YES WE HAVE OUR INDIVIDUAL VIRGINIA IMPRISONMENT SCHEME EXPERIENCES, BUT GOVERNOR ABIGAIL SPANBERGER WITH HER DESCRIPTIVE OF THE VIRGINIA PRISONER AS "LIVING" IS CREATING SPACE FOR THE REALIZATION OF THE ACCOUNTABILITY-FUNCTION OF GOVERNANCE By William Thorpe

What we as Virginia Prisoner's expect of and from those who speak for us, is Firstly the recognition, understanding and grasp of when Political-catalytic space is being created and most importantly, secondly how to then occupy it with the necessary realizing abilities of what it means to reform Virginia's imprisonment scheme by holding the Virginia Prison Official accountable. Every time a non-imprisoned Virginian or person has complained to a Virginia Government element viz the prison official about an experience a Virginia prisoner has been subjected to within the imprisonment scheme, it is an effort and endeavor of reform and a realization of the accountability-function, but and this will sound counterintuitive, but the infrastructure of the imprisonment scheme welcomes it .Because, it doesn't compel it to cease and desist in the offensive behavior, but rather it treats the circumstance of the complaint as a singular and isolated occurrence an insane affirmation of the systems acceptability and not as its inherently alienated and destructive comprehensive character. This isn't unique to imprisonment, but it is a primary and fundamental nature of the super infrastructure of Society or the Social Contract. Where the entire energy of existence of the Social Contract is spent and expended in distracting attention from the fact that the insufferable circumstances of everyday life are not isolated happenstances but inexorable and inevitable consequences and results of its structure and terms of relations and if the imprisonment scheme is a primary component, then it goes to say that, within the imprisonment scheme we will encounter exponential expenditure of distorting energy. What this then means is, the work of subordinating the Virginia Prison Official to the will of the People under the accountability-function dialectic of governance, is primarily that of showing and establishing that the Prison Official's professional behavior of impunity, is not that "dumbing down" narrative of the "bad apple", but is the system behaving as it is intended to. None of this is insight, because too many damn People have died stressing this simple fact. So it isn't that as a People we are historically oblivious and ignorant, to this basic political-economy machination. But as our ancients observed, that due to that ever present Social Contract dialectic and its distorting requirement, which in the absence of an analysis based organized and structured critique. What then happens is, in our individual personification as socio-persons, experiencing, existence as a peered through communal aperture, we begin to grasp that the accepted " life" happenstances are not happenstances after all but systemic outcomes, which only exist because our disclaimers are derided as illegitimate and evidence of moral failings. In other words we are not socio-persons enough that narratives of our existence compel attention. This brings me to Governor Spanberger's recent acknowledgement that and I paraphrase fellow Virginians are living imprisoned in Virginia prisons. As I have noted in earlier works her descriptive, "living", accomplishes the thesis of holding the Virginia Prison official accountable. On two accounts, firstly considering the Virginia Prison official is accountable to her as Executive of the Commonwealth, she cannot then support, endorse and defend the practices of dehumanizing the Virginia prisoner. Secondly and most important the necessary political space now exist for practical Prison reform.

By William Thorpe

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 .

JUST AS SOUTHERN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS ENDORSED, SUPPORTED AND DEFENDED CHATTEL ENSLAVEMENT OF BLACK PEOPLE, VIRGINIA'S MENTAL HEALTH ESTABLISHMENT IS COMPLICIT IN THE VIRGINIA PRISON OFFICIAL'S DEHUMANIZATION OF THE IMPRISONED VIRGINIAN By William Thorpe

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

During one of the U.S Senate's recent idealistic hearings on "wokeness", a former Chairman of the JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, immortalized this rejoinder and I paraphrase, that he had read and studied Marxism, so did that make him a Marxist?. I begin this work with it as illustration, to show how everything is about, who is saying what and at what point in time, because Justness, in its presence as Accountability, in the business of human existence as the Human Condition, is about ferreting out "interest". What I mean by interest is simply that revelation of to what extent will the always present latent and inherent corruption of a system be tolerated. I titled this work with the reminder of the role Southern Evangelical Christianity played in the political-economy of chattel slavery and I need not quote this or that in it's defense, because the indictment is well established and fully developed, not just on the terms of their very own faith and tenets, but their historic inability to repudiate the behavior, which segues into the other half of the title, which is: VIRGINIA'S MENTAL HEALTH ESTABLISHMENT IS COMPLICIT IN THE VIRGINIA PRISON OFFICIAL'S DEHUMANIZATION OF THE IMPRISONED VIRGINIAN. I BEGIN: Whereas Southern Evangelical Christianity's complicity with the chattel enslavement of Black People has been comprehensively derided and exposed for what it pathetically was, Virginia's Mental Health Establishment hasn't been subjected to an equally comparative examination of its behavior and participation in the dehumanization of the Virginia Prisoner. Which stands as example of that, who is saying what and at what point in time, which isn't critique of inability, but, it speaks to the mechanics of Virginia's Social Contract benefitting from that adage of hiding something in plain sight, which in turn speaks to the narrative dynamic of what is needed to maintain and ensure the orderly function of the business of human existence. In other words Society "tolerates", that which isn't being exposed as patently antagonistic and forever the Mental Health Establishment, whether locally or Nationally has exploited that tolerance. Because we cannot talk about and endeavor to hold the Prison Official accountable and subordinate him to the accountability-function of governance and ignore the role the Mental Health establishment plays in the imprisonment scheme. In 2019, I put together some work, titled, WHEN NOTED "EXPRESS INDIFFERENCE": RED ONION STATE PRISON,MENTAL HEALTH and IT'S PRACTICE OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, the work was published on January 10, 2019.I showed how a number of Court rulings starting with the Supreme Court of The United States, as far back as 1890, had indicted the Mental Health impact on imprisonment. What is salient is this: the Imprisoned Human Being, is purely a creation of law, nothing more nothing less. However there is that tendency, where we see the effect of again, tolerance of how that fact is glossed over and People naturally begin to accept the narrative from the beneficiaries of the imprisonment scheme, that the prisoner is something else and one of the co-conspirators in the transformation of the legal circumstance of the prisoner into an ad hoc extra-judicial circumstance are the Mental Health Establishment. Who overtly and covertly provide cover for the prison officials dehumanization of the Virginia Prisoner, which wasn't and isn't part of the Prison Sentence, but due to our silence, we don't point it out, by exposing the complicity.

By William Thorpe

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 IS MORE THAN VOTING IN POLITICIANS WHO WILL PERFORM OVERSIGHT, BUT HOW COMPREHENSIVE AN UNDERSTANDING WE HAVE OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT By William Thorpe

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

So, in response to work titled, THE SAVAGERY AND BARBARISM OF THE AMERICAN PRISON SYSTEM HAS PRODUCED GIANTS IN OPPOSITION...... which I assume came from a mind and heart sharing and having affinity with the savagery and barbarism, this was and I paraphrase stated, what did the work have to do with Virginia prisoners committing suicide. Now do I think that a Virginia prison official under a pseudonym, made the comment as a distraction from the fact that the imprisonment scheme, Virginia's or Nationally, is pure unadulterated savagery and barbarism, is besides the point. But what the comment does is present opportunity for focus on and a highlight of an aspect we seemingly and virtually fail to consider and even when it nibbles at the back of our mind, we take it for granted. What I'm talking about is the degree to which we are practically ignorant of the THOUGHT or construct of the SOCIAL CONTRACT or THE SYSTEM. Now let's just take it on face value that the commentator speaking of prisoner suicide is actually oblivious to the connection savagery and barbarism has on also inducing suicide, which the Supreme Court of The United States in 1890, in a moment of honesty and unbiased reasoning, noted in the case IN RE MEDLEY 134 U.S 160, that prisoners in solitary confinement and I quote, "committed suicide". This is what Jurist of the highest Court in the land said in 1890 and not even the most vile and incorrigible Prison Official will dare argue that solitary confinement isn't a savage and barbaric condition, but my focus is on more than stating the obvious. What I ask of us in this work of reforming Virginia's imprisonment scheme, is we have to actually grasp the construct of Virginia's Social Contract, in order to recognize that the accountability-function of governance is much more than legislative action, because for one a Supreme Court whether a States' or Federal can null and void legislative action, which the only Accountability available is that of the fundamental grasp of the People, which essentially is to what extent the People are capable of activating that "Speech", of the Emperor has no clothes. In other words, when the dynamic of governance stands gloriously naked and to a degree the Supreme Court of Hawaii in the case GRANILLO v. STATE 2026 HAW.LEXIS 179, in the writings of Justice Todd W. Eddins, has given us its schematic. Which simply is the activity of speech exposing. So, let's take the circumstance of Virginia prisoner suicide. For starters seldom do we see energetic speech from Family, Ally and Friends, cutting through the distractive and distortive noise of Virginia public discourse. Because complicity resulting in the suicides, isn't just due to the professional presence of the Virginia Prison Official as cause, but the very construct of Virginia's Social Contract and its lattice aspect, the gradient dehumanization of the socio-person. We see this in how the functionaries of Virginia's Social Contract, the Media, treat the fact of the prisoner suicide. Initially the media coverage, insidiously diminishes or down plays the suicide fact, then it matures to dismissing it with stunts as directing attention to and emphasizing whatever alleged convictions resulted in the imprisonment of the dead prisoner. This sort of media treatment is a result of bias enboldenment, serving a specific function, that of detouring fissure causing status quo criticism, which simply is the prisoner wasn't sent to prison to commit suicide. Then we have the silence from the Virginia Mental Health profession as complicity.

By William Thorpe

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 .

THE UNITY OF THE PEOPLE IS EXACTLY THAT By William Thorpe

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

Recently, I resurrected one of the Giants of the American Prison system, MARTIN SOSTRE, in context of his opposition to the savagery and barbarism of the New York Department of Corrections. In a work, titled THE SAVAGERY AND BARBARISM OF THE AMERICAN PRISON SYSTEM HAS PRODUCED GIANTS IN OPPOSITION.....and some Virginia readers failed to appreciate or ignored why Martin Sostre's existence is relevant to our work in Virginia. By the way Bro. Sostre passed at the age of 92 in 2015.This work isn't to respond to those, who despite sharing our commonality of existence and the dialectic of experiences, yet at every turn, prove the wretched aphorism, of the more people are mistreated and abused, the more they will like and love, the mistreater and abuser, by their alienated behavior. Even the Schizophrenic in Chief, Thomas Jefferson, noted this phenomenon in the Declaration of Independence, with, "all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves...". My position is, yes I'm fully aware of the psychology of the collaborator, the agent provocateur, the crass sniveling obeisant, which our ancients recognized and descriptively captured with," the great are only great because we kneel, let us rise". What our work, of reforming Virginia's imprisonment scheme ask, that when we encounter idealism and its reactionary thought our reaction isn't idealistic castigation. But first and foremost that we identify it, not in the context of, okay, we see you agent provocateur or self-hater, or apologist, but for the among ourselves, who can have that initial reaction of, "you know what, why are we being introduced to a New York Prisoner, when what we need are what's going on in Virgina. Because notwithstanding the fact that the reactionary and agent provocateur are status quo functionaries actively engaging in opposition efforts to impede the Accountability-Function of reforming Virginia's imprisonment scheme, they are albeit still The People, whose existence is Speech declaring and anticipating the, accountability formulation as inhibitory. Which then enables us to have the clarity of defining what we exactly mean when we speak of the UNITY OF THE PEOPLE, because the People are exactly what the Great Bob Marley, captured with his "This morning I woke up in a curfew...I was a prisoner too, could not recognize the faces standing over me they were all dressed in uniforms of brutality". Which is insight that even self-betrayal is nature exhibited by the People as expression of that, within and with the people exist two characters of relationship, "contradictions among us and antagonisms between us". So yes it is backwards for some of us, for whatever reason and its psychology to ignore recognizing that, the work of reforming Virginia's imprisonment scheme is also a systemic reformation of Virginia's Social Contract. So experiences of i.e. the imprisoned or non-imprisoned, or others as Martin Sostre from sister States confronting identical Virginia like systemic conditions have intrinsic value for us. The savagery and barbarism of Virginia's imprisonment scheme isn't limited to dehumanizing the Virginia prisoner. It extends to Family, let's take the experience of Hannah Fatimah Muwahhid, that is documented at COMMONWEALTH v. MUWAHHID 77 Va.App. 821. Virginia prison officials at SUSSEX II, revealed what savagery is, by repeatedly harassing Ms. Muwahhid with dehumanizing shakedowns every time she went to visit her husband. Or let's take the disenfranchisement of former Virginia prisoners, which Judge John A. Gibney Jr. had this to say, "FOR WELL OVER A CENTURY THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA HAS DISOBEYED A FEDERAL LAW DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE RIGHT OF FORMER ENSLAVED PEOPLE TO VOTE". [ KING v. O'BANNON 817 F.Supp.3d 354]

I'm using both of the above legal events to underscore the point I have been making with my writings. Which fundamentally is, yes the system as it exist is corrupt, but the corruption isn't the conclusive narrative, even though the corruption is its dialectical inherency. The corruption isn't a conclusive narrative, because the system is subordinate to the Human Condition as its Liege authority, which is simply to say the People, once again let me stress it that the People are Authority. As such its corruption begins with dehumanization. Regardless of character, be it qualification of standing in the Society, through the various idealistic sophistries applied by State organized-violence, the result is relative dehumanization or that less than, which is tactic deployed by the antagonistic imperatives within or between the People. What the work of reforming Virginia's imprisonment scheme primarily accomplishes is, it sharpens the purpose and function of the People by recognizing what are the People, through function. By firstly revealing its inherent potential and ability to "resolve". Then secondly, critiquing its latent ability of ablating the impelled antagonisms and discords appearing because of the existence and presence of the accepted conventional status quo narrative of hierarchical proximity as ordained business of human existence. Thirdly it exposes the instigating stratagems of disunity structured by the opposing and anti-elements to the consciousness and awareness of what the comprehensive Unity Of The People subsequently means. We also see something that is rarely or if ever recognized, which is the brazen and seemingly counterintuitive act of Officials breaking the law as an in your face activity of above-the-lawism, as a mask off deployment of disuniting the People. The significance of this for our work of wrangling the Accountability-Function of governance on Virginia's imprisonment scheme is, we are clear eyed to the fact that its opposition by its beneficiaries, is existential. We see this in Judge John A. Gibney Jr. exposé in the case, KING v. O'BANNON 817 F.Supp.3d 354, where he clearly exposes the Commonwealth of Virginia's anti-The People, criminal incorrigibility, with his opening salvo, which I again excerpt: "FOR WELL OVER A CENTURY THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA HAS DISOBEYED A FEDERAL LAW DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE RIGHT OF FORMER ENSLAVED PEOPLE TO VOTE....". He continues with..." WHEN THE UNITED STATES STARTED TO READMIT THE REBELLIOUS SLAVE STATES AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, CONGRESS FEARED THAT THE FORMER CONFEDERATE POWERS WOULD INVENT NEW CRIMES WITH WHICH THEY COULD DISENFRANCHISE BLACK AMERICANS. TO HELP ENSURE THE RIGHT TO VOTE ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH, CONGRESS PASSED THE VIRGINIA READMISSION ACT OF 1870. Judge John A. Gibney Jr. continues his, considering all things surprising and refreshing work, with actually giving us, the truly misanthropic mindset of Virginia's legislators as they deliberately set out to make a mockery of the enormous carnage of the Civil War, that it took to disrupt their version of again disunity of the People, with this excerpt: "WHEN ASKED WHETHER THE 1902 CONSTITUTION WOULD DEPRIVE BLACK VOTERS OF THEIR RIGHTS BY FRAUD AND DISCRIMINATION A LEADING SUPPORTER OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION REPLIED: BY FRAUD NO,BY DISCRIMINATION YES....[he goes on]...The point I make is, this dehumanization has been going on for 156 years, from 1870 to when Judge Gibney Jr. called out Virginia in his January 2026 ruling against its maintenance of the disuniting mechanism of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Black, White and other Virginians. So, when we indict the savagery and barbarism of the Virginia prison official, it isn't hyperbole.

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

THE ANTI-PAROLE THOUGHT AND ITS PROPONENTS ARE THE MOST INTELLECTUALLY FRAUDULENT IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA By William Thorpe

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

Parole as some intellectually honest Judges have noted is part of the sanction of the imprisonment and its scheme. This fact is borne out, evidenced by the legal fights during the adjudication process over disclosure of whether or not the convicted will be eligible for Parole, Pardons, Clemency or Commutation. Now the history of Parole along with Pardons e.t.c appearing as aspect of terms of a Social Contract, for example the Commonwealth of Virginias', is as all other values, processes and applications of a Social Contract, based on: to what extent does it further by stabilizing, the progressive development of the business of human existence. In other words if human existence is a realization of economy, then all the cogs and wheels detailing and defining it, must be understood within its context, especially that of the Justice Infrastructure. What I'm saying is clearly understood and observed in the fact that as soon as a Political-Economy becomes unsustainable, which is easily seen in the emergence of fundamental social dysfunction, the next thing we see is a robust practice of suppression and repression by State Organized-Violence, and its exploitation of "scapegoatism", as Political tactic. The Commonwealth of Virginia isn't any different. In the 1990's Virginia Republicans who at that time held the reins of Virginia's Government, when confronted with social dysfunction reacted with, as one of many responses, the abolishment of parole for Virginians convicted and imprisoned post 1995.In other words the frazzled and at their wits end of the affordability crisis Virginia Wife and Mother, was supposed to find solace, in the fact, that the exploding interest rates on their various credit obligations was assuaged and mitigated by the abolishment of Parole. When regardless of to what extent she might have welcomed the fact that Virginia prisoners were subjected to that proverbial "tightening of the screws", she still retained that presence of mind to know that the typical and average Virginia prisoner had nothing to do with any of the degrading quality of her life and its crisis. So what then were the political gains of the scapegoat politics of abolishing parole along with the entire narrative surrounding it?. The political gains were simple, it furthered that one and only goal of a status quo, that of "Control". Under the gambit rubric by introducing distortions and fraudulent thinking among the People, to the extent that it would enfeeble any honest debate surrounding, not just the Parole question, but the expected and anticipated comprehensive critique of reforming Virginia's imprisonment scheme, which we have seen. Parole as aspect of a imprisonment scheme, has only one function, and that is to be granted. Parole, doesn't exist as a ad hoc means or mechanism of extending imprisonment. Imprisonment can be said to perform as definitions of "Motion", by our ancients, the imprisonment will exist to its determination unless acted upon by any number of forces, which Parole, is one. So by definition Parole exist to be granted, given or provided. This existence of Parole begins to be conditioned, qualified or "corrupted", by factors and suppositions that are at odds with its dictatorship of intent, which again is to provide release from imprisonment. Now let me say this, there isn't a singular mind and emotion that recognizes every single human condition and is subsequently able to respond in a comprehensive accord. In other words, no one has all of the answers. The business of human existence, experienced as the human condition, is that of encountering, learning, cognition and approximate resolution.

What the remaining process of Parole in Virginia teaches is the mechanics of it's usurpation and subornation, by undemocratic and illiberal reactionary forces in Virginia. Another lesson the anti-Parole stance allows is, even though we, on the side of Virginia Prison reform, are aware that deceptiveness is the motive force of it's thought, it allows and permits the Virginia People to begin to see for themselves the depths of its intellectual fraudulence and corrupt character. Because the fundamental purpose of Parole, Pardons e.t.c within a Justice system, is uncomplicatedly clear to the most apathetic socio-person, that not only does it present and preserve that ability for a Society, as Virginia to claim being Civilized. But it is a practical nod and recognition to the fact the "Justice" process and its adjudication outcome is dependent on any number of existing factors, which the availability, would and could have produced a completely different result. So Parole along with the other processes of Pardons, Commutations and Clemencies, exist to state that a Society isn't hubristic that it isn't capable of being intellectually honest to recognize the validity of the critique that the socio-person, doesn't experience the adjudicative Due-Process of Law, equally with the necessary resources to comprehensively access it and command its equitable attention and professionalism. It is commonly stated that there isn't a single aspect of Society or a Social Contract that isn't a critique-portal of its whole and the Speech of the anti-Parole folks in the Commonwealth of Virginia, again proves it. Because when Virginia Republicans under the titular leadership of Governor George Allen of the Macaca racist slur infamy, with the collaboration of Virginia's Corporate Media and the complicity of silence from Virginia's status quo or legacy Institutions, abolished Parole in 1995 they knew what they were doing. But as insidious as the abolishment was, it complied with Virginia's Legislative Process. Where the intellectual fraud of the anti-Parole proponent since, stands naked, is in the intellectual distortion they resort to in attacking the remaining Parole process available for eligible Virginia Prisoners. Which is this: they disingenuously and pathetically indulge in the insults of redefining, words, they present unscrupulous framing of the dictatorship of intent, which simply is Parole exist to release the Prisoner from imprisonment. So, when we see the imposition of an idealistic scheme as the work of a parole board, what we instantly recognize is, this process is extra-judicial and ad hoc. Because even though Virginia's Parole Board is a creation of legislative action, its process is ambiguously arbitrary and "legally" capricious. At this point in this work, I want to excerpt the assertions of a Virginian who is dedicated to reforming Virginia's prisons and holding the Virginia prison official accountable. [Pastor Harvey Yoder a Mennonite and Co-Founder of the VALLEY JUSTICE COALITION, whose advocacy work for the Virginia Prisoner, I highly respect].Recently wrote in his newsletter HARDTIME VIRGINIA SUMMER 2026 Vol. II No.2, under the Header WHAT'S UP WITH THE NEW PAROLE BOARD? and I excerpt "Most of us were hopeful that the newly appointed Parole Board sworn in in March would be more generous in offering release to deserving men and women in prison. [He continues] "While this may seem puzzling, my understanding after talking with others with the same concerns is that the Board is getting themselves set up with a process for making the best possible decision while receiving a lot of new information to train themselves, as none of them have ever done this before".He makes my point.

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

TWO ASPECTS OF VIRGINIA PRISON REFORM By William Thorpe

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

First of all, this is the orienting vantage of how we stand in relationship to Virginia Prison Reform: IT ISN'T A BOON OR DISPENSATION. I BEGIN: The Virginia Prison and its imprisonment condition stands as the most speculative and suppositionary practice ever assumed by its Social Contract, consequently it contains all of the Commonwealth's shortcomings, hypocrisies and antagonisms because its work is that of dehumanization, plain and simple which ensuingly corrupts according to relative proximity or it accentuates its inherence. The work of our analysis and its animation of reforming the Virginia prison circumstance as it holds the Virginia prison official accountable along with Virginia's Government accountability-function, is to refute and repudiate its ossified and idealistic narrative regardless of logic. This first aspect of refuting and repudiating its ossified and idealistic narrative regardless of logic, assumes a number of forms, with the primary as that of getting laws passed under the notion that the fundamental dehumanization of the Virginia prisoner is that of jurisprudence and in the general sense due to the activity of Virginia's Social Contract, is. However the relative significance of jurisprudence as a counter point to the impunity of the dehumanization of the Virginia prisoner, lies with, the true, pure and quintessential nature of the accountability-function, which simply is the unfettered and truly liberated ability to hold government and its police powers, which the Virginia prison official is a function and operative to account or to compel that recognition of subordination to that "Of, By and For the people", which the Virginia Constitution asserts its authority from, with its declarations, starting with. ARTICLE 1. BILL OF RIGHTS----A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS MADE BY THE GOOD PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA IN THE EXERCISE OF THEIR SOVEREIGN POWERS,WHICH RIGHTS DO PERTAIN TO THEM AND THEIR POSTERITY, AS THE BASIS AND FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT [then it continues with] SEC.1 THAT ALL MEN ARE BY NATURE EQUALLY FREE AND INDEPENDENT AND HAVE CERTAIN INHERENT RIGHTS.......[in the spirit of JEAN ROUSSEAU and the theoretical kindred of THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789 and its," MAN IS BORN FREE BUT EVERYWHERE I LOOK HE'S IN CHAINS"]. As such the existence of prison official impunity and its presumptions of above-the-lawism simply reveals the people's impotence and inability regardless of reason to subordinate their government's activities embodied by the Virginia prison official to their will and its accountability-function. This then matter of factly exposes that the character of Virginia's prison reform has a cognitive dissonance with the general and specific or particular order of which is primary and secondary, or which comes first. Meaning should we pursue enactment of laws at the expense of the accountability-function or means of their actual application as intended or anticipated or should we attain a actual means of holding the Virginia prison official accountable. An example of this is Virginia prison reform activism achieved a recent law at Virginia Code 53.1-39. 2, A 4 hour out of cell activity for the Virginia prisoner held in solitary confinement (under the euphemism, Restrictive or Restorative Housing) Va. Code 53.1-39 (1A), then the Virginia prison official at its Koncentration Kamp Red Onion State Prison and its other Charnel Kamps, promptly ignored it and kept on doing what they do, which is violate. Here is the rub, not only has the Virginia prison official, violated the law but they have exploited it as defense in lawsuits by claiming that its existence implies solitary is like General Population.

I have misgivings with recommending this below work as a comprehensive defense of my analysis on the Second aspect of prison reform in Virginia, on the simple fact it was produced at the present day, utterly craven Columbia University of New York. Yes, just as history saluted Columbia's vanguard heroics as being correct during the 1960's, so is its betrayals and complicities of 2025, by its administrative elements, indicted as that same ole same ole fleeing from the field, an infamous illustration of life imitating art, imagery of the seminal lyrics, "PICTURE ME BEING SCARED OF A N***A THAT BREATHES THE SAME AIR AS ME" by NOTORIOUS B.I.G. Nonetheless the work which is by LAURA FEELY, makes the point and case. The title of her work is DEFINING THE PUBLIC:ADMINISTRATIVE RULEMAKING REQUIREMENT IN THE CARCERAL CONTEXCT---54 COLUM. HUMAN RIGHTS L.REV. 368.The fact that our human condition is replete with contradictions and its Social Contract expression shimmers with hypocrisies isn't the exception but the rule and it takes the work of relentless analysis and implacable exposure to assert that yes we see that the "Emperor", no matter how strident the denials by those historical stooge and henchmen functionaries," has no clothes".In others words, the center of our antagonisms isn't holding and it isn't supposed to, which clearly defines that germane dynamic of the accountability-function of prison reform in Virginia. As I pointed out in the early part of this work, Virginia's prison reform work has this cognitive dissonance, of that philosophical, chicken or egg, distraction and the navel gazing contextual distortion of order of action, that only renders the status quo work of prison reform in Virginia as idealistic. I noted Ms. LAURA FEELY'S comprehensive work, "DEFINING THE PUBLIC...", because she tackles what after all is said and done with, is the main, primary and only question of REFORM, period. So how does what Ms. Feely is laboring at speak to prison reform? It is the crux of the issue, independent of context, because if our ancestors stated the obvious which is "Rights" or interactions and relationships are "Inalienable", then impediments, which per virtue of having to state the obvious, implies that there are, impositions and if we are honestly working to attain that accountability-function of realized humanness, then, basis of such impositions are irrelevant and the only relevance, is that of it's consequence. I'll use Columbia University's recent cravenness as example, which is simply this: on what terms can cravenness offer defense?. As such analysis is to, as it is specific to prison reform in Virginia, speak to the dialectic, which is reform and how to hold the prison official accountable, as such, what analysis reveals is not the logic of the prison official's impunity, but the fact that it exist and therefore what is permitting and enabling its existence. This then brings us to the understanding and fact that the impunity itself, is a structural lattice of Virginia's Government and its police powers again, regardless and irrespective of reason or logic, the consequence is impunity and we cannot speak of the just realization of Virginia's Social Contract, when despite that Inalienable sovereignty of its existence, it has the dehumanizing motive as Virginia law, THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS ACT and we encounter it as the professional behavior of the Virginia prison official.

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

VIRGINIA REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONISM AND OPPOSITION TO VIRGINIA PRISON REFORM IS NOTHING BUT THE QUICK SAND OF MINDLESSNESS By William Thorpe

I BEGIN: Every single argument Virginia Republicans wield cudgel like against Virginia society, they hypocritically endorse and affirm its existence as Operating Policy and Procedures in Virginia Prisons and, further as pseudo-Intellectual Administrative Philosophy concocted on anachronistic suppositions, that were idealistically still born in the quick sand of mindlessness. One of the more brazen and egregious examples of this is the outrage against the Covid-19, Lockdowns on the argument that the solitary confinement of people during the Covid Pandemic, harmed people on all levels, because solitary confinement of the human being goes against our very Biology. Then the vociferous protest of the Virginia Republican against the Covid Lockdown turned into the most raucous endorsement, defense and support of its use by the Virginia prison official in Virginia prisons. Then the more insidious of the Virginia Republican's behavior is the establishment of a cottage industry, underscoring and highlighting the failings and short comings of Virginia's Public Education, then turning right around and clamoring for vindictive and monstrously mindless prison sentences for economic crimes done by and perpetrated by the challenged and dysfunctional judgement of minds and hearts, subjected to and if we are to accept the Republican anti-Public Education polemic, created by public schools. If there ever was a par none mitigative force it is the anti-public schools polemic, by Republicans and their white-Evangelical foot soldier, but that's not the reality. Instead again we see the opportunity and exploitation of hypocrisy. In other words the Education provided in Virginia Public Schools is so, according to Republicans, corrupt and corrosive, yet as soon as a Virginia mind and heart displays its ills, by for example dealing drugs, that young ill formed mind is all of a sudden responsible. Then again the Virginia prisoner is imprisoned for a set period according to the due process of law. In other words there is the presumption that the Virginia prisoner will be released into "Free" Society. So what do we see the Virginia Republican, endorsing, supporting and defending? What we see is shameless support for the savagery, barbarity and dehumanization of the Virginia Prisoner, by the Virginia Prison Official done extra-judicially of course. Because no one none of these fingers crossed behind their backs winking and nodding, giving approval to the antebellumnesque depraved professional behavior of the Virginia prison official will dare stand up in the space of Virginia's General Assembly and declare such will be the treatment of the Prisoner in The Commonwealth of Virginia as a matter of fact, we see the opposite. What we see is the pro forma, perfunctory kabuki theatre, which quite frankly is fraud and deceit perpetrated on the Virginia voter, under the guise of "oversight" by our Virginia politicians, specifically the Republican Legislator. Because when the executive Virginia prison official, presents themselves in the space of Virginia's General Assembly, to be held to account for any myriad number of objectionable professional behavior and practices, which for example, the state of Virginia Prisoners self-immolating, yup setting themselves on fire, should be the first grilling. Instead what we are subjected to is obsequious deference to the Virginia Prison Official, with one of those toothless, "on the one hand or on the other", soliloquies framed specifically for the obligatory clip on the local News for consumption by the Republican's rural constituents, representing Bonafide's on that perpetually exploited farcical "law and order", which by the way is the Virginia Republican politicians' sure fire route to winning elections. None of what I'm saying is insight, any critically thinking Virginian, is thoroughly and comprehensively aware of this unbefitting the aspirations of Virginia's circumstance of our human condition. The thing is how do we change it. Its simple if no one is omniscient, notwithstanding the late Arizona Senator John McCain's assertions, and I paraphrase, that we make our own history which I suppose requires omniscience, then its time this war on the Virginia prisoner is confronted with, that simple honesty of, the well fed amongst us cannot keep on supporting this intellectual-liberal fraud of mocking not merely the Social Contract and its constant Sisyphean squaring of the circle, but the fact that just as we challenge the clay feet sophistry of our ancients as petty charlatanism, along with recognizing that irony of Donald Trump's declaratory speech, announcing his quest for the U.S. Presidency, with the propaganda of Mexico not sending its best to the U.S, but and I paraphrase, deviants, which as I've noted its irony, because his critique accurately described the sort of initial European who set sail on those rat infested and leaky galleons, projecting European Monarch power seizing the patrimony of those they encountered. If we want a honest accounting of our human capital which actually means ourselves then, the Virginia prison official, has to come to terms with, one for example, as the current Director of The Virginia Department of Corrections, former Wise County, Circuit Judge, Chadwick Dotson, that savagery and barbarism are always that whether done by a convicted Virginian occupying a Virginia prison cell or done by the Virginia prison official professionally, it is still sadism and notwithstanding the sophistry of personal and individual responsibility, The Commonwealth in its presumptions of Sovereignty commissions of savagery "is just that savagery".

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

HALF A DOZEN YEARS AND COUNTING, IN EXILE IN THE TEXAS PRISON SYSTEM FROM VIRGINIA By William Thorpe

William Thorpe

You know six years ago on May 29, 2019 Virginia shackled me, handcuffed me so tightly with chains around the waist, that one of the transporting officials on the plane with me had to loosen the handcuffs just enough for me to snack on some trail mix, well that was six years ago to the day and half a dozen years since, its another May 29th, 2025 and my exile by Virginia's Government to the Texas prison system is ongoing. There is another aspect to Virginia exiling me to Texas that I haven't spoken on, till now, which is my Mother had just died on May 19th, 2019 ten days before Virginia bundled me on the Governor's plane, for exile. Anyway as I noted in one of my works, titled, JUST AS VIRGINIA SLAVE OWNERS.....my experience and circumstance isn't unique, Virginia just can't get out the way of its ancestral habit and practice of presumptions and its futility of dictatorship. So the facts are simple, since my imprisonment under Virginia's jurisdiction, my speech has been clear, I'm imprisoned because of and under law as such the system and the prison official embodying it are compelled and obligated to follow and be under it's process as we all are and its this simple fact that Virginia and it's prison official is violently resentful and apoplectic of. The contradiction isn't whether Virginia is just and right to apply law as fundamental terms of the Social Contract, because it is, which irrespective of form of dictatorship has process that despite its relative violability, in it's consciousness of itself cannot dismiss the unconditionality of reform, yet what we see is Virginia and its prison official doing the opposite and as preposterous as it sounds, waging war on the prisoner, which is that classic totem of the snake devouring its tail. So I'm held in the Texas prison system, when I was exiled from Virginia, I was in solitary confinement at Virginia's Koncentration Kamp Red Onion State Prison, where I had been since its opening in 1998.

I was one of the initial ten guys, from Virginia's original Super-Max, (the now closed) Mecklenburg Correctional Center, who opened up Koncentration Kamp Red Onion State Prison (which is hard at work resurrecting all the evils of Mecklenburg). My current detention in solitary confinement (which I still am in Texas) started after a August 8th-9th,1996 hostage incident at Virginia's Nottoway Correctional Center. Now what I want to use this six years of exile in Texas to illustrate, is, first of all, the administrating philosophy of the Nations prisons are relatively alike and identical, which shouldn't be news to anyone who pays attention with nominal grasp to the fact that one of the hallmarks of The Constitution Of The United States is its reduction of a full person to....."three fifths....",at Article I. Because the fundamental terms of Social Contract, in the Nations and of course Virginia (which was a driver in that demented..."three fifths...."formulation) is political-economy. In other words, Virginia as well as the Nations' Justice Infrastructure and imprisonment scheme was all about the motive and formulations of the demented...."three fifths....", so despite its revisionism and "public safety" calibrated narrative, the Nations prisons and imprisonment schemes are haplessly mired in that which anticipates the Speech of reform, just as that dialectic of the....."three fifths" anticipated the Civil War. I'm also using this half-dozen years and counting of Texas exile to resurrect one of the irrefutable polemics of our ancients, that simply observes the generality of injustice irrespective of specific experience, which as irrefutable principles go, only affirms or proves it. In the work, that I documented my 2019 exile, titled: The Exile of William Thorpe from Virginia to Texas, An Extraordinary Act, I stated, this which I excerpt, "The question my exile poses besides the obvious Governmental abuse with its deceptive security threat basis which is nothing more than cover for petty and crass extra judicial vindictiveness for the Virginia Justice System is simple and it isn't limited to my circumstance. Besides regardless of the " legality". Of the exile, it's motive details an extra judicial act and its execution underscores an intrinsic aspect of our human condition which in a nutshell is: irrespective of the backdrop of law, there isn't a just and democratic accounting of its misuse. People will apply their petty tyrannical impulses, which in this instance prison officials under cover of law but in unlawful ways." I've excerpted this bit of a passage referencing my exile in 2019 and to buttress it, is what is playing out Nationally, in 2025 where, Law, when once upon a time was deployed in its subordinating dynamic,[see the Constitutional, Article I, "three fifths" formulation] against those falling under and subject to its rubric, yes that specific marginalized, is now weaponized against "All", even allies of its misuse, in other words all Americans are now subject to the brazen impunity deployed against the prisoner by the prison official. People who are not imprisoned have this irrational or better yet cognitive dissonance, that " prison" exist outside of law, which is a deliberate construct and concoction of the prison official and their infrastructure-allies, an endeavor that has nothing to do with the speculations of repairing the harm caused by a crime or that generic, "justice", but pursuing and permitting the industrialization of the professional prison official as a career employment. Here is an illustrative anecdote, historically, the prison official was called a " prison guard", then in the early 1990's, young incoming prisoners started using the acronym, CO (for correctional officer), but Virginia main stream or corporate media still referred to the prison official as prison guard, notwithstanding the fact Virginia's mainstream media rarely had any critically insightful exposé about the Virginia prison official for its readers and consumers, as a matter of fact the media has been the prison official's staunchest ally and enabler in disseminating the propaganda and narrative that the Virginia prison official is irreproachable and above law. Yet in 1996 or 1997,Ron Angelone, the then Director of The Virginia Department of Corrections found it existential and vital to the Virginia prison official's narrative that Virginia's mainstream media referred to them as Correctional Officers. The point is that colloquial prison guard was being industrialized, but the glibly glossed over is this, a title does not a job make, so the Virginia prison official got their Correctional Officer, title without a job to go along with it, save for that antebellumnesque continuum of savagery, barbarity and gratuitous violence, a holdover from their progenitor, which naturally has nothing to do with Virginia law concerning imprisonment. Well this six year mark of my exile clearly paints the work of reform of the prison official and the requisite accountability.

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

SPEECH AND PRISON REFORM IN VIRGINIA III By William Thorpe

In I and II of this fundamental component of prison reform in Virginia, I stated the obvious which is all social facts are SPEECH which in turn is packaged and organized as Politics. However just as there are two sides to social facts and realities, politics and its practice has its two sides when it confronts anything that is questioning, challenging and calling out its status quo, meaning requiring reform or change and nothing spells this out more than, Prison Reform in Virginia. So what we see in Virginia are the unimpeachable, irrefutable and indisputable facts of the corruption and impunity of the Virginia prison official as witnessed by the prisoner, families of the prisoner, some prison officials, even certain conscientious victims of crime, revelations at pseudo over sight hearings, post-event investigatory reports. Then we have compendium, chronicles of Court action upon Court action documenting, detailing the savagery and barbarity of the Virginia prison official done under the political partisanship permissiveness of the people of Virginia. All of which express and exhibit that inchoate murmurings of injustice that is ever present as lattice of the Social Contract, which is rendered inchoate by the type of and side of politics practiced by a type and sort of reform advocacy. Now the basis for prison reform as I've already stated are an exhaustive existence of facts that are unbiased and nonpartisan, I mean the event of a Virginia prison official racially slurring a prisoner, is a fact, irrespective and regardless of sophistry of defense conjured up by the Virginia Attorney Generals Office, who legally represents offending prison officials. So if the event(s) anchoring and underpinning the narrative of prison reform are social facts meaning it is accessible to all, then the reform narrative should reflect that. In other words, prison reform in Virginia should command the moral authority of civic responsibility upon the simple proposition that the prison official of all, must be a paragon of compliance with law and this requires an energetic SPEECH. So let's take the case of JAMYCHEAL MITCHELL and the words of Judge REBECCA BEACH SMITH instructive and illustrative of SPEECH.

I want to excerpt certain salient comments by U.S.DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA, NORFOLK DIVISION, REBECCA BEACH SMITH IN THE CASE OF ADAMS v. NAPHCARE INC. 2019 U.S DIST.LEXIS 45534, dealing with the incident of JAMYCHEAL MITCHELL, who was arrested for allegedly shoplifting $5.05 worth of pop and snacks from a 7-Eleven on April 22, 2015 and his subsequent death in a Virginia State Hospital on August 19, 2015 in his own feces and bodily fluids after wasting away from his original arrest weight of 180lbs to 144lbs, because a State Judge Morton V. Whitlow upon the realization that Mr. Jamycheal Mitchell required mental health care for competency to go through the due process of law due to the alleged $5.05 shoplifting, ordered him to a Virginia State hospital, which became Mr. Mitchell's death sentence, thereby becoming another unimpeachable, irrefutable and undeniable fact of prison reform in Virginia. I now excerpt what Judge Rebecca Beach Smith had to say and its role in the SPEECH OF PRISON REFORM IN VIRGINIA. She wrote in her opinion in the above cited case....."WHILE INSTITUTIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN THIS MATTER REMAINS WOEFULLY LACKING, THE CASE AND RESULTING SETTLEMENT AT LEAST BRING ABOUT SHARPENED FOCUS ON, AND HEIGHTENED PUBLIC AWARENESS OF, THE PROBLEMS OF INCARCERATING MENTALLY ILL INDIVIDUALS. ONE RESULT OF THIS HEIGHTENED AWARENESS WAS THE ENACTMENT OF THE JAMYCHEAL MITCHELL LAW IN THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. see act of March 24, 2017 (*JAMYCHEAL MITCHELL LAW*), CH 759,2017 Va acts 1383 (codified as amended at Va.Cod Ann.sec.53.1-2,53.2-5,53.1-127 (2013 and Supp.2018),and codified at Va. Code Ann. 53.1-69.1 (Supp.2018) ( New Virginia Code sec.53.1-69.1 OUTLINES PROCEDURES FOR THE "[R]EVIEW OF DEATH OF INMATES IN LOCAL CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES).THE REVIEW AND OVERSIGHT OF THE PROBLEMS OF ADDRESSING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES THROUGH CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES APPEARS NOW TO BE AN ONGOING ISSUE OF PUBLIC CONCERN. CONSEQUENTLY, THIS CASE AND THE RESULTING SETTLEMENT, TOGETHER WITH CONTINUED EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE SYSTEMIC BUREAUCRATIC AND INDIVIDUAL FAILURES THAT LED TO MR. MITCHELL'S SHAMEFUL DEATH, DO GIVE IMPORTANCE AND MEANING TO HIS LEGACY."....." ALL THIS BEING SAID, THE LACK OF HUMAN DECENCY SHOWN MR. MITCHELL CAN NEVER BE RECTIFIED. THIS CASE EPITOMIZES THE MAXIM "MANS INHUMANITY TO MAN" ROBERT BURNS, MAN WAS MADE TO MOURN A DIRGE (1784)(MAN INHUMANITY TO MAN MAKES THOUSANDS MOURN").[All that I've excerpted are from Rebecca Beach Smith, Federal Judge].Now I continue with the work of SPEECH AND PRISON REFORM IN VIRGINIA, what I've excerpted from Rebecca Beach Smith makes all our points from all basis and perspectives, because a careful read and study of her opinion and the entire incident of Mr. Mitchell, through Virginia's legislature coining a law in his name makes the point of all that we state, as it presents us with the question, what exactly is our Judge Smith telling us.

.I do like what Judge Smith had to say in her opinion and ruling, not because she is giving us original insight, but she ties up so neatly, what I'm saying with this SPEECH AND PRISON REFORM IN VIRGINIA work. I remember the Jamycheal Mitchell incident, but when one is a member of a target group and demographic as I am, Jamycheal Mitchell's experiences are the fabric of the Black American experience, Nationally and of course in Virginia, which I can objectively say, state and declare is its historical and antecedent architect, so yes I paid attention to Mr. Mitchell's situation not as an academic indulgence but as another revelatory yard stick of the industrialization of the administration of impunity and lack of accountability. I begin: the details of the Jamycheal Mitchell incident allege, shoplifting of $5.05 worth of pop and snacks from a 7-Eleven, so a State Judge did what law and common practices suggested, he placed Mr. Mitchell on the multimillion Dollar assembly line of Virginia's State Hospital operations, which is what Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, characterized in her opinion with....."[T]his case and the resulting settlement, together with continued efforts to improve the systemic bureaucratic and individual failures that led to Mr. Mitchell's shameful death". I do have to say this, I recognize and realize the effort in Judge Smith's writings, imbued with the integrity of her sense of self and the affront the Jamycheal Mitchell incident presents to her but then I'm also reminded of a letter President Dwight Eisenhower is alleged to have written about the horrors he witnessed upon liberating Nazi death camps, to which he supposedly observed that and I paraphrase, that he never thought such levels of mans depravity and inhumanity to man existed. Of course Eisenhower was rocked by what he encountered in those Nazi death camps, just as Judge Smith was rocked as she said in her 30 years of being a Federal Judge by the Jamycheal Mitchell incident, still though the honesty of our sense of self and morality isn't based on how shocked or rocked by terms of a human condition which for whatever reason we never actually and really paid attention to its effrontery and incredulity till we are subjected to its accounting. Because what America did President Dwight Eisenhower grow up in that the horrors of a Nazi death camp in the 20th century became his measure of mans depravity to fellow man? Wasn't the disembowelment of the enslaved pregnant Black woman as punishment by the enslaver horrific? or wasn't all those laws and State Constitutions declaring chattel enslavement of Black People horrific enough, I mean what is worse the fact that the Eisenhowers of the world didn't have the presence of mind to recognize the pure unadulterated depravity and horrors of Jim Crow segregation, that banality is an insidious corruption hypocritizing that sense of self, till one is shocked with the graphic.

Judge Smith despite her herculean professional efforts is unable to conceal that inherent lawlessness and impunity of a system that birthed Jamycheal Mitchell and then subsequently administered his demise and death. We see this with her initial declaration, "While institutional and individual accountability in this matter remain woefully lacking,...." and what I find instructive and revealing with Judge Smith's comments, is this inherent systemic lawlessness and impunity displayed by Mr. Mitchell's experience isn't an aberration or anomaly, but is the natural character of a Social Contract and its status quo that accepts it as that profane "cost benefit analysis ". In so many words, yes Magna Carta wrestled recognition from King John, but despite the passage of millennia, that dismissive, dictatorial and supremacist tendency, is in principle an operative term of the Social Contract and human condition and is still with us. Just as it was herculean for Judge Smith, it is herculean for the emergence of the necessary type of politics, to make accountability not an exception and herculean but a natural and common state, which she recognized with her..." All this being said, the lack of human decency shown Mr. Mitchell can never be rectified...... ".What Judge Smith allows us to face up to, which is what this work on SPEECH AND PRISON REFORM IN VIRGINIA enables is, the debate isn't about the political-economic interest of Virginia's imprisonment scheme post The Commonwealth's defeat in The Civil War, in other words the focus isn't on that back door reintroduction of unremunerated labor post Civil War, but now that The Commonwealth's imprisonment scheme is formulated under the "politics of public safety and its partisan exploitation", we disagree with Judge Smith with her posit in her opinion.." The review and oversight of the problems of addressing mental health issues through correctional facilities appears now to be an ongoing issue of public concern".Our disagreement has a historical character because,".....the problems of addressing mental health issues through correctional facilities appears now to be an ongoing issue of public concern "., isn't new, a serious amount and percentage of Virginians have as long as I've been imprisoned by the Commonwealth exerted enormous amount of energy decrying its antagonistic circumstance. What is a correct assessment is Virginia's status quo are incapable of staking no other position than that expressed by Judge Smith and we see this because despite the conditions and circumstances at Virginia prisons proper and not mere local facilities inducing and causing an unacceptable amount of suicides, the JAMYCHEAL MITCHELL LAW, which Judge Smith extols and touts as a positive and responsive outcome of Mr. Mitchell dying in his feces and bodily fluids ONLY extends to Virginia local facilities and Jails. In other words even as Virginia's legislature makes the cursory noises of recognizing Mr. Mitchell's humanness, it cannot bring itself to hold The Virginia Department of Corrections and its State facilities accountable under the rubric of MITCHELL'S LAW, thus making a mockery of its own actions, and its this type of politics and its partisan narrative we must change for Reform of Virginia's imprisonment scheme. What we do welcome from Judge Rebecca Beach Smith is her subtle indication, recognizing that bureaucracy and systemic and I add intransigence are mere symptoms of the political and that as I've noted ties in neatly with our recognition and assertion that the work of holding the Virginia prison official accountable and reforming the Virginia prison system is with THE SPEECH OF POLITICS.

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

‘Dangerously understaffed:’ Inmates describe fear and violence behind Red Onion’s walls by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

                                                  Red Onion State Prison in Wise County (Photo courtesy of Virginia Department of Corrections.

‘Dangerously understaffed:’ Inmates describe fear and violence behind Red Onion’s walls

by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury
March 4, 2025

Dontae Ebron’s family has been on edge. 

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.”

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury