VIRGINIA OFFICIALS RETALIATE AGAINST PRISONER WHO SET HIMSELF ON FIRE AND EXPOSED ABUSES AT RED ONION (2025) By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Kevin "Rashid" Johnson 

The name Ekong Eshiet has become widely known in the media, after he and numerous other prisoners set themselves on fire in desperate efforts to be transferred away from the racist abuses at Virginia's Red Onion State Prison. After a series of lies and coverups staged by Virginia prison officials to sweep the abuses at Red Onion and these desperate reactions to them by victims under the rug, a Virginia Delegate, Michael Jones made a surprise visit on December 30, 2024, touring the prison and speaking to prisoners and staff there. He left with numerous critical findings about conditions at Red Onion that needed immediate correction, among them were racist mistreatment of Black prisoners, substandard food (in quality and quantity), use of attack dogs, transfer process, medical care, educational and vocational opportunities, and so on. Among the prisoners that he spoke with were Ekong, and Charles Colemen who also set himself on fire at the prison. Upon leaving Red Onion Delegate Jones expressed that, "what impacted me the most were the self-immolation incidents. " Immediately after this legislator's visit, Red Onion officials went to work retaliating against Ekong for speaking to him, attempting to set him and his family up for physical harm. They not only spread false rumors that Ekong is a snitch to numerous prisoners but also gave his family's personal addresses to other prisoners. Every prisoner, and those acquainted with prison culture, knows that spreading such rumors is in many cases a death sentence or at very least likely to lead to ongoing violent attacks against the victim of such rumors. And now in Ekong's case, against his family as well. This is an example of Red Onion and these remote Virginia prison officials at work. His sister among others of his relatives have already been seriously impacted by these criminal acts of Red Onion officials. Not only is racist and inhumane abuse inflicted on the people in these hidden prisons, but Virginia officials, including the prison system's director Chadwick Dotson, initially lied to the public claiming there were no prisoner self-immolations calling the reports "ludicrous," then when legislators revealed that there in fact were at least six of them, Dotson claimed the prisoners had nothing to protest and were just being manipulative. But now, a state Delegate has visited the prison and left with findings that EVERYTHING we've said about racism and abuse, abuse of attack dogs, arbitrary transfers to and from the prison and more ARE ALL TRUE! And now in response to this exposure and to terrify others from coming forward so the abuses might continue or be denied by victims and witnesses, Red Onion officials have moved to set Ekong and his family up for violent attack or death. Racist abuse, lying coverups and denials from the highest levels of government, then deadly retaliation against victims and witnesses and their families to silence exposure going forward...This is your government at work. What I found most disappointing was the legislator's proposed response to his findings, particularly with regard to the racism and abuse. He stated that it should be left to the prison system's leadership to retrain staff to end racist practices. If that were a viable solution, there would have been no need for decades of mass resistance that often became deadly to end racial segregation and extend basic civil rights to people of color in Amerika, or the deadliest war on U.S. soil to be waged to end racial slavery. If officials honestly believe that all it takes to end racist and abusive practices is to bring such practices to the attention of the perpetrators, then the very logic of the U.S. criminal justice system collapses. All that is needed to end crime is to tell the criminals they're breaking the law and trust they will stop on their own. Not only is the racist abuse in Virginia's remote prisons the making and doing of the prison system's leadership, but that very leadership went in the media lying not just about these conditions but about the men at Red Onion setting themselves on fire in desperate efforts to get out of those conditions. And as I pointed out in a recent article, "Who Running the Virginia Prison System?", the prison system's leadership at its Richmond headquarters are transplants from the remote regions where this racist abuse is happening, and they are purging the prison system of predominantly Black-staffed high-security prisons under the racist notion that Blacks aren't competent and can't be trusted to run such prisons, while concentrating Black prisoners at these rural white-staffed prison which is a large part of why the racist abuse is occurring. The facts are out! What more needs be revealed by any claimed investigation? In fact with the retaliation that Ekong and his family are now facing, evidence of the abuses at these prisons will definitely be suppressed and victims and witnesses intimidated into silence. It's absolutely absurd to pretend they will end their own abuses and purge themselves of their own racist views and practices - abuses and practices they've denied in lies to the public and are now retaliating against their victims for exposing. There is but one solution, close these remote sites of racist torture and abuse down and fire their leading administrators!

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

Kevin "Rashid Jonson

Endnotes:

1. Phil Wilayto, "Virginia Black Caucus Member Conducts Unannounced Visit to Red Onion, Scene of Self-Immolations," The Virginia Defender, Jan 1, 202 

2. Luca Powell, "Richmond Delegate Made Surprise Visit to Red Onion, Calls for More Oversight," Richmond Times Dispatch, Jan 1, 2025

Shutting Down Virginia's Red Onion State Prison By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Shutting Down Virginia's Red Onion State Prison

 By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Prison Radio

Why are men jailed at US prison setting themselves alight? | The Take

al jazeera english

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 Sarí 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.

Special Thanks to Prison Radio for this update

JUST AS VIRGINIA SLAVE OWNERS DURING SLAVERY WOULD SHIP CERTAIN ENSLAVED TO OTHER PLANTATIONS, THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS HAS KEPT UP THE PRACTICE BY SHIPPING CERTAIN PRISONERS TO OTHER PRISON SYSTEMS BY WILLIAM THORPE

*Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only"

When Kevin Rashid Johnson was shipped out of State in 2012 to other State Prison Systems, it wasn't the first time Virginia's status quo had utilized it as extraordinary measures. Removing individuals from slave plantations, to wit contemporary prisons or what they correctly are, Koncentration Kamps, is as old as Virginia's deviations in affairs of humanity. There hasn't been any redemptive accounting in the thought of The Commonwealth of Virginia and its approach to the realization of its Social Contract since its commission of original crimes against humanity, but the theatre of musical chairs. After events in 1984 at Virginia's original Supermax-prison, Mecklenburg Correctional Center (which by the way has been closed) Virginia's status quo took out their ire on Tommy Hashim Cox whose only "offense" was typing up the intentions of protesting prisoners. After shipping Tommy Hashim Cox to The New Mexico prison system in 1985 which at that time was days removed from the Nations worst and bloodiest prison event, where over 30 prisoners lost their lives (see the book The Hate Factory, that documented the events). As an aside now why would Virginia ship Mr. Cox to such a place where the paint wasn't even dry covering the gore?After New Mexico, Mr Cox was shipped to Oregon and Connecticut then after Virginia went on its Koncentration Kamp building spree he was brought back to Sussex l. In 1985 Virginia's status quo shipped Henry Bobilly Gorham Jr. to several States, beginning with Kentucky, then The District of Columbia, then Illinois and again when the twin Koncentration Kamps of Red Onion and Wallens Ridge State Prisons were opened Virginia brought him back in 1999. Malcolm Mack Jefferson was shipped out of State in 1985 to the New Jersey prison system, he also was returned when Sussex l, Red Onion and Wallens Ridge Koncentration Kamps were opened. The now deceased Paul Gum Gum Coomer was shipped to Kentucky and Texas in 1989 then returned to Virginia. The now deceased Joe Giarratano, was shipped to Utah in the 1990's, then to Illinois then returned to the Red Onion Koncentration Kamp in 1998 on its opening. A lot of guys for example the now deceased Donald Tree Sutherland were also shipped out of State, to Minnesota then returned to Virginia. I give these pre Red Onion and Wallens Ridge Koncentration Kamps out of state transfers by the Virginia Department of Corrections, to show the continuum of Virginia's status quo abusing the practice of shipping a Virginia prisoner out of State to an environment and system thousands of miles removed from family and its support which The Virginia Department Of Corrections claims to foster in its mission statement. Case in point see the case FIREWALKER-FIELDS v. VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS 2022 U.S.DIST. LEXIS 114650. The prisoner, Mr. Firewalker-Fields, wanted an out of state or out of Virginia transfer to The State of Maine (because there are two types of out of state transfers, (1) INVOLUNTARY---all the examples that I've given were of the involuntary sort where the prisoner is removed out of a State against their will. (2) VOLUNTARY--- where the prisoner as Mr. Firewalker-Fields seeks it, wants it and ask the State for it. Well when Mr. Firewalker-Fields seeked it he was rebuffed, denied. What is eye opening and relevant to this work is what the Virginia Department of Corrections executive or prison official tasked with its responsibility K. Rosch told Mr. Firewalker-Fields, he said Mr. Firewalker-Fields had family in Virginia. Point being Virginia uses it to punish.

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

Why Was My Neighbor Tear Gassed? By Kevin Rashid Johnson

*Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only.

Self Immolation at Red Onion State Prison by Kevin Rashid Johnson

*Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only.

On September 15, 2024, a harrowing incident unfolded at Virginia's Red Onion State Prison, exposing the dire conditions endured by incarcerated individuals. Kevin Rashid Johnson's recent radio essay detailed how Econ and his cellmate, Trayvon Brown, resorted to self-immolation as a desperate escape from the rampant racism, abuse, and inhumane treatment they faced. Econ sustained severe third-degree burns, while his cellmate's injuries were even more critical.

This tragic event is not an isolated occurrence. Within a mere two weeks, a dozen Black men at Red Onion took similar drastic actions, setting themselves on fire. These are not acts of defiance but rather the desperate cries of individuals driven to the brink of despair, seeking any form of relief from their torment.

Via Prison Radio

vapac

PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND CRIMINAL INJUSTICE IN VIRGINIA

 

Credit / Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

This is an article and statement I submitted in support of a rally in Richmond in support of VA prisoners. I have made some editorial changes to it. Please share far and wide. 

I have sat down with numerous Virginia prisoners asking their thoughts and concerns for changes in the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) and criminal injustice in Virginia.

CHANGES TO OUR SUPPORT NETWORK

Foremost we'd like to see a revival of a support network that is strategically oriented to struggle for more than just reforms and cycles of mobilizing people to sit in legislative sessions year after year with only the most limited results. 

There are already multitudes of laws on the books which SIMPLY AREN'T FOLLOWED. In fact the violations of those laws are the cause of many of the problems we need to have addressed. 

We need a support network that is willing to organize independently to address the needs we have, and that looks beyond pleading and rubbing shoulders with representatives of the very system that is the source of our suffering and abuses. 

History teaches that the system only strings those who plead for reforms along year after year to keep us coming back begging and legitimizing them, whereas when the people begin to organize to change things independently and expose the true nature of this corrupt system it is then that the system implements a slew of reforms to appease us and win us back over to reformist tactics.

The VDOC exposed it weakness and the sort of organizing that presents a genuine threat to its abuses and business as usual. It did this when it systematically got rid of most of its prisoners who were litigating , exposing and organizing outside protests against its abuses. 

They sent all of us out of state and tried to discredit us by stigmatizing and portraying us as monsters; the age old tactic of demonizing resistant slaves to terrify whites into seeing us as enemies to violently contain and repress instead of allying with and supporting us.

This began first with me. I was interstate transferred in 2012 as soon as Harold Clarke was appointed as the first token Black director of the VDOC as window dressing to counter the public exposures and resistance of the racist operations of and abuses within the two unneeded and expensive supermax prisons Red Onion and Wallens Ridge State Prisons (ROSP and WRSP). Exposures and protests that I was instrumental in helping generate.

CHANGES TO THE VDOC

We want these two prisons, Red Onion and Wallens Ridge, CLOSED DOWN. They continue to be unneeded and expensive burdens on Virginia taxpayers that exist to serve a age old agenda of using poor politically empowered hostile white Southern populations to repress and contain politically disempowered populations of color.

They continue to remove Virgina's disproportionately nonwhite prisoner population into regions populated by segregated rural white communities that are culturally hostile to Black and Brown people.

Worse still is that the VDOC under its token Black director has continued tactically locating its newly constructed prisons in such locations.

I can't count the number of prisoners of color who have expressed to me that they never hated white people until they experienced the racism and abuses these Southwestern Virginia prisons. 

We want an end to the VDOC tactically interstate transferring prisoners who challenge and expose abuses to prisons and prison systems that are, just like ROSP and WRSP, located in rural segregated white communities where the same and worst sorts of racist abuses are also practiced.

There is a UNANIMOUS desire for conjugal visits and not as a privilege but as a right. The 

International Convention Against the Crime of Genocide forbids as genocide conditions that reduce the birthrates of a given racial group or nationality of people. This is EXACTLY what the VDOC is doing by denying its prisoners, who again are disproportionately Black and Brown, the ability (indeed the right) to procreate and legally couple with our partners with whom we might reproduce. 

The two methods of inflicting genocide or killing off a people is 1) increase their death rate and 2) 

decrease their birth rate. The culture of violence foisted on our communities, especially by an 

entertainment and music industry we do not control, achieves the former, while disproportionately imprisoning then denying the ability of tens of thousands of us in every state to reproduce accomplishes the latter. It's a textbook strategy of genocide.

Our daily diet is repulsive. We want food fit for human consumption, and an end to serving us 

processed meats which the FDA acknowledges is not only unhealthy but carcinogenic. We want fresh and varieties of natural meats, fruits and vegetables.

We want daily outside and out of cell recreation and exercise, which is constantly denied upon claims of staff shortages, especially in prisons located in the VDOC's central and eastern regions. Over half a century ago Virginia's federal courts ruled that denial of outside recreation creates volatile and dangerous prisons. The federal courts have also established that staff shortages and overcrowding are not valid excuses for denying outside recreation. (1)

Here at Sussex 1 State Prison (SISP) we have not received outside recreation in over a month and most cellblocks go days on end without out-of-cell time. Just a few years ago Harold Clarke and this same prison lost a lawsuit for doing the exact same thing to its then death row prisoners, and had to build inside and outside facilities to provide those prisoners regular outside and out-of-cell recreation. (2)

We want the establishment of prisoner legal research facilities that can accommodate ALL the VDOC's populations. The existing system has only one to three research computers per prison that must accommodate over a thousand prisoners at each facility. 

Virginia can contract with GTL, its already existing telephone services provider, for tablets that have 

not just the telephone system on them but also access to an electronic legal research database. This system is available and used in other prison systems where I have been confined such as Indiana and Ohio.

We want an end to the use of K9s (euphemistically called working dogs) in VDOC prisons. These 

animals are used not only to abuse but are themselves abused. We saw the abuse right here at SISP with the mutilation of Curtis Garrett on Christmas day 2020 when two K9s were set upon him and guards beat him. He lost use of his hand and a leg and was transferred to WRSP where prisoners are sent for tactical abuse and retaliation from these eastern and central facilities. At WRSP he was denied medical 

treatment, resulting in infections of his bite wounds and permanent impairment. (3)

And we must not forget the practice of VDOC K9 units teaching handlers to masturbate the dogs which was exposed in 2009 and 2010; blatant crimimal animal cruelty and beastiality. (4)

The use of these animals to terrorize and maul Virginia's disproportionately Black and Brown prison populations is a direct continuation of the state's racist slave era practice's. Hounds were a primary weapon of terror used against slaves. (5)

Not only this but in 2006 Human Rights Watch wrote a report exposing the use of K9s in 9 U.S. prisons and jails to terrorize prisoners just as military dogs were abused against Arab detainees which was exposed in an international scandal in 2004. (6)

But SOMEHOW Virginia was overlooked as a state 

that not only uses dogs in this manner, but uses them to actually attack and maul prisoners. A cursory review of federal litigation attempts by Virginia prisoners reveals a massive number of lawsuits filed about the abuses of dogs and maulings of prisoners. How has Virginia gotten away with this? How has the practice avoided public exposure and scrutiny? We need a different and more aggressive sort of support and protest.

There are a range of other changes prisoners want, including adequate health care and public accounting for our care. In 2003 the ACLU exposed the VDOC was killing multitudes of prisoners through medical neglect, hiding their deeds, and the deaths and causes by citing privacy protocols. (7) 

This needs to be countered. Which I can attest to because these officials have tried quite blatantly to kill me by medical neglect, leaving me with untreated cancer for over a year after blood tests showed I likely had it and over 6 months after positive diagnoses by biopsy.

We want an end to receiving contaminated drinking water at Sussex 1 and 2 State Prisons. The water at both these prisons is frequently contaminated and Brown in color. They give off a putrid smell and staff as forbidden from drinking it and are given free bottled water to drink. Prisoners are forced to drink and bathe in this water and cannot receive free bottled water. Boiled water alerts are frequently issued but we cannot boil water in general especially in segregation units and during frequent lockdowns. As noted many cellblocks never come out of their cells for exercise anyway.

We want an end to the ongoing use and abuse of solitary confinement in Virginia prisons. The VDOC continues to confine prisoners for months to years on end in solitary, euphemistically called Restorative Housing. The change is in name only. In fact the VDOC is at present the defendant in a federal class action lawsuit challenging this housing which has earned it a negative ruling from the court and it's finding that the Restorative Housing status is in fact solitary confinement and unlawful. (8) And not just this but VDOC officials have been retaliating against the prisoners who brought that lawsuit. (9)

These are just some of the changes that mam prisoners have expressed a desire to see in the VDOC and Virginia criminal injustice system.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

By Kevin "Rashid Johnson

_____________

Endnotes:

1. See, Gilland v. Owens, 718 F. Supp. 665, 685 (W.D. Tenn. 1989) (lack of staff does not provide 

penological justification for lack of exercise)

2. See, Porter v. Clarke, 923 F. 3d 348 (4th Cir. 2019)

3. Keith Sanders, "Virginia Prison Guards Attack Prisoners With Dogs," PRISON LEGAL NEWS 

(Aug. 2021), p.54, http://prisonlegalnews.org/news/2021/Aug/1/virginia-prison-guards-attack-

prisoners-dogs

Theresa Vargas, "Virginia is using dogs to 'terrify and attack' prisoners, say lawsuits that describe one 

man as mauled in his cell" WASHINGTON POST (Mar. 6, 2021) 

http://washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-is-using-dogs-to-terrify-( )

4. Matthew Stabley, "Corrections Officers Take 'K-9 Handling' Too Far: Five Face Animal Cruelty 

Charges After One Was Filmed Masturbating A Dog," NBC Washington (Oct. 29, 2009), 

www.nbcwashington.com

David Reuter, "Virginia DOC K-9 'Training' Results in Animal!Cruelty Charges," PRISON LEGAL 

NEWS (Apr. 15, 2010)

5. Larry H. Spruill, "Slave Patrols, 'Packs of Negro Dogs,' and Policing Black Communities, PYLON 

(1960-), Vol. 53, No. 1 (Summer 2016), pp. 42-66, 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/phylon1960.53.1.42

T.D. Parry, " Slave Hounds and Abolition in the Americas" (2020), 

https://academic.oup.com/past/article/246/1/69/5722095

Charlton Tingling and Tyler Parry, "The Canine Terror," (2016), https://jacobinmag.com/2016/05/dogs-

bloodhounds-slavery-police-brutality-racism/

6. "Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons (Oct. 2006) 

http://hrw.org/print/reports/2006/10/09/cruel-and-degrading-( )

Seymour Hersh, "Torture at Abu Ghraib: American Soldiers Brutalized Iraqis. How Far up Does 

Responsibility Go?" THE NEW YORKER (May 10, 2004)

7. Laura LaFay, "Accountable to No One: The Virginia Department of Corrections and Prisoner 

Medical Care, ACLU of Virginia (May 2003)

Matthew T. Clarke, " Bad Medicine, No Oversight, Total Secrecy: ACLU Reports on Virginia DOC 

Prisoner Medical Care" PRISON LEGAL NEWS (Dec. 2003)

8. See, Thrope v. VDOC, 2021 U.S. District LEXIS 112284 (W.D. Va., June 15, 2021)

9. Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, "Retaliation for Litigation: Virginia Targets Prisoners Suing Against Solitary Confinement" (2022) http://rashidmod.com/?p=3243

WHY WOULD MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS LIE? MY DENIED CANCER TREATMENT BECOMES MORE SINISTER (2022) By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Credit Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

A RECAP OF MY DENIED TREATMENT

As those who have been following my situation of denied cancer treatment know, Virginia prison officials have known from blood tests taken over a year ago that I have had prostate cancer at least since Oct 2021. But they have systematically delayed and denied me any treatment to allow the cancer to spread and eliminate any possibility of curing it, which would ensure that it becomes fatal. The intent to murder me by medical neglect is more than obvious.

Only because of ongoing public protests (for which I am humbled and grateful) have officials made gestures TOWARDS providing me treatment, although no actual treatment has yet been provided AT ALL.

DOCTORS CONCERNED THAT THE CANCER HAS SPREAD

After several months of repeatedly missed and rescheduled consultations with radiologists to determine my treatment options, I finally saw a couple of radiologists, Drs. Alfredo Urdaneta and Navid Fallahi on Oct 4, 2022 at the Medical College of Virginia hospital (MCV).

Based on symptoms that I have recently developed due to the continued passage of time without treatment, the doctors were concerned that the cancer has now spread or metastasized beyond my prostate gland. Which would mean that curing it would no longer be an option and I will almost certainly die from the cancer. They therefore ordered a PET scan to determine if and to what extent it may have spread and a follow-up visit with them to go over the results with me.

On Oct 31st I was transported to MCV for the PET Scan by two guards, Vareen and Smith. Upon reaching the hospital the guards went inside for a few minutes then returned to tell me the appointment had been rescheduled and we were returning to the prison. I asked why the appointment was put off, since this would be the FOURTH time a hospital appointment related to my cancer had been "rescheduled." Vareen stated he did not know why.

MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS JOIN IN SPINNING A WEB OF LIES TO DENY TREATMENT

Back at the prison I was taken to the medical department for a vital sign check, which is routine procedure anytime a prisoner returns from a hospital visit. At that time I was able to speak with the prison's nurse practitioner C. Riner and assistant Health Administrator H. Holloway. Both claimed to not know why the PET scan was not performed that day but assured me that it had been rescheduled for the very near future.

On Nov 4th I was taken to MCV by Vareen and another guard Lewis. This was for the follow-up radiologist visit to discuss the PET scan results. When the radiologist Dr. Fallahi looked at my hospital records he asked why the PET scan wasn't preformed on Oct 31st. I told him I didn't know but that I was told it was rescheduled. He said it had NOT been rescheduled and there was no indication why it hadn't been done. I then asked the guard Vareen, who had brought me to MCV that day, why he was told the the PET scan wasn't done. Again he claimed noone explained it to him, but that he was told it had been rescheduled.

Dr. Fallahi expressed that the scan needed to be done and he was immediately rescheduling it, but that he was worried that I might be mysteriously turned away again.

On returning to the prison I was taken to the medical department for the routine vital sign check. As I entered the medical department I passed an office where I saw nurse practitioner Riner sitting at a computer. A new nurse named Fenner took my vitals. I asked her if I could speak with Riner and the Health Administrator to determine why my PET scan wasn't done on Oct 31st and why they'd misinformed me on that date that it had been rescheduled when it hadn't. Fenner then unwittingly spilled the beans.

She revealed that the PET scan wasn't done on Oct 31st because the guards got me to MCV too late and missed my appointment; which made the second time this has happened. She explained that she'd read it in the records sent back with me from the hospital that day, as had Riner and nurse Holloway. So everyone, including Riner, Holloway and the guards who took me to the hospital on Oct 31st, had lied about not knowing why the PET scan wasn't done and claiming that it had been rescheduled.

I again asked Fenner to tell Riner I needed to speak with her about all this. Fenner left to give Riner my message, then returned a few minutes later to tell me Riner couldn't see me because she was seeing another patient. Moments later I was escorted by the transport guards from the medical department and passed the office where Riner was still sitting alone at a computer.

I then asked the guard Vareen why he'd lied claiming he didn't know why my PET scan wasn't done when actually he was the cause of my late arrival and missed appointment on Oct 31st, and everyone including medical staff had obviously conspired to close ranks around this lie. He would not answer and gave only a nervous chuckle.

I've known Vareen from my prior confinement at Sussex 1 State Prison in 2018. He worked on death row, where I was illegally held in solitary confinement for four months until I was transferred to the Indiana prison system. During that time I observed that he is a closed-lipped and loyal "Blue Line" pig who will quietly go along with and cover up any dirt that his peers engage in or orchestrate, especially administrators. I believe my late arrival and missed hospital appointment on Oct 31st was deliberate and that Vareen was directed to do this.

In any case, the pattern of denied and delayed cancer care by prison officials is clear, as is their sinister intention to cause me death from this cancer. They know that prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in men, and can only be cured if caught AND TREATED before it spreads beyond the prostate. My prolonged delay of care ensures its spread and fatal outcome.

That medical professionals are party to this and lying to inflict this deadly harm is particularly egregious. As I've expressed before, in the context of prison medical care, their Hippocratic oath of "First do not harm" is inverted into one of "First do no good," especially in the case of political and politicized prisoners.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

it is up at https://rashidmod.com/?p=3255

RETALIATION FOR LITIGATION: VIRGINIA TARGETS PRISONERS SUING AGAINST SOLITARY CONFINEMENT (2022) By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

 

SOLITARY TORTURE IN VIRGINIA

In 2011 the United Nations declared solitary confinement to be torture and that it should not be used for longer than two weeks. The next year I was transferred out of state after spending 18 years in solitary confinement in Virginia's prisons myself---14 years of which I spent in Virginia's notoriously racist and abusive supermaxes, Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) and Wallens Ridge State Prison (WRSP).

I had become a thorn in Virginia's side by co-founding outside support groups for prisoners, and resisting and exposing abuses in its prisons with published reports and articles, including about the abuses of solitary. (1)

After I was sent into 'domestic exile' and amidst an international movement exposing and challenging the widespread abuses of long term solitary in U.S. prisons, Virginia came under increased public and legal scrutiny for it's own abusive long term solitary practices at ROSP and WRSP, by both outside advocates and victimized prisoners.

VIRGINIA'S FAKE REFORM OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

In response Virginia Department of Corrections (sic!) [VDOC] officials moved to disguise but not end the continued use of solitary confinement. They created an arbitrary phase system to create the false appearance on paper of giving prisoners opportunities to participate in programs and be released to general population after brief periods.

To further disguise the continued solitary nature of their segregated housing units, they euphemistically called them Restorative Housing Units (RHUs) instead of what they actually are, solitary confinement. In the RHUs prisoners still spent months to years sitting idle and isolated. Public protests of this continued use of solitary confinement persisted (2), and several of it's victims who suffered this torture and psychological injury brought a federal class action lawsuit against it, styled William Thorpe v. VDOC. This lawsuit has not gone well for Virginia officials.

On June 15, 2021 the court found against Virginia officials that the so-called RHU step down program described in the lawsuit was unconstitutional and abusive and still constituted solitary confinement. (3) It is apparent that Virginia won't win this case.

VIRGINIA RETALIATES AGAINST ITS SOLITARY CONFINEMENT LITIGANTS

In turn, VDOC officials have retaliated against the prisoners who sued them. After spending over two decades in solitary, the lead plaintiff William Thorpe was interstate transferred to the Texas prison system, which is known by the courts for it's culture of extreme abuse by officials, targeted especially at prisoners who litigate. As the Texas federal courts have long acknowledged:

"[Texas Department of Corrections (TDC)] officers routinely harass and punish those prisoners whom they perceive as litigious. These inmates, known as 'writ writers,' are earmarked by TDC officials as troublemakers and are constantly hounded wherever they go within the prison system. Their persistence in legal activity can cause them to lose even minor comforts or privileges which TDC prisoners are otherwise capable of enjoying.

"Practices designed to retaliate against writ writers have ranged from the overt to the subtle, from the imposition of inconveniences to the perpetration of violence." (4)

I can also attest to the inhumane conditions inflicted on Texas prisoners in general and against those who litigate in particular, since this was one of the very prison systems that Virginia officials exiled me to and about which I wrote many articles. (5)

Another prisoner plaintiff in the Thorpe lawsuit is Peter Mukuria, who is a Comrade of mine and fellow leading member of the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party (RIBPP). Mukuria was interstate transferred earlier this year to the Maryland prison system from ROSP. After suffering continued harassment by at ROSP, in Maryland he was set up by guards and thrown in solitary confinement which was exposed and, following public protest, rescinded. Then efforts were made to harass him and block his family and fiance from visiting him. Upon his transfer, Virginia officials vandalized and destroyed all of his personal property, including his legal materials related to the solitary confinement lawsuit. They are now attempting to negotiate reimbursement for his belongings.

Another prisoner plaintiff to the Thorpe lawsuit named Kevin Snodgrass, who is presently confined with me in solitary at Sussex 1 State Prison (S1SP), has also been targeted. I personally witnessed the recent retaliation he's faced.

In early October 2022 he was moved to general population against the warden, Kevin McCoy's wishes, and initially placed into a cell with a compatible cellmate. Moments after the move, Kevin's cellie was ordered to pack his belongings to be relocated to make room for another prisoner to be moved in with Kevin. The cellie protested but was told he was not assigned to the cell, although he'd been housed there for three weeks. He was forced to move under threat of disciplinary action. Kevin felt something was amiss.

Another prisoner, Kenneth Hunt, a known snitch, was immediately moved in with Kevin. Not long after, there was an altercation and the snitch requested protective custody. During the altercation the informant revealed to Kevin that just before moving into the cell, he was propositioned by a lieutenant named Green under the warden's directions, to set Kevin up to be put in solitary in exchange for certain perks, but that he wasn't going to do it. He did in any case give a statement against Kevin to have him convicted of a disciplinary infraction for assault on Hunt. Kevin is now back in solitary confinement for that incident that was set in motion by S1SP officials, the warden no less.

The attorneys who are representing the men in the Thorpe lawsuit spoke to Kevin recently and informed him that they had been attempting to communicate with him and all the other prisoner plaintiffs to the suit by phone for over a month, but had been blocked by prison officials. They reported that, like him, all the other plaintiffs have been targeted with retaliatory abuses.

The retaliations faced by the plaintiffs to the Thorpe solitary confinement lawsuit are typical. When the pigs are subjected to exposure and face even the smallest accountability for their wrongs, their response is never to acknowledge and correct their wrongs. They act instead to retaliate against those who bring their wrongs to light. Yet they are only too fond of preaching to those they hold in captivity for supposed breaking laws that we must learn to be responsible for our wrongs. The typical hypocricy of Amerikan democracy.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

By Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

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Endnotes:

1. See, for example, Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, "Amerikan Prisons Are Government Sponsored Torture" (2007), http://rashidmod.com/?p=113; Kevin "Rashid"Johnson, "Abu Ghraib Comes to Amerika: Torture Unit Under Construction at Virginia's Red Onion State Prison" (2010), http://rashidmod.com/?p=119; Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, "Under New Administration Torture Unit Closes Then Reopens and ROSP, and Prison Abuse on the Rise" (2011), http://rashidmod.com/?p=317, etc.

2. See, report "Activists Campaign to end Solitary Confinement in Virginia," which has been aired on PBS several times

https://vpm.org/.../activists-campaign-to-end-solitary...

3. Thorpe v. VDOC, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112284 (W.D. Va., June 15, 2021)

4. Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F. Supp. 1265, 1369 (S.D. Tex. 1980)

5. See my website, http://www.rashidmod.com

Section on Texas Department of Criminal Justice