If The Richmond Times-Dispatch and its Sisters Did Their Job the Virginia Department of Corrections Wouldn't Be A Charnel House of Barbarity by William Thorpe

Okay here is a typical Richmond Times-Dispatch act when informing the public on anything concerning a prisoner held by The Virginia Department of Corrections [VADOC]: we're given the prisoners name then a listing of why the prisoner is in prison. This formula is followed religiously regardless of the circumstance necessitating the coverage.

This work isn't intended to get all into the pros, cons and utility of the formula but to simply point out an inconsistency with the logic of the formula and its use by Virginia's mainstream and corporate media of which The Richmond Times-Dispatch presumes leadership.

The inconsistency is this, there is deviation when the coverage is of the Virginia Department of Corrections. So instead of the public being informed as when the subject is a prisoner that VADOC, as Department is a serial offender and violator with tens of thousands of claims against it, that VADOC as a State agency uses taxpayer money contesting and challenging claims of violations without accountability, because Richmond Times-Dispatch and its Sisters are derelict (I don't want to suggest complicity even though I'd be on solid ground) in pointing that fact to the public, that as part of the Executive branch of Virginia's government and the fact Virginia Code 53.1 was changed to allow the Selected or rather unelected Director of Corrections complete speculation and experimentation over running the Department and treatment of prisoners, which in turn presents the myriad violations taxpayers fund its adjudication and because the Director of Corrections is an expression of political ideology the response therefore is political action by voting against it and such political action can only be taken if the electorate are educated by Virginia's media. Virginia's media have sued, taken legal action against the Commonwealth when it was in their particular interest, see: Richmond News Papers Inc. v. Virginia 448 US 555 (1980) and Richmond News Papers Inc. v. Commonwealth 222 va. 574 in defending the Freedom of The Press and it was socially good still the concurrent harm their obsequiousness to for example VADOC's 2/16/2022 press release declaring its expectation that the media self-censors thus sacrificing Virginians at the altar of VADOC's pursuit of barbarity due to an inability, an unwillingness to begin from the most basic and simplest of propositions: that no one, especially prison officials and VADOC who are sworn to abide, obey and comply with law are above it.

We are not in 2023 indicting Richmond Times-Dispatch and its Sisters for their active participation at worst and at least complicity in the savagery of the Commonwealths past, because redemption is the ability to correct.

By William Thorpe

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

VADOC Brutality Enabled By Virginia Grand Ole Party and Lack of Reporting by Corporate Media

 

VADOC Brutality Enabled By Factors Of GOP and Lack of Reporting By Corporate Media

Credit By Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee

VADOC Brutality Enabled By Factors Of "Grand Ole Party" and Lack of Reporting

Credit WilliamThorpe

Virginia's Justice System and Freedom Of The Press

Our Prisons are filled to over capacity with accounts of significant and crucial stories that must be told. We bespeak of the refusal of journalists and media access to level 3 and higher levels in Virginia's correctional institutions.

Prisons more often than not hide on the back roads of our communities in rural America as a means for economic development, thus they normally lay outside the visible spectrum and are repressed by the vigilant eye of the press...We at vapac want to join those behind prison walls who may have been wrongly convicted by our criminal justice system which have been highlighted by the Innocence Project inadequate defense, eyewitness misidentification, incentive informants, government misconduct, false confessions or admissions. We join them and investigative journalists who seek truth with the ethical responsibility in highlighting this issue as with the recent effort: to record (audio, video) prisoners "fails" in Virginia. Yet all too often state, local government and prison officials seek out favorable media to disseminate their propaganda. While denying objective media of the inclusive means of audio and video that will permit a though recording of the account.


We at vapac do not profess to know of an individuals innocence or guilt, however, there are currently 2,252 exonerations with more than 19,790 years lost reported by the National Registry Of Exonerations. We think many of those are compromised by the unavailability of recording (audio, video)...which could play a significant role allowing full compass of investigative reporting by allowing unbiased journalists the ability to uncover the truth when there may be a miscarriage of justice.

We note here that the Virginia Department of Corrections [VADOC] doesn't unequivocally deny media access however they still sanction  ..Virginia's Justice system needs to end the block on the full range of media access and allow the Freedom Of The Press access Virginia prisoners to share their story.

By vapac

References

Innocence Project

Society of Professional Journalists

The National Registry Of Exonerations

State Media Access VADOC Operating Procedure 022.1

Editorial: Allow Recordings Of Prisoner Interviews (Virginian Pilot)
Effort to allow recording of inmate interviews flounders | Local News | dailyprogress.com