Unmasking Red Onion State Prison: A Microcosm of Systemic Corruption By Kimberly Zittlow

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

The United States leads the world in incarceration, with over 1.8 million individuals behind bars. While the entire prison system is plagued with inefficiencies and injustices, Red Onion State Prison in Virginia stands out as a glaring example of everything that’s wrong. Beneath its supermax label lies a system riddled with corruption, cruelty, and a total disregard for rehabilitation. The time has come to shut Red Onion down, hold its leadership accountable, and reimagine the role of incarceration in America.

The Deep Rot Within Red Onion State Prison

Red Onion State Prison has become infamous for its culture of abuse, secrecy, and unchecked power. Reports from whistleblowers, investigative journalists, and former inmates reveal a horrifying picture: guards who use violence as a tool of control, medical staff who neglect basic care, and an administration that systematically buries allegations of misconduct. This isn’t a case of a few bad apples—the entire system is designed to dehumanize.

At the heart of the abuse is solitary confinement. At Red Onion, inmates are locked in isolation for 23 hours a day, sometimes for years on end. The psychological toll is staggering. Research consistently shows that prolonged solitary confinement causes severe mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and hallucinations. At Red Onion, these effects are compounded by reports of physical abuse, racial discrimination, and retaliation against inmates who speak out. The administration’s response? Silence or outright denial, perpetuating a system where abuse thrives unchecked.

The Human Toll of a Broken System

The impact of Red Onion’s practices isn’t confined to its walls. Inmates released from such an environment are often deeply traumatized, ill-prepared for reintegration, and more likely to reoffend. Solitary confinement and neglect strip away a person’s humanity, leaving them with little hope and fewer opportunities.

Medical neglect at Red Onion is equally damning. Chronic illnesses go untreated, injuries are ignored, and mental health care is almost nonexistent. Whistleblowers have described systemic delays and outright refusals in providing medical attention. The result is unnecessary suffering and, in some cases, preventable deaths. Such negligence is a stark reminder of how deeply flawed the system has become.

A Symptom of a Larger Problem

Red Onion isn’t an anomaly—it’s a magnifying glass over the failures of the U.S. prison system. Across the country, incarceration prioritizes punishment over progress. Nearly 65% of inmates struggle with substance abuse disorders, and countless others face untreated mental health challenges. Yet, instead of addressing these root causes, the system doubles down on punitive measures, perpetuating cycles of crime and incarceration.

What Must Change

The solution begins with acknowledging that Red Onion’s existence is indefensible. Its closure is a necessary step, but the transformation cannot stop there. The entire prison system needs a paradigm shift.

Shut Down Red Onion and Demand Accountability

Red Onion’s operations must cease immediately. Its leadership should face thorough investigations, and those found guilty of corruption or abuse must be held accountable. Closing Red Onion would send a powerful message: systemic neglect and abuse will no longer be tolerated.

Reimagine Prisons as Centers for Rehabilitation

The prison system’s purpose should be to rehabilitate, not punish. Addiction treatment, education, and vocational training must become standard. Evidence shows that inmates who participate in such programs are significantly less likely to reoffend. Facilities must provide these resources to break the cycle of incarceration.

Enforce Transparency and Oversight

Unbiased, independent oversight is critical to preventing future abuses. Prisons must maintain external boards to monitor operations, investigate complaints, and ensure accountability. Whistleblowers should be protected and empowered to report misconduct without fear of retaliation.

Address Mental and Physical Health Holistically

Prisons must prioritize mental health care, including therapy, crisis intervention, and medication management. Comprehensive health care should be a baseline expectation, not a rare exception. At facilities like Red Onion, neglect has turned manageable conditions into life-threatening crises.

Learning from Global Models

Countries like Norway and Germany demonstrate that rehabilitation-focused systems are effective. In Norway, prisons emphasize education, therapy, and reintegration, resulting in recidivism rates below 20%. Germany’s system focuses on maintaining inmates’ connections to society, preparing them for productive lives after release. These models prove that humane incarceration works.

The Road Ahead

Transforming the U.S. prison system requires more than incremental change—it demands a complete rethinking of our approach to justice. Here’s what must happen:

Close Red Onion State Prison: Its closure is essential to dismantle the culture of abuse.

Investigate Corruption Thoroughly: Hold leadership accountable and prosecute misconduct.

Pass Legislative Reforms: Prioritize rehabilitation and allocate funds for education, addiction treatment, and mental health care.

Implement Oversight Mechanisms: Establish independent boards to ensure transparency and accountability.

Change Public Perception: Advocacy campaigns must emphasize the benefits of a rehabilitative approach.

The Moral and Practical Imperative

Red Onion State Prison stands as a monument to the failures of America’s prison system. Its corruption, abuse, and neglect are unacceptable. But Red Onion is more than just a failing institution—it’s a call to action. By closing it and embracing a rehabilitative model, the U.S. can move toward a system that values accountability, transformation, and public safety. The time to act is now.

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Sincerely,

Kimberly Zittlow 

SO GOVERNOR GLENN YOUNGKIN WILL HAVE THE DUBIOUS DISTINCTION OF BEING THE VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE WHOSE PRISON POLICIES WERE PROTESTED BY PRISONER SELF-IMMOLATION By William Thorpe

Historically Virginia has shown the world, the depths to which human depravity and sadism reaches and is capable. From the schizophrenic hypocrisies of Thomas Jefferson, through the supremacy delusions of James Madison in support of the chattel enslavement of Black People, Virginia has proclaimed to the world that when it was thought that humanity couldn't be demented, anymore perverted, it had some mouth openers to reveal, so it gave us all the craziness of Samuel Purchas and his HAKLUYTUS POSTHUMUS. Fast forward to Virginia in 2024 and Governor Glenn Youngkin and his strenuous work at resurrecting 1676 Virginia of the long dead Governor George Berkeley, with the tried and proven gambit of suppression by reaction by deploying and exploiting the distraction of opposition to prison reform. Glenn Youngkin became Governor of Virginia in 2022 under the usual reactionary banner of the Republican Party, replacing Eight years of Democratic rule. Eight years that saw certain positive reform moves of Virginia's Justice Infrastructure and the prison system. Reforms that brought on rabid and illogical Republican ire. Solitary Confinement of prisoners is a well used type of imprisonment in Virginia as across the Nation, despite its cruel and unusual nature, which The Supreme Court Of The United States, as early as the 1890's declared in the case IN Re. MEDLEY, to be (and I paraphrase) an infamous punishment without any socially redemptive value. The struggle to rid The Nation of its existence or it's reform has been continuous and ongoing and reformers in Virginia,also have been on the front lines pushing for it's abolishment in Virginia prisons and use by The Virginia Department Of Corrections.During the Republican Governance of Glenn Youngkin and his cabal,efforts to reform Virginia's practice of solitary confinement with all of its deleterious and barbarous effects have produced bills, which Governor Glenn Youngkin in his a Solomonic wisdom irrationally and unconscionably has vetoed. (I have in previous works exposed the irrationality of the veto) What I am focusing on with this work is the consequence of Youngkin's veto.Recently prisoners at Virginia's flagship concentration camp, (hell let me spell it with a k,so it's) kamp, Red Onion State Prison in protest of their solitary confinement and the type and nature of imprisonment it subjects them, have been self-immolating.First of all let's focus on what this truly means.Human beings imprisoned are resorting to the utterly incomprehensible act of setting themselves on fire as means of protest, a manner of speech that their circumstance, their condition is so beyond the pale of known cruelty, known savagery, known monstrosity that their only recourse is to set themselves ablaze, on fire as a result of the Governor of Virginia,Glenn Youngkin's ahumanistic act of vetoing the will and intent of the people of Virginia, to reform the solitary confinement of prisoners in their name. A study of the purported reasons of Youngkin's veto of the anti-solitary confinement bill, reveals its fetid moral bankruptcy, another stark reminder that despite efforts to redeem Virginia from its ahumanistic heritage and tradition, much more work has to be done.What we indict Governor Glenn Youngkin of is his intellectual dishonesty.No one claims that criminal adjudication isn't a necessary state and function of society, but what we oppose is it's doublespeak.

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

OUR ARGUMENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE FOR US By William Thorpe

When we talk about holding accountable the prison official (and for this work, the Virginia prison official and his/her political overlords, i.e Governor Glenn Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares, Leaders of both Houses of Virginia's General Assembly), what we mean is, we present to society and the voting public, those authorizing arguments and logic used by Government, in this case, Virginia's in it's exercise of the will of the people of Virginia and as it concerns this work, those excuses given the mayhem practiced by the Virginia prison official and show with their own words its compromises and violations.What I want to do with this work is show that the crass obstinacy continuously displayed by Virginia Republicans, currently under the leadership of Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares, against true reform of Virginia's prison system, its Department of Corrections and its Justice Infrastructure reveals that despite the violation of Virginia's criminal code by the imprisoned, the harmful singularity of consequence done to the Commonwealth of Virginia is that from the systemic violations of its prison officials and those embodying elected political leaders of, firstly THE CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA, ITS STATUTORY LAWS, and secondly IT'S TRADITIONS AND PRACTICES and thirdly by their unimaginative and unoriginal opportunistic scapegoating of prisoners, in pursuit of petty and speculative political power, they stand revealed and exposed as nothing more than worshippers of crime. I titled this work, OUR ARGUMENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE FOR US. The us are those minds and hearts laboring for reform against the reaction and backwardness of the worshippers of crime and their violations and compromises. In Virginia and across the Nation what are relatively accepted as facts are those ascertained in Court proceedings, hence my OUR ARGUMENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE FOR US. So I'll present a couple of cases adjudicated in our Federal Courts, where the facts ascertained and applied are basis of our Laws and to wit Virginia's, which it's systemic violations by our political overlords, particularly, Republicans, reveal the point that the destroyers of faith in the rule of law, are the very leaders entrusted with formulating and defending it. See the case UNITED STATES v. BANNISTER 786 F. SUPP. 2d 617---pay attention to sub category, C. HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY. also See the case UNITED STATES v. RIVERA 281 F. SUPP. 3d 269, it has a wealth of history. In support of the findings and rulings are these works, COLLATERAL DAMAGE: NO RE-ENTRY FOR DRUG OFFENDERS by NORA V. DEMEITNER 47 VILL L. REV. 1027....MANDATORY MINIMUM DRUG SENTENCES: THROWING AWAY THE KEY OR THE TAX PAYER MONEY by JONATHAN CAULKINS, C. PETER RYDELL, WILLIAMS SCHWABE and JAMES CHISER also RACE, DRUGS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES by JAMIE FELLNER 20 STAN. L. AND POL'Y REV. 257 also THE SOCIAL AND MORAL COST OF MASS INCARCERATION IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES 56 STAN. L. REV. 1271 and FIFTY YEARS OF REFLECTION:BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION AND ITS UNIVERSAL IMPLICATIONS: EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY FOR A JUDGE TO LAY DOWN HIS PROFESSIONAL LIFE FOR JUSTICE 32 FORDHAM URB. L.J.131 by JACK B.WEINSTEIN. I want to also quote what Federal Judge JACK B. WEINSTEIN said at a symposium on the Nations Justice System....."OUR OWN LEGAL SYSTEM HAS SOMETIMES FAILED TO COUNTER CHALLENGES TO WHAT WE NOW CONSIDER BASIC RIGHTS.I REMIND YOU OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIAN IN COLONIAL, REVOLUTIONARY AND SUBSEQUENT TIMES THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS, DRED SCOTT AND OTHER PRO-SLAVERY DECISIONS THE SACRIFICE OF FORMER SLAVES' FREEDOM TO THE POLITICAL COMPROMISES TOWARDS THE END OF THE LAST CENTURY CULMINATING IN PLESSEY THE FRUSTRATION OF LEGISLATIVE ATTEMPTS TO PROTECT WORKERS AND OTHERS AGAINST THE EXCESSES OF UNCONSTRAINED CAPITALISM AND THE JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS"...(speech is found at SYMPOSIUM: NAZIS IN THE COURTROOM: LESSONS FROM THE CONDUCT OF LAWYERS AND JUDGES UNDER THE LAWS OF THE THIRD REICH AND VICHY, FRANCE 61 BROOKLYN. L. REV. 1121).....What I want to show with this work is remind those doing the good work of struggling to reform the Justice Infrastructure and the Prison System, that, for example the likes of Governor Glenn Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares, their allied foot soldiers in Virginia's General Assembly who are rabidly anti-reform, are such, not because their opposition are based on a synthesis of the mental labors of our ancients, who contended with the purpose of reform, for the greater good of Political-Economy efficiency. But what their opposition reveals is the limits of their intellectual honesty and enlightenment, as such the work of reform has to reveal and expose it. What the above cited examples of Court activity by Judges objectively show is American Jurisprudence despite its innumerable deviations and distortions inexorably labors towards reform not because of some altruistic inherency and metaphysical realizations, but because, its existence, its deterministic justification lies in its self-affirmation thus honesty and regardless of the dishonesty of the speculative supporting political basis and its subsequent short sightedness, the focus of reform has to be that of standing firm on those Social Contract justifying reasons. In other words, Reform shouldn't allow its opponents to pervert and distort its incontrovertible and unambiguous narrative. Almost to the word, opponents of prison reform have nothing to support their obstinacy, because their expressed reluctance and refusal was itself a position of reform. If there is one thing to be said about the work of reform, it is in a lot of ways, that of the necessary focus and understanding of THE WHY, violations and extra-judicial activities have assumed a systemic nature. So for example Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a feeble and ineffective solitary confinement law, on grounds that even mocked and emasculated his very own executive authority. Reform advocacy applauded what little was left of the law as being a step in the right direction. Well humans held in Virginia's solitary confinement cages have recently voiced their disagreements with their hunger strike and self immolation acts.

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

Here is an explanation of why our loved ones are not in prison because of behavior. By William Thorpe

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

Here is an explanation of why our loved ones are not in prison because of behavior.  The idea that adjudication of a criminal code isn't about behavior, is simple. Let's take the example of the meaning of qualified immunity. So a prison official behaves in a certain manner with a prisoner. The prisoner in turn claims the prison officials' behavior caused harm e.t.c. So the prisoner takes the prison official to court, in defense the prison official responds with the law wasn't clear on whether his or her actions or for purposes of this, "behavior" was illegal or unlawful. Our justice system is full of examples of officials causing harm, even to the point of killing and the perpetrating officials are let off, because the law of qualified immunity excuses the behavior, let me repeat, the offending prison official is let off because the law wasn't clear that the behavior was a violation. Yes as humans our actions are behavior, but for the purposes of whether or not we are subjected to legal action, depends on law and its process. Here is another example,(I'm using the Virginia prison official as example because this is a Virginia specific page and site, but the characterization of law holds true for the Nation) a Virginia prison official because of law can physically put their hands on a Virginia prisoner and restrain the prisoner, regardless of reason in other words a human thats a Virginia prison official can exhibit the behavior of placing their hands on a human that's a Virginia prisoner, but if a Virginia prisoner places their hands on a Virginia prison official without the prison official's permission, it is an impermissible and unlawful contact, which the Virginia prisoner can be charged with a prison infraction or even prosecuted in a court of law. So once again what I'm showing is criminal prosecution or legal adjudication isn't about behavior but law and its process. How often have we heard the colloquial expression, "if I did what he or she did I'd be locked up", which is a simplest way of saying all that I've said. As all of this relates to prisoners held in solitary confinement, any type of confinement or detention by a State or Government is a result of law and its process, yes the presumption and assumption is "behavior" is the predicate or cause but the reality is without law and its process, behavior is just that a generic fact of being human.

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

Virgina Day On Solitary Confinement

Virginia's regulations on solitary confinement stipulate that adults are confined to their cells for a minimum of 20 hours daily, while juveniles face 17 hours. These conditions, often described as "cruel and unusual punishment," have been linked to severe mental health deterioration, including hallucinations, paranoia, and suicidal thoughts. Despite numerous lawsuits and advocacy efforts, Virginia's prisons continue to utilize solitary confinement extensively, raising concerns about its long-term impact on incarcerated individuals and its potential violation of human rights.

By vapac

November Second Sunday On Solitary Confinement in Virginia

 By vapac

The Second Sundays In November Are Established As Virginia Day On Solitary Confinement Awareness Day

On this Solitary Confinement Awareness Day, the Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee urges the public to reflect on the profound impact of solitary confinement. This practice, meant to be a measure of last resort, has profound psychological effects on individuals and is a pressing human rights concern. We advocate for transparency, accountability, and reform in the use of solitary confinement within our correctional facilities. We encourage community members to educate themselves on the realities of solitary confinement, support legislative reforms such as HB 1244, and join us in our efforts to promote humane treatment and rehabilitation over punitive isolation. Together, we can work towards a justice system that embodies the principles of fairness and dignity for all.

The second Sunday in November will represent a speaking out in whatever manner available in accord with ones ability against solitary confinement. If its tweets,  posts on the various social media platforms, t-shirts, signs, videos, radio call-ins, and discussions     That clearly state to our politicians that abusing and driving prisoners insane in our name, we the people isn't what we vote for.

Please use these hashtags       either or both

#VaDayOnSolitaryConfinement

#NovemberVASecondSunday

vapac

Virginia Prisons Accountability committee

The Second Sundays In November Are Being Established As #Virginia Day On #SolitaryConfinement Be Sure to use #VADayOnSolitaryConfinement #NovemberSecondSunday to get the word out

By vapac

I'M NOT HERE TO TEACH YOU HISTORY RATHER PREFACE IT'S CONSEQUENCES AND THE HYPOCRISIES OF THE VIRGINIA JUSTICE INFRASTRUCTURE AND IT'S VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS By William Thorpe

Law as fact of a Justice Infrastructure is always two-faced or Dialectical, experienced on the terms of interaction. Even when the terms are corrupted. As currently revealed by the spectacle of the sex assault adjudged and 34 felony count convicted former President Donald Trump. What I want to focus on is the fact that the two-faced nature of law, is also intrinsically permissive as a couple of antagonistic incidentals relative to the Virginia prison circumstance will allow me to show and before I get all into it, let me clearly and unequivocally state that indictment of the corruption is squarely with the cravenness and complicity of established Virginia society. Solitary Confinement as type and form of imprisonment, has since its emergence been criticized and indicted by humanities Jekyll and Hyde nature, specifically that, singularly it is savage and barbaric and in the aggregate existentially anti-social. The Virginia Department of Corrections has forever deployed its use against Prisoners. Enlightened and progressive members of Virginia society allied with the instructive experiences of the Virginia prisoner have stridently and consistently criticized its use by the Virginia prison official. Numerous legal actions by the Virginia prisoner against its use have also been waged in courtrooms across the Commonwealth. Nonetheless, the political narrative on the use of solitary confinement has been usurped by reactionary voices, meaning it is distortive and hypocritical and as such is the case, dumbed down to its most delusional terms, where only shells exploding in the proverbial fox hole and trenches will compel a reorientation to the commonsense and progressiveness of the criticism of its use and it just so happened that the 2020 global pandemic of Covid-19 and society's lockdown, (which weirdly but apt is a prison term) presented that proverbial shell in fox hole moment, by the relative sequestration of people to their homes and the subsequent limited mimicry of aspects of solitary confinement thereby causing vociferous protestations, ironically using the same fundamental arguments, critics have been using against it in the prison context. What is noteworthy and revealing about the parameters of the anti-Covid-19 lockdown protest is how those reactionaries who have forever "extolled" the positivism of and defended the use of solitary confinement against, in this instance the Virginia prisoner quickly realized its existential anti-sociableness and barbarity, when opposing it's imposition on society writ large. My emphasis with this work isn't on the existing compromising dissonance between supposed justice and its crass revenge or arbitrary vindictiveness which we know is it's true nature advanced by the reactionary mind that has been revealed by their cries of foul, due to their Covid-19 lockdown experiences .Because, if the Covid-19 lockdown was gratuitously cruel and existentially anti-social as critiqued by its detractors, thereby causing a gamut of social ills from suicides to all sorts of substance abuses, then it is clear that it is an "unusual" punishment, to subject a prisoner to, as such there isn't any debate to be held, there isn't any jurisprudential gymnastics be performed in determining that as a fact of The Commonwealth of Virginia's conditions of confinement, it has no place.

What I show with this work is simply this. For all sorts of stated and unstated reasons, the visible and invisible, those intimated and realized, the application of justice in a society and specific to me, Virginia is corrupt. It requires a perversion and betrayal of honesty that has nothing to do with the ethics, integrity or morality of the corrupted. Case in point the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of The United States, that Donald Trump in the Official capacity as President is unconditionally above law and we all understand that, as corrupting the necessary faith in the "we the people", along with the ask of why should there be submission to viz acceptance of whatever the rule of law means, if there are those of us that are above it. What is funny however is who amongst us is oblivious to the fact that," the above the law" contradiction is what a number of our philosophical ancients instructed is the natural inclination or default state of society? And accountability or wrestling justice or the accounting of actions and behavior into and onto society is the process and quality of civilization?.So how then are we to, with a straight face ingest and witness all the fuming and descent into the borderline violence of the anti-vax opportunist against the covid-19 resistor mask wearer, recently warring against the covid-19 lockdown using the same identical arguments the abolish solitary confinement movement educates us with, then brazenly doing an about face that somehow a prisoner is exempt from the harms of asocial confinement and its prison conditions, which their indulging romanticized relative descent into futile violence asserts. Now this level of corruption, by the instigators and practioners of solitary confinement, the prison official and ally isn't surprising, they are irredeemable and incorrigible in their pursuits of barbarity. Those human beings who do matter and can be redeemed are those "good" Virginians who have shown the will and ability to confront and challenge, the asocial and savage impulse exhibited by the defenders of the practice of solitary confinement, as a social good. Still those "good" Virginians, seem to forget, make light of and gloss over the fact that the Nation was almost reduced to a second civil war over the covid-19 lockdown, a condition its detractors relatively related as a tyrannical imposition invoking experiences us prisoners subjected to solitary confinement, (which to you dear reader, I've been subjected to since 1996 and continuing here in Texas being Virginia exiled me here in May 2019) are familiar with but in its more unbridled and extreme fact. Our "good" Virginians shouldn't surrender, relinquish or out of civility and deference to idealistic "authority" give up the commonsense and progressiveness of anti-solitary confinement work, but instead use the totality of the covid-19 lockdown to reinforce it. As harsh as I will sound, the reality and truth is harsh particularly when ameliorating and resolving corruption as work exacting accountability from and of those who assume being irreproachable and the mental instability of presuming being above law, as privilege, is anathema to them, because the dynamic of the Virginia prison official and ally who insist that performing the Virginia peoples idea of imprisonment is to contradict reason, antagonize logic and continue corrupting the peoples simple desire for a justice infrastructure and prison system that repairs the community and rehabilitates the prisoner.

Virginia is a Commonwealth of all its people, and as much as the supremacist amongst us would suffer the delusion, not some. Now the idea that some people are worthy than others, is a plague that has been castigated, by the mockery of cutting off ones nose to spite the face which, if whatever "satisfaction" is, as crest of being, then mockery, is in itself a vantage of the crest of satisfaction. I titled this work, IM NOT HERE TO TEACH YOU HISTORY BUT PREFACE THE CONSEQUENCE.....and consequences are not practically anthropomorphic, despite the fact as people we exact accountability, again pursuing holistic satisfaction, repair and the concurrent speculations on justice. So in all aspects of our human condition and specifically to this work, Virginia. We have this approximation of accountability, the faith that no one is beyond it, which unifys us and maintains the Commonwealth's integral holism and any hint of one upmanship draws ire, seething, whether articulated or repressed with its motive force lending to the fact our aspirational sapience isn't surrogate omniscience, which the delusion and deviance of supremacy presumes. Recently our current Attorney General Jason Miyares, who is addled with, take your pick of megalomania, decried the release of Virginia prisoners who had complied with laws allowing sentence reduction of the base prison sentence. Not only is Jason Miyares opposed to prisoners being rehabilitated as inferred from his opposition, but the nature of his opposition is demented and I don't say this lightly, but Attorney General Jason Miyares presented his animus against prisoner release like this and I paraphrase, that releasing prisoners will bring on a crime wave. Besides the recklessness of such an assertion, its inherent compromise of the terms of Virginia's Social Contract, the implicit asocialibity of the released, returning Virginian into society, so who then do we hold responsible and accountable of the accused asocialibity, if the released Virginian has spent years on end, detained, confined and held within Virginia's Department of Corrections?. What is pathologically pathetic about it, is this, even as Jason Miyares dehumanizes The Virginia Prisoner, who are constitutionally and jurisdictionally his constituents he brazenly genuflects to the patently corrupt, sex assault adjudged, 34 felony count convicted former President Donald Trump who is alien to Virginia. Now centuries ago such hypocrisy and antagonism would have played out as intrigue among the courtiers of the sovereign hidden from the eyes of us the people and even though the terms of what is sovereign has evolved maturely and accountably, still the fact Attorney General Jason Miyares is unable and incapable of restraining his dictatorial proclivities indicts US, WE THE PEOPLE, our complicity, for reasons that are constructs of our individual and aggregate history has enabled and tolerated. No work save for this one is pointing out the obscenity of Jason Miyares' gambit of scapegoating The Virginia Prisoner, a gambit that mocks the Commonwealth by cutting off the nose to spite the face. All educational institutions, even the segregationist holdovers home schoolers recognize the destructiveness of undermining faith in due process of law. Corporations and Businesses are relatively cognizant of the fact scapegoat politics is just another Humpty Dumpty folly, Religion can talk out of both sides of its mouth and We The People see it as State organized violence.

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

Holding The Virginia Prison Official Accountable By William Thorpe

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin just signed into law, a prison Oversight Ombudsman. He signed it into law after vetoing other prison reform bills. I've been making this point over and over, that the lawlessness and impunity of the Virginia prison official isn't for want of laws or lack of. This newly minted Ombudsman law will not stop or deter the corrupt prison official from denying prisoners in solitary confinement outside exercise then lying about it or depriving prisoners of meals or giving prisoners meals in violation of The Virginia Department of Corrections Food Service Manual and The Master Menu, then lying about it or refusing a prisoner in solitary confinement a shower and then lying about it and on and on and on it goes. I'm not being sarcastic, but that's the reality. Now what has to be done to establish an unambiguous and unequivocal mechanism of introducing accountability to the prison official is the creation of a verifiable grievance process. What I mean by verifiable is simply this, the grievance filing process provided prisoners by the Virginia Department of Corrections depends on the honesty and integrity of the prison official. Instead of you the reader taking my word on the honesty and integrity of the prison official relative to processing prisoner filed grievances, I'll let a United States Federal Judge tell you, in the case (which isn't an outlier) BLOUNT v. FLEMING 2006 U.S DIST. LEXIS 44413, Red Onion State Prison Officials claimed that, Blount (who is a prisoner) hadn't exhausted administrative remedies, which is legalese for the prisoner hadn't complied with the law requiring the filing of grievances before one can go to court. So the Judge ruled that, "Blount produced additional evidence at trial to further diminish the credibility of Taylor. "(Fonnie Taylor at the time was grievance coordinator for Red Onion State Prison) Now what the Judge diplomatically said was, Taylor lied. Now the reason a prisoners ability to access the grievance process is so fundamental and essential is without satisfying the process, the prisoner cannot take the prison official to court or hold the prison official accountable. Both Federal and Virginia laws demand the grievance process is fulfilled before there can be any type of court action and the prison official of The Virginia Department of Corrections is well aware of this as such they go to extreme lengths to deny and deprive a prisoner the ability to file grievances or complaints. Another thing grievances do is they serve as records of the prisons maladministration, which cannot be simply swept under the rug. Now look I get the nuances of advocacy, but man we gotta be practical. Just because someone has been imprisoned doesn't necessarily mean they have actually experienced the unmasked face of Virginia's organized violence. There are those who could've done 20 to 30+ years in prison and never spent a day in none of Virginia's solitary confinement concentration camps as such their perspective of the Virginia prison system is comparatively night and day with for example mine, me who has been entombed in solitary confinement for approximately 39 years of this ongoing 44+ years of Virginia imprisonment, despite the fact Virginia has exiled me to the Texas prison system, it is still keeping me in solitary confinement.

By William Thorpe

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

News Break William Thorpe Like, follow comment and share

Solitary Confinement

Visual representation of an excerpt from Central Prison inmate Chris McBride.

vapac

Didn't The Covid-19 Lock Down Make The Argument Against Solitary Confinement? By Wiliam Thorpe

We almost had a civil war over the Covid-19 National Lock Down. Republicans who have never cared about the misery regular people endure on a daily basis in the Commonwealth of Virginia, were all of a sudden concerned about our welfare and rabidly against the Lock Down and its debilitating physical and psychological effects on the Virginia Tax Payer. Well everything that made the Lock Down wrong is what is every day existence for prisoners in solitary confinement. In other words the evils of the Lock Down that almost precipitated a 2d civil war is what Virginia prison officials maintain as "civilized" practice in the name of Virginians. If the Covid-19 Lock Down was harmful, [and Courts of all levels of American jurisprudence have tripped over each other's robes pronouncing such], then maintaining its existence in prison is not a simple violation of opportunistic law but a contradiction of that, "inalienability" of humanness which the presumptuousness of Virginia's criminal justice claims in defense of the social contract. There is nothing to debate, if it was anti-human to subject the Nation to conditions of The Covid-19 Lock Down then it is equally anti-human to subject prisoners to it under guise of solitary confinement.

By William Thorpe

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

The Second Sundays In November Are Being Established As Virginia Day On Solitary Confinement

The  U.S. Supreme Court as early as 1890 concluded in the case in Re Medley that solitary confinement made prisoners "violently insane," "suicidal" and it was an "infamous punishment." Since 1890 through 2022 a slew of Federal courts have reached similar conclusions.

Nonetheless, the executive and bureaucratic minds and hearts of the Virginia Department of Corrections claim by their insistence on continuing it's use that they are wiser smarter than everyone else, even the nations of the world who by the United Nations have criticized its use and worked to abolish its long term use.

By establishing a Virginia Day on Solitary Confinement, we state, the Virginia Department of Corrections isn't a paragon of any exclusive insight. If it is still doing something hearts and minds in 1890 concluded were ahumanistic and "infamous." Secondly it claims it is working for us the taxpayers, we the people, doing what advances public safety      We the people disagree and say no to infamy done in our name.

We Establish Virginia Day on Solitary Confinement

The second Sunday in November will represent a speaking out in whatever manner available in accord with ones ability against solitary confinement. If its tweets,  posts on the various social media platforms, t-shirts, signs, videos, radio call-ins, and discussions     That clearly state to our politicians that abusing and driving prisoners insane in our name, we the people isn't what we vote for.

Please use these hashtags       either or both

#VaDayOnSolitaryConfinement

#NovemberVASecondSunday

vapac

Bradley S. Clarke's April 18th, 2022; A Prison Within A Prison Post on Medium.Com Is A Trite Apology For the Extra-Judicial Act Of Solitary-Confinement and It's Long Term Effects On the Human Being By William Thorpe

Credit William Thorpe

 

My Name is William Thorpe. I'm a Virginia prisoner exiled to the Texas prison system and I am in solitary confinement. Starting in Virginia on August 9th, 1996 after a hostage-taking at Nottoway Correctional Center and I'm still in solitary-confinement at the Wainwright Unit of the Texas prison system.

I respond to Bradley S. Clarke within the context of Virginia's use of the extra-judicial act of solitary-confinement, because he specified Virginia in his April 17th work and more importantly I speak authoritatively on Virginias solitary-confinement practices because I have experienced all of its conditions and circumstances.

I begin with a correction: Mr. Clark tells us that "the special management unit of the Eyman State Prison Complex in Florence, Arizona was the first Supermax facility constructed in the United States [in 1986]"' This is wrong, Virginia's Mecklenburg Correctional Center, which opened in March 1977, was the nations first, under the logic of "to provide maximum security segregation and treatment for the most difficult inmates." 

I'm not about to put together a 50+ paragraph response to Mr. Clarke's work which I consider ignores the crux of the issue of solitary-confinement, which is its extra-judicial nature, it's lawlessness.

What Is Solitary-Confinement

Solitary-confinement is a default, lawless fact of the idealistic and speculative expression of the ad hoc nature of the justice system, which in more ways than one exist extra-judicially.

The imprisoned and non-imprisoned Virginian exist solely as creations of the rule of law and its speculative continuum. But the existence is a past tense of law. What I mean by this is: Imprisonment is an after the fact of a conviction. The conviction, its travesties,vagaries, is an after the fact of the alleged criminal code violation, which consist a process according to the social contract or the rule of law is due. If all aspects of Virginia society exist under the omnipotent umbrella of rule of law, then any imposition and assertion by the state, the collective will of the people as organized violence, which prison and its extra-judicial practice of solitary-confinement is a crucible has to occur within a process, the rule of law. But what we encounter is its violation on all accounts as a petty cudgel of control, a transformation into crass suppositions whose farcial legitimacy is its relationship and proximity to money and its redistributive value within the locale of the prison.

So we see that the practice of solitary-confinement is a cash cow, a money tree, a feed lot for the political-economy of the prison system. To wit, which we are presented with the perverse logic of the Virginia Department of Corrections claiming it will cost $23 million to reform its solitary-confinement practice addiction. Consequently, prison officials are unwilling to relinquish their clutch and grubbing grasp of the free flow of the taxpayer money into their solitary-confinement regime.

I challenge Mr. Clarke to do a rework. beginning with explaining to us, the ignorant people why the Virginia Department of Corrections reformulated the solitary-confinement practice at its supermax prisons, Red Onion and Wallens Ridge State Prisons in 2011 after both prisons which opened in 1998 and 1999 respectively had been operating a solitary-confinement regime of the same prisoners it reclassified under a distortive and opaque verbiage - yet solitary confined. He cited Red Onions step down program without critical analysis of its legitimacy, save as I've stated a mechanism for cash flow, a feed for the prison systems political-economy.

Bradley S. Clarke Is An Apologist for the Extra-Judicial Act of Solitary-Confinement

In his apologetic zeal Mr. Clarke introduces us to a couple of anonymous prison guards who are so completely and thoughroly immersed in the impunity of extra-judicial behavior that the irony of their existence as prison guards because of the rule of law escapes them as evidenced by the cavalier nature of their ascribed quotes, starting with: 

"People don't get a view of it. They don't understand why we lean towards [using solitary confinement] instead of against it"

Mr. Clarke continues:

Neither Jimmy nor Matt credits the argument that solitary confinement constitutes torture." The guys aren't going down in a hole they're not being tortured", Matt said "they're still getting every meal that they're supposed to get, they're still getting it delivered to their cell. It's not like they're being withheld anything that they're supposed to have." Jimmy argues that the entertainment industry makes solitary confinement out to be worse than it is      exasperated Jimmy said "I would love for somebody to sit back and provide the correctional community with another option that is anywhere near as effective."

The indefatigable Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass

Mr. Clarke closed his work with commentary from Kim J. one of a number of the Virginia minds and hearts working tirelessly to hold the Virginia Department of Corrections Accountable to its mission statement. I close with it isn't apparent from Mr. Clarkes work the basis of his interest, but if as a citizen his scrutiny into prison as a system and expression of the organized violence of the state is to render it transparent thus accountable, then I, along with the listed groups welcome his involvement, support, and alliance.

ACLU of Virginia

ACLU People Power Fairfax

Bridging The Gap In Virginia

Charlottesville Chapter National Organization for Women

Coalition for Justice

The Humanization Project

Inmate Support Virginia 

Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR)

Just Future Project

NAACP Loudoun 

National Association of Social Workers, Virginia Chapter

Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged and Disenfranchised (RIHD)

SALT-Social Action Linking Together

Social Workers and Allies Against Solitary Confinement

Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Virginia

Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

Virginia Justice Democrats 

Virginia Justice for Life

Virginia Prisoner Of Conscience

Virginia Prison Justice Network

Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee 

WJCC Coalition for Community Justice

*NOTE To be added to the growing list email us at vapacommittee@gmail.com

By William Thorpe