VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS MONOPOLY WITH KEEFE COMPANY & PRAYER OIL

For all of you out there who were under the illusion and delusion of what's the driving motive force of prison. The below should easily shake you out of it. The driving force is as everything else in life  MONEY. The state of Virginia and it's VADOC has a monopoly contract with the Keefe Company and not even the U.S. 1st amendment prohibition against state interference in religion hinders it. So you see Prison Policy Reflected.




By vapac

VIRGIN ISLAND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COVERTLY DELVES INTO STATESIDE VIRGINIA'S RED ONION STATE PRISON REPORT OF MALFEASANCE AND ABUSE

Editors Notes: We at "Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee" would like to thank the family of Prisoner Hector Ledesma for sharing their story with us. Mr. Ledesma has expressed he is now on St.Croix V.I his hometown prison, Golden Grove Correctional Facility and is still having problems mentally and to this day he has received no help and there are still V.I prisoners in Red Onion along with Wallens Ridge prisons in Virginia (quote) getting tortured and abused.

Virgin Island Justice Department covertly delves into Account of Stateside Prison Abuse proclaimed by Prisoner Hector Ledesma relating his experience of his imprisonment in isolation subsequent to being shipped to Virginia's Red Onion State Prison. Conditions at Red Onion have been the subject of an HBO Docu titled "Solitary" a narrative based on a prison on an Appalachian strip-mined mountaintop where the sights and sounds hints of infertile destruction alone are sufficient to set your skin creeping and your brain working in unbearable and painful ways where life is obvious and desolate, particularly in supermax prison, where prisoners are isolated 23 hours daily locked down in cells with no human contact. Other articles have been written in an array of media, Variety Magazine, and the Washington Post to name a couple.

Some articles portray the supermax as "Virginia's Worst of the Worst prison," intended to oversee prisoners who are especially risky or oppose discipline.

Ledesma served a part of his 13 years, 9-month term at Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility on St. Croix and Citrus County Detention Facility in Lecanto, Florida.

He was sentenced for aggravated rape at the age 18, accused of engaging in sexual relations with a 12-year-old minor on St. Croix. The punishment delivered to him in 2004 was 15 years with no parole. 

Since then Ledesma has bid his case, based on changes in a witness testimony. But the appeal was rejected by the U.S. District Appellate Court in 2009 and also rejected upon review by the V.I. Superior Court in 2016. The alleged victim’s coerced testimony was apparently the only claimed evidence that was used to falsely and wrongfully convict Ledesma. We at vapac have been provided and given permission to share her recanted statements.

Another Virginia prison confining Virgin Islanders is Wallens Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. As per data shared on the web, Wallens Ridge was intentionally built to enable different states to mitigate prison overcrowding.

The Source a U.S. Virgin Island online-only newspaper since 1999 whom considers itself  A trusted independent voice of the Virgin Islands community in a recent article reported: (quote)

Several days into an investigation into the living conditions of Virgin Islands prisoners, Attorney General Claude Walker said he had little to say about it. However, he admitted the probe began with the publishing of a letter from one of those prisoners. But because Walker chose to limit remarks about the off-island prisoners, it was hard to determine if the investigation will extend to the 202 V.I. inmates now serving time in Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia. In his letter, inmate Hector Ledesma recounted his placement in solitary confinement after being transferred to Red Onion State Prison. When asked when the inquiry began, Walker said, “a few weeks ago.”But the AG added few details after that.“I do not have anything to share with you at this time, as it in an investigation,” he said. The article went on to say the Bureau of Corrections Public Information Officer Irving Julian said there are 56 inmates in Virginia, 66 in Mississippi, 85 in Florida and one in South Carolina. The last group to leave the territory left after the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. But Julian could not say how many inmates left in the 2017 group (unquote)

Attorney General Claude Walker confirmed to Virgin Islands Consortium another online news platform that The Department of Justice has launched a full investigation into the treatment of Virgin Islands prisoners being held in stateside prison facilities.

By vapac

References:

• VI Inmate Opens Up About Unthinkable Abuse He And Others Endure At Out-Of-State Prisons
• Department Of Justice Launches Full Investigation Into Treatment Of VI Prisoners Held In Off-Island Facilities 
• Bureau Of Corrections Working Alongside D.O.J. On Investigation Into Treatment Of VI Prisoners Held In Off-Island Facilities
•  Justice Department Quietly Digs into Account of Stateside Prison Abuse | St. Thomas Source
• Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee:  VIRGIN ISLANDS CONSORTIUM CHRONICLES VI PRISONER ABUSE WHILE HELD AT VIRGINIA'S RED ONION STATE PRISON
• Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee: VIRGIN ISLANDS CONSORTIUM REPORTS V.I. BUREAU OF CORRECTIONS & DOJ EXAMINING FORMER RED ONION STATE PRISONER ABUSE

VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS INNOCUOUS INSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY REQUEST FORM

This innocuous nature of this form reveals it's insidiousness. The prison is well aware of legal confidentiality. So why is it even presenting a waiver which naturally can only harm the prisoner? This is but one aspect of Virginia's Red Onion. That's why transparency and the subsequent accountability is needed.




By vapac

THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, 28 DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS AND THE FIGHT OVER A WOMAN'S BODY

Opportunism and its exploitation by politicians is nothing new and society is equally jaded to expect and naturally accept it. Nonetheless, if governance in the Commonwealth of Virginia isn't to be reduced to a speculative exercise, then certain instances of its display have to be highlighted and for the purpose of this work scrutinized.

WHO OWNS THE VIRGINIA WOMAN'S BODY

A little over a fortnight ago Brian Moran, Secretary of Public Safety Homeland Security and executive elements of the Virginia Department of Corrections intimidated at an opening of a new collaborative front with Virginia Conservatives and the effort at controlling women's bodies. Specifically the bodies of Mothers, Wives, Daughters, Sisters, Aunts, the Women of Virginia Prisoners, under the guise of responding to illicit drugs within the state's prisons. The Department of Corrections weirdly determined that focusing on the menstrual function of Women visitors to its prisons was the correct response because it targeted bloody tampons and menstrual cups.

OPPORTUNITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Consequently, 28 Democratic lawmakers presented a letter to the elements responsible for the state's reprehensible focus on the menstrual functions of Women, stating their misgivings and in extension, their constituents. The classic definition of political opportunity is a politician's reflexive exploitation of the low hanging fruit of contradictions within the society and prison and its issues are always low hanging fruit for politicians and their pursuit of speculative power. What however is troubling in this context: The state and condition of Virginia prisons it's problems and official misconduct have been well documented by the tireless work of Virginia Reform advocacy. Despite the focus on the state's Red Onion State Prison and it's extrajudicial propensity, the Virginia prisons system is a rug well cushioned with the dirt of it's prison officials malfeasance swept under it due to the lack of accountability and political apathy.

If the standard for accountability and focus on the state of Virginia prisoners by Virginia politicians is "Drug overdose.....that are.....preventable "as stated in 9/26/18; democratic lawmakers letter to the Director of the Department of Corrections. Which implies and rightly so, that Virginia citizens are not sentenced to its prisons to die, whether by prisoner suicide or the indifference to prisoner health and nutrition. Then those 28 Democratic lawmakers who correctly reminded elements within the Virginia Department of Corrections, purveyors of the tampon and menstrual cup fight over a Woman's body and it's antebellumesque backwardsness and its Conservative myopia, of once again, another attempt at controlling a Woman's body should recognize that what the effort by those responsible for the tampon menstrual cup policy tells us in that tip of the iceberg manner is the state of the Virginia prison system. Notwithstanding Brian Moran's exhortation that Virginia Department of Corrections Director Harold Clarke has "changed" and reformed the culture. Which we are expected to accept as euphemism for its officials and rank and file guards are now following U.S. and Virginia Law and Department s own procedures and policies. Actions like the tampon and menstrual cup policy that are perverted and morally wrong, even bordering on the sadistic exposes to the Virginia taxpayer that it's prison officials lack the common decency to fundamentally respect Women and if this behavior exemplifies a cultural change, then what exactly preceded it? Case in point at the Virginia Department of Corrections, Red Onion State Prison, not a single Woman has been promoted beyond rank of Sergeant since its 1998 opening, for all practical purposes.

So if those 28 Democrat lawmakers are not petty machiavellian exploiters of the #MeToo political emergence, then concerns about the Virginia prison condition isn't limited to drug overdoses.

THE HYPOCRISY OF DUE DILIGENCE

Have any of the 28 Democratic lawmakers went into, Red Onion, Wallens Ridge, Sussex I, and Sussex II State Prison and spoken to prisoners, actually paid attention to what Virginia Department of Correction proclaims in its press releases with what it does?

By William Thorpe who is held in Solitary Confinement at Red Onions State Prison.

References

Virginia Prisons Ban Visitors From Wearing Tampons, Citing Contraband Concern 

8 Investigates Virginia halts tampon ban for state prison visitors

Lawmakers to Virginia prison chief: Tampon ban is an invasion of visitor privacy

IF EDUCATING PRISONERS & JOB TRAINING WERE REALLY GENUINE EFFORTS BY WILLIAM THORPE

There are some (advocates) who assume the system has the best interest of Prisoners at heart and is acting in good faith when in actuality of the reality says otherwise. Because for example if educating Prisoners and job training were really genuine efforts      The system i.e., Virginia Government would make it easy for released Prisoners to then get jobs and reintegrate into society but on the contrary, we don't see Virginia Government changing laws and its perception of released Prisoners meaning the system talks of rehabilitation, education e.c.t. are only window dressing, a deflection from the push to reform Prisoners and hold Prison Officials accountable.

We don't expect those who assume the system has the best interest of Prisoners at heart to instinctively understand this but what "vapac does demand of them if they claim to speak for Prisoners then they should listen to Prisoners. Now it isn't that all Prisoners per virtue of being Prisoners have some special insight. But what Prisoners do have is an intimate view of the system, Prisoners, have a cynical view of anything the system claims it's doing in good faith and those who profess to speak for Prisoners can then add on the cynicism of Prisoners with their (advocates) instincts to then develop a practical approach to hold the system accountable.



BY WILLIAM THORPE