isn't an indictment of the convicted and imprisoned but rather The Commonwealth. If the justice infrastructure is an expression of responsibility by the people then it must extend towards its reform.
By William Thorpe
I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit and if you feel any kinda way about this work contact me by Securus email using the Texas prison number #2261982
We have patiently waited, watching, listening for a response from Virginia's press and corporate media that would calmly remind VADOC that not only does:
United States Constitution Amendment 1
Speaks against....."Abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.....
But The Constitution of Virginia
At Section 12. Freedom of speech and of the press declares....."That the freedoms of speech and of the press are among the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained except by despotic governments, that any citizen may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, that the general assembly shall not pass any law abridging the freedom of speech of the press"
So in light of the above excerpts representing the fair and just bulwarks of our social compact. Why then would a function of Virginia's executive, the Virginia Department of Corrections not only seek biased and favorable press coverage but would seek to intimidate Virginia's press into self-censorship and what is appalling and sad is this continuing kowtow of Virginia's press to the corrupted demand of the Virginia Department of Corrections.
The Virginia Department of Corrections is a fact of the commonwealth organized violence and violence in all of its forms and expression exist for itself. Requiring a distilled level of transparency if there is to be accountable justification of the rule of law.
We state that the VADOC element or the prison official is no greater or lesser than the imprisoned and prisoner in their charge Because both exist as creations of the rule of law and if the rule of law isn't to succumb to and become a selective narrative which VADOC clearly anticipates that by its February 16, 2022 press release reminder it does then Virginia's press and corporate media has to actually do what our constitutional privileges demand. We call Virginia's press to account
Docket William Thorpe v. Harold Clarke Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date Argued: January 25th, 2022 Duration: 48:49 Docket Number: 21-1714 Judges: Henry Franklin Floyd, Roger L. Gregory, Stephanie Dawn Thacker This item represents an oral argument audio file as scraped from a U.S. Government website by Free Law Project.
Dick Hall-Sizemore begins his work with "Governor Ralph Northam has announced that he will ask the General Assembly for authority to release from prison those offenders with a year less to serve on their sentences in order to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in prison. He stressed that only those who have demonstrated good behavior and would not pose a threat to society would be eligible." And Dick Hall-Sizemore had so much of a problem with it that he took thirteen paragraphs stating such.
Again we have to move beyond head-scratching to head shaking, because didn't Hall Sizemore tell us that prisoners in question are those with a year or less to serve and have demonstrated good behavior? Let this sink in, "A year or less to serve." Meaning a prisoner could have served 44 years on a 45-year sentence with a year to go and Hall-Sizemore is telling us that 44 pounds of flesh years aren't enough on a 45-year sentence and if that prisoner hasn't been "corrected" and "rehabilitated" in Dick Hall-Sizemore's judgment and to his liking by his Confederates at the Virginia Department of Corrections [VADOC] then release from prison in light of the COVID-19 pandemic is a nonstarter.
I responded to Dick Hall Sizemore, not because his 4/11/20 post is coherent, cogent with insight and enlightenment. But I respond to Dick Hall Sizemore in particular because for too damn long we have been subjected to the schizophrenic intellect of the Hall-Sizemore's of the land seizing the narrative and distorting it to suit and fit their idealistic and reactionary politics and his post is another pathetic exercise.
Imprisonment Is Conditional on Law and the Underpinning Politics
Imprisonment first and foremost is conditional because it is conditioned by its legality. There is nothing in the circumstance of the imprisonment of the prisoner that gives the prison official unconditional rein to hold in confinement and detention a prisoner unconditionally. Every class of prisoner from those sentenced to be murdered to those on house arrest, the imprisonment is subject to whether government, the state and it's prison officials have the legal right to detain the prisoner. The prisoner during the imprisonment discovers, new facts, new evidenced and presents such discovery to government, the state, its court, and judges either seeking release, a new trial of sentence reduction, a circumstance that can and will alter the condition of being imprisoned. So there is nothing in the imprisonment circumstance that implies, as soon as the prisoner is in the cluches of the prison officials the seizure and condition is final.
Secondly, the legality of the imprisonment is dependent on the viability of the politics underpinning the legal structure that imprisoned the prisoner. So for example and history is replete with examples of as soon as a political system is extinguished whether, by revolution or civil and external wars, prisoners are released from their imprisonment. i.e. America, France, Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, all revolutions to name a few. The COVID-19 pandemic presents us with such a circumstance. Furthermore, we are informed by our pre-COVID-19 pandemic politicsthat the world as we knew it has changed.That there is an emergence of a new social compact, to wit new politics, which is underscored by the socialistic political-economy we are experiencing. From trillions being pumped into the economy by the federal government and the Federal Reserve Bank to where society at large resembles prison even to the prison jargon of "lockdowns." And as a final nail in the legality coffin, there is nothing in U. S. Virginia, Texas law that asks a prisoner die during a pandemic as part of the terms of the sentence. As a matter of fact U.S. Virginia, Texas law prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, but the thrust of what I'm saying is the COVID-19 pandemic is one law and its political underpinning never factored or considered, therefore government, the state and it's prison officials lack any authority from the social-compact to maintain seizure of the prisoner under the illegal condition created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dick Hall-Sizemore Is Lawless With Reactionary Impulses
It isn't that Dick Hall-Sizemore is incapable of understanding the conditionality of imprisonment and the illegal circumstancethe COVID-19 pandemic imposes on the condition. But the fact is Dick Hall Sizemore appraises law in a lawless extrajudicial manner specifically as a mechanism to be wielded in controlling the other.So therefore the extrajudicial expectations and logic of his 4/11/20; post is nothing less than it's continuation.
Naturally, Hall-Sizemore can only support the COVID-19 pandemic and its death by default as an anticipation of his idealistic and reactionary politics of prison and death. Sizemore closes his post with, "To be fair to the Governor, however, he cannot just practically throw the prison gates open as some are advocating" reveals Dick Hall-Sizemore's lawless and reactionary impulses, because unless Hall-Sizemore is suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't introduced an illegal condition upon imprisonment which I have shown that it has, then the only cause of action for government and the state is to "throw the prison gates open" and release all prisoners.
William Thorpe is in Solitary Confinement at Eastham Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections
The post adds nothing nor does it obfuscate. Because the question is not about governmental behavior during a circumstance, [pandemic] that imposes unlawful and illegal conditions on "lawfully" imprisoned persons. That question is already settled. The U.S. Constitution 8th amendment and its jurisprudence are clear, Government cannot subject prisoners to conditions that mortally impact life yet every single aspect of prison pre-COVID-19 and post does and will, due to the lack of accountability.
Nor does COVID-19 present a novel question within state-organized violence of prison and it's administration despite its novel Corona designation. The issue at hand is simple:
Under what circumstance are prisoners released
Under what circumstance are prisoners treated with the same rationality of law that transformed them into prisoners,
And under what circumstance will speculators and speculations on prison and prisoners set aside colloquial impulses and come to terms with the fact contradictions ignored mature into antagonisms of hypocrisies and delusions mocking the social contract and its politic-law underpining.
What COVID-19 presents and does within the prison setting is something more fundamental and basic it exposes the irrationality of governments anticipations as prison officials who are no more experts on anything, despite their idealistic pronouncements conjured whole cloth, hocus pocus like, for example, designations like, "the criminal mind of the prisoner" shibboleth intended as expertise to justify their existence, when confronted with the fact that prison as a lawful and legal construct has no basis to maintain detention of prisoners who were not sent to prison to be harmed of killed whether extrajudicial or by Ribonucleic Acid elements. So the question is simple how does law address the condition of the human being transformed into prisoner by its dictates during an epochal emergence that considers nothing than its cataclysmic logic, as COVID-19 does?
Consider this: A prisoner having served 20 of a 30-year sentence for armed robbery and COVID-19 happens. So lawfully and within the social contract, there can only be one action and
response release. Because there isn't a governmental action that guarantees that the lawfulness that resulted the detention will assure the prisoner and the community that he will remain uninfected and unimpacted by COVID-19. The Prisoner wasn't sent to prison to die and COVID-19's default action is killing. COVID-19 is a condition no law or social-contract can ask a human to its subject. Yet discussions of what is government to do during the COVID-19 Pandemic within the prison setting as the April 5. 2020 Virginia Jails and Prisons Brace for Pandemic post speculates are indulged in as if the prisoner is an unconditional property and possession of government and its organized violence and that is not so. The COVID-19 Pandemic presents prisoners, families, allies, advocates and the taxpaying citizenry including victims of crime [because victims of crime should stand shoulder to shoulder with the advocacy that government, its prison officials are not up and above law and its politics] with the opportunity to unequivocally and unambiguously confront that governmental presumption of unconditional seizure and possession of the prisoner when no such condition of absolute possession within the human condition exist and not even the politics of death and prison can distort it.
There is only one action for government during the COVID-19 Pandemic relative to the prisoner and prison and that is release.
William Thorpe is at Eastham Unit in Texas in Solitary Confinement since 1996, Virginia exiled him in 2019 to Texas
Dick Hall-Sizemore confessed....."If I had asked, but did not always know enough to ask" and in one swoop discredited any legitimate observation he could have relative to the Virginia Department of Corrections practice of Solitary Confinement. The not knowing "enough to ask" is the imperative any reasonable and serious-minded person has to resolve and satisfy before hurling tropes that we have come to recognize as the mechanics of Intellectual-Liberalism of Conservatism and it's schizophrenia. So Mr. Hall Size-More is accord with his compatriot Mr. Bacon [who in an earlier work, "Are Conclusions Pre-Ordained for Solitary Confinement study?" expressed another thread opposing the very basic and fundamental need that conclusions should be fact-based and data driven] has given us another indulgence of the exercise of the indefensible.
In Mr. Hall-Size-More 3/13/19....."More on Solitary Confinement" we are hard-pressed to take it seriously. Because is Mr. Hall-Sizemore hectoring us that if Virginia's use of Solitary Confinement doesn't comport with Hollywood's depiction of prison i.e Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape or Communist North Vietnam's practice of Solitary Confinement, then it is not Solitary Confinement and society should practically ignore what is being done by it's prison officials in its name irrespective and regardless of its depravity and barbarity. If this is Mr. Hall-Sizemore's position then it is the only reachable conclusion and its very means of dissemination BaconsRebellion.com sullies the very work and aspiration of Nathanial Bacon of 1676, but considering the reactionary and conservative worldview Mr. Hall-Sizemore's work intimates, it isn't surprising that Bacons Rebellion and it's ethos has been misappropriated and perverted.
Mr. Hall-Sizemore lectures us in his Solitary Confinement 101 that "by its very terms," "Solitary Confinement" means being confined alone not having contact with other humans. That is not the case with Virginia prisons. Those inmates housed in DOC's version of "Solitary" confinement are in single cells, but can communicate with their guards, can leave their cells several times a week for showers and outdoor recreation, have regular visits from counselors and psychologist, and in some cases can participate in education or another programming - as a result DOC avoids the term "Solitary Confinement." "Instead, it uses other terms." So, in a nutshell, Mr. Hall-Sizemore's argument is with VADOC's "version" of Solitary Confinement which he recognizes is a type and form and I wonder how it's tongue and cheekiness and facetiousness could have eluded Mr. Hall-SizeMore's and it's highly improbable that it did and as such the only conclusion then is the sensibilities of Mr. Hall-Sizemore are quite at home with government sanctioned and perpetrated barbarity which as evidenced in Virginia Solitary Confinement practice and the ruling and finding by a Federal Judge in Porter vs. Clarke violates the U.S. Constitutions prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Mr. Hall-Sizemore writes ".....The ACLU and other advocacy groups could seize on the data [referencing data on Solitary Confinement] and make superficial conclusions." He continues with "the management of inmates is a complex business and each case needs to be examined on its own merits. It would be easy to draw misleading conclusions about the use or misuse of Restrictive Housing if one does not look at individual circumstances" [Mr. Size-More euphemistically refers to Solitary Confinement as Restrictive Housing] which in anticipation the federal judge in Porter vs. Clarke responded with and I paraphrase, Regardless of the label put on the Solitary Confinement practice, if prisoners are being warehoused and confined in cells for 20 hours or more it is Solitary Confinement.
Now what Mr. Hall-Sizemore and those of his inclination forget is the practice of imprisonment in the Commonwealth of Virginia is Rule of Law based and as such there has to be process. As the judge in the Madrid v. Gomez case dealing with the use of Solitary Confinement in California stated and I paraphrase, prison officials are not at liberty to act on their each and every impulse as they see fit and if Solitary Confinement with all it's attendant evils is the state's solution, that management of prisoners which Mr. Size-More proffers as mitigant. Then the logical conclusion would be, the state could Lobotomize prisoners, But the Constitution or rule of law will not permit it. So Mr. Hall Size-More's argument against the collection of data concerning the Virginia Department of Corrections use of Solitary Confinement, which is simply intended to make the practice transparent and prison officials accountable to society's will not only smells of the prison officials logic and apology but sadly to say, is the typical and classic assertion of the status quo when confronted with the inexorable progressive demand for transparency and accountability of state action and function done in the name of society and quite frankly it's high time we relegated such regurgitations to the ash heap of savagery and it's impunity which as ideal, the human condition and it's mind sought,
It would be quite simple and a cheap parlor trick to engage in the petty insidious turn of Mr. Hall-SizeMore's argument by responding in kind when he cites examples of alleged misdeeds of humans who are imprisoned as qualifications for whatever claim the Virginia Department of Corrections and it's Red Onion State Prison, actor has as cause for the extrajudicial logic of Solitary Confinement. But I will not because the historic facts and record are prima facie of not only Red Onion State Prison officials and guards but Wallens Ridge, Sussex l and ll, River North to name a few even going all the way back to the now-closed Richmond based, Virginia State Penitentiary and Mecklenburg Correctional Center, were the norm was the pure unbridled savagery and sadism of its prison employees acting above the law and beyond the pale of simple humaness in the treatment of prisoners which now law authorized and consequently gave cause to expose the rife criminality of the Virginia Prison Official which Mr. Hall-Sizemore pathetically labors to excuse and conveniently protect.
It would have been and it will be a breath of fresh air when Messers Hall-Sizemore and Bacon recognize that transparency, accountability and the Due process of the rule of law exist as fact of the social and it's political-economy maturity as a fundamental construct of "no one is above the law" especially the prison officials who are sworn to uphold it and the transparency of data in the public domain on the practice of Solitary Confinement will only make Virginia society and its Governance a redeemed one.
William Thorpe is in Solitary Confinement at Virginia's Red Onion State Prison has been since its opening in 1998.
