THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS IS A GANG, REFUSING TO COMPLY WITH LAW WHILE USING LAW TO DO ILLEGAL, LAWLESS AND REPREHENSIBLE DEEDS By William Thorpe

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

The Virginia Department of Corrections, in the administration, management and operation of Virginia prisons and the many forms of Virginia's Justice Infrastructure, acts and speaks through its many departmental Policies and Operating Procedures under the statutory authority and provisions of Virginia Code Section 53.1.Titled: PRISONS AND OTHER METHODS OF CORRECTIONS. The Law has 15 Chapters, starting with ADMINISTRATION GENERALLY and concluding with CORRECTIONS PRIVATE MANAGEMENT ACT or better known as MAKE MONEY OFF LOCKING PEOPLE UP. Now I'm stating all of this to show that The Virginia Department of Corrections is in fact a creation of Law as such is subordinate to the desires, intentions and will of The People of Virginia as expressed by their voting exercise. In otherwords, the politicians voted in who in turn express those desires, intentions and will. Secondly, law requires an operative or accountability and process which inherently is conditionally transparent. Thirdly all of what I've said requires the human actor in other words, the people the Virginia voter elects for the purpose of objectifying their desires, intentions are the ones then tasked with ensuring the accountability of law, its process and conditional transparency. So when for example the Virginia prison official is being their corrupt professional self, we first look to why the elected politician is allowing and permitting it and once we understand that its because the elected politician isn't fulfilling and serving in the role of and doing their tasked oversight and accountability function, then it turns to the people to quickly vote the offending politicians out and replace them with those responsible enough, mature enough and honest enough to follow the desires, intentions and will of the people. This work isn't intended to instruct and lecture anyone, instead what I'm showing is no ones hands are clean, or innocent, yes there is always complicity regardless of reason, which considering the fact we are all human runs the gamut, but what this work unequivocally declares is, if Virginia's Justice Infrastructure and its Department of Corrections is lawful, which I've shown is in fact that, a lawful construct, then as The People of Virginia, we cannot tolerate and have that fly in the ointment of the Virginia prison official being reprehensible under the cover of that lawfulness, thereby making a mockery of that most basic of humanness, the intelligence. For too long, Virginia politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike have conveniently and simply blamed, which in fact is scapegoat the Virginian prisoner at the expense of the basic or functional commonsense required in all other facets and aspects of the daily existence of the Virginian voter because the voter has acted as if those politicians knew better or understood better or were better equipped to speculate on matters and issues of "justice" in a contemporary and modern society as the Commonwealth of Virginia. So when tired, stale and decrepit speculative ideas of "justice" and human behavior were dredged up, repackaged and imposed on society, people responded as if the graphically naked emperor had on clothes. I haven't wasted the readers time and energy with another voluminous recitation of the Virginia prison official's barbarity, savagery and reprehensible deeds, because court records, law books filling shelves of Virginia's law schools do that, all the voter has to do is read.

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

Unlikely allies unite for probation reform, but Youngkin has final say By Charlotte Rene Woods

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

Virginia’s criminal justice future is shaking up the status quo. In a departure from tradition, a probation reform bill is uniting unlikely allies across party lines.

Typically, criminal justice reform in Virginia is championed by Democrats with little Republican backing. However, this year, Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, has captured national attention by teaming up with Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Albemarle, on an ambitious probation overhaul. 

In the Senate, Sen. Christie New Craig, R-Virginia Beach, advanced a version of the bill.

If enacted, the legislation would allow formerly incarcerated individuals to earn credits towards reductions in their probation terms by achieving key milestones that demonstrate their rehabilitation. These include securing employment for at least 30 hours a week, earning vocational certifications, participating in mental health or substance use treatment programs, and obtaining stable housing and health insurance coverage. 

The measure, bolstered by Reform Alliance — a national criminal justice organization founded by rappers Jay Z, Meek Mill and others — is now headed to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk. It also has the backing of the conservative-leaning group Americans For Prosperity, along with several Virginia-based criminal justice organizations such as Nolef Turns and The Humanization Project. 

Advocates emphasize that the reform could significantly reduce recidivism — the cycle of reoffending that leads many back behind bars.

Despite Youngkin’s previous veto of a version of the bill carried by Callsen last year, reform supporters are optimistic. They point to the governor’s own initiatives aimed at reducing recidivism by supporting formerly incarcerated individuals.

Notably, just months after rejecting Callsen’s proposal last year, Youngkin issued an executive order directing state agencies to share data and coordinate efforts to help individuals connect to vital resources during their transition from incarceration to freedom. 

Reform Alliance policy manager Shawn Weneta said the organization is “excited” to see that the bills advanced with “bipartisan support both within the General Assembly and within the advocacy community.”

“Hopefully (Youngkin) will sign this into law,” Weneta said. 

Williams, who has served on the House Courts of Justice Committee with Callsen, was motivated to spearhead the legislation this year after observing a similar law enacted in Florida and recalling how President Donald Trump signed congressional prison reforms during his first term. 

Williams stated that the bipartisan drive for probation reform is “recognition that the punitive approach has not worked.” He added, “By prioritizing rehabilitation, Virginia is building a more effective, efficient criminal justice system that benefits individuals, communities, and taxpayers alike.” 

He emphasized that reducing probation can help formerly incarcerated individuals “rebuild their lives out of the American Dream” and contribute to creating safer communities for all. 

While Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears did not comment directly on the legislation, she expressed a shared ethos behind the reform. 

During a Feb. 12 segment on The John Fredericks Show, Earle-Sears explained that  “we want to do as much as possible to ensure that we don’t spend the money twice.”

She was discussing broader access to educational and vocational opportunities for incarcerated individuals, aiming to help with employment and housing once their sentences are completed. 

“If we can give them incentives then we can get them engaged, get them an education… Then if you have a job of course there’s something about work that dignifies the soul,” she said. “I’m all for lifting up that soul.”

Earle-Sears, who previously spent time in prison ministry before her election to statewide office, shared how such work offered a sense of l hope to people during times when it may be scarce. 

She also spoke about providing housing to former inmates could reduce recidivism, helping individuals get back on their feet. 

“You’re not gonna go steal and create mayhem to pay for shelter,” she remarked.

During the conversation, Fredricks also asked her specifically about the legislation, expressing that he is “in favor of” it.  While she did not directly state her support, she pointed out the strong bipartisan support it received, meaning her tie-breaking vote wasn’t necessary. 

Should Youngkin choose to not sign Williams’ and New Craig’s bill, the lawmakers could try again next year, with a different executive branch in place. 

As Earle-Sears is running for governor, she could potentially have more opportunities to weigh in on a future version of the proposal.

By 

Charlotte Rene Woods

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.

WE CALL ON JOANNA C. SCHWARTZ, MICHELLE ALEXANDER, KIMBERLE WILLIAMS CRENSHAW, MICHAEL ERIC DYSON AND BAILEY D. BARNES, TO DO A PRIMER ON CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE DOCUMENTING THIS PERIOD OF OUR HISTORY IN A NATIONAL ZOOM FORUM OPEN TO ALL By William Thorpe

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

Besides the foundational and historically anticipated Black American critique of The Nation viz The United States, Black People as evidenced by the sophistication of Frederick Douglas's Fourth of July analysis are the motive force of The Nations aspirations compelling and demanding its maturation and fruition. As Bailey D. Barnes, concisely illustrated in his 2024 work, THE OBVIOUS VIOLATION EXCEPTION TO QUALIFIED IMMUNITY: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY, 99 WASH. L. REV. 725, he tells us under the heading, BRIEF HISTORY OF SECTION 1983 AND QUALIFIED IMMUNITY, "Before the civil war, federal enforcement of civil rights was minimal. After the American Revolution, the purpose of law was to spur economic growth, not to shelter citizens from State abuse. The Federal Government often violated rights rather than protected them.....". Then in, William Enerson's 2004 work, MARBURY V. MADISON, DEMOCRACY, AND THE RULE OF LAW, 71 TENN. L. REV. 217, we find an illuminating anticipatory exposé of this current period of our history, where he writes in the opening text,...."[T]hat Marbury was actually about something larger.The case was about maintaining a balance between the following two concepts: democracy, the idea expressed by Lincoln in the Gettysburg address about government " of the people,by the people [and] for the people" and the rule of law, the idea expressed by John Adams in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 that ours is "a Government of Laws and not of men".(unquote) Then Nelson continues with this,which to me correctly encapsulates this specific period of our National history and this current struggle with this grouping of reactionaries and their antipathy towards progress, with this recitation,which is found at the 7th paragraph of his work and I excerpt....." Prior to the American Revolution few colonials imagined that social change was possible and nearly everyone assumed that life would go on essentially as it had for decades.Society was seen as a stable organism that grew and maintained itself of its own accord.It followed from this view of society that.no one in government needed to make choices about the direction that law, government, and the society ought to take. Of course, bad people might threaten the health and stability of the organism: foreign monarchs often threatened its destruction by war, and criminals and other evil people posed menaces to its peace and stability at home. The king had the duty to make the decisions needed to protect the realm from foreign threats, and his courts performed the task of doing justice to malefactors at home. But doing justice did not entail policy choice, it necessitated only the enforcement of traditional, customary values, such as property, stability, community and morality, which were embedded deeply within existing common law". What Nelson describes in the above excerpt are parameters of relations and interactions that The Constitution and Bill of Rights were intended to reform, change and improve on. With this post-civil war, considering the jurisprudential concept of "self-executing", is where we encounter, Black People as motive force compelling and demanding it's fulfillment. So at paragraph 18, Nelson tells us and I excerpt "One final inference must be drawn.We know that eighteenth-century juries mirrored the white, male landowner and taxpaying population. It follows that if jurors shared similar ideas about the substance of the law,then a body of shared ideas about law must have permeated a large segment of the population of every territory over which a court that sat with a jury had jurisdiction. Colonial government may have been able to derive policies from, and otherwise function on the basis of, those shared values". What Nelson is explaining are relationships that these ongoing current machinations by this grouping of reactionaries, neo-royalist and feudalist are intended to return us to. But as Frederick Douglas instructed in his 1852 analysis of The Fourth of July, which, Nelson at the 27th paragraph of his work, reveals its thought and I excerpt," The Revolutionary struggle and the attainment of independence also transformed American society and politics ideologically. In discarding British rule and reconstituting their government, Americans proclaimed that all law springs from popular will as codified in legislation. If the people could remake their government, it followed as the Maryland Journal declared in 1787, that the lawmaking power of the people must be "original inherent and unlimited by Human authority". A change and realignment of Social Contract terms and relationship anticipates and requires fulfillment, which is what Frederick Douglas polemicized with his 1852 Fourth of July critique, which for fulfillment requires, Policy or governmental activity and as Nelson explained in paragraph 18, which I excerpted above requires a medium exposing the inertia of the existing social terms and its suppositions. This has been the activity of Black People as a principle and value demanding a governing function of the Constitution and Bill of Rights in opposition to and in contrast with the anti-progress reaction of the "state rights "supposition. Our call to Joanna C. Schwartz, Michelle Alexander, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, Michael Eric Dyson and Bailey D. Barnes is to remind us as a Nation what exactly, these building blocks of our Social Contract are. For example the illuminating examples of United States v. Curry 965 F.3d 313, Jamison v. McClendon 476 F. Supp. 3d 386, to name a few exposés and not to gloss over Prof. Schwartz's work on Monroe v. Pape 365 U.S.167 .We currently are going through the consequences of a number of factors of which ignorance is not the least, as such this call.

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

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

NOW THIS IS WHATS FUNNY: SO HOW DOES ANY VIRGINIA MOTHER, TEACH HER SON OR DAUGHTER ABOUT AND RAISE THEM ON LAW AND JUSTICE, WHEN THE GOVERNOR ALONG WITH THE NATIONS PRESIDENT BREAK AND MOCK IT ? By William Thorpe

So what can Governor Glenn Youngkin say, even to the most apathetic and disinterested Virginian that will sweeten the bitterness of crass impunity, that has been the hallmark of his Republican leadership, these four years, as we approach Statewide Elections, which will have us being harangued about the law and justice terms of The Social Contract?.It is dramatically impossible for Governor Glenn Youngkin and his Republican rank and file to stand erect in front of any Virginian and dare lay claim to the rule of law when what no one can forget and ignore is Glenn Youngkin cavorting, his best Bacchanalian impression, with a 34 count felony convicted, who is now the president of The United States, conjoining with his Republican rank and file in the amplification of the deflection that the convictions from the Process of Law from a Sister State, New York were phony and whatever. It is one thing for a private citizen, to denounce whatever their fancy but, it becomes something else for an Officer of The Social Contract, as a Governor or those vying for leadership to give voice to, undermining, philistine and saboteur propositions and then expect, witnesses of the spectacle to in turn become amnesiac and maintain endorsement of whatever faith and trust they just experienced its utter destruction. The exercise of imprisonment as terms of The Social Contract, as collective will of The People, is the complete buy in, of the rule of law, as such its reform, its pursuit of self-correction and scrutiny is mandatory for a Social Contract, presuming maturity, meaning "honesty" as The Commonwealth of Virginia claims and aspires. Yet and however what these four years of Glenn Youngkin and his Republican rank and file have taught and shown, is their inability and unwillingness to simply do so. Under Governor Glenn Youngkin and his Republican rank and file we have experienced Virginia prisoners, reduced to the perdition of self-immolation. We have observed Governor Glenn Youngkin use the most ridiculous of arguments in defense of the Virginia prison official's barbarity, savagery and the subsequent impunity compromising the Law, which as Executive of the Commonwealth he's sworn to uphold defend and execute.

First of all this is what's perversely funny and tragic.The purpose of "justice", is to repair and address a wron, a harm irrespective and regardless of reason.Still, BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY defines it as: THE FAIR AND PROPER ADMINISTRATION OF LAWS and on both counts, you the reader, Governor Glenn Youngkin fails the people of Virginia.The thing is, the Glenn Youngkin's of this planet circumscribe and limit their thinking to everything that is synonymous with selfishness and its inevitably perverse and inexorably tragic consequence.Then they foist on us The People, an otherworldly and bizarre explanatory logic which we gobble up on the simple basis, that we "respect".Because without the medium of "respect", why would, we The People then gobble up what we know to be pure sophistry, crass suppositions as purportedly conceptual guides on the path of progress and our all around development, that is not only compromising, but sabotaging?. Contrary to what insidious and ignorant motives claim and advance,"wisdom"isn't innate,nor exclusive and my proof is the very existence of our human condition. For millennia humanity recreated conditions for existence, primitively, without innovations, with a tweak here and a tweak there. In other words we existed as we organically are now, eating, reproducing, being artistic and technologically creative with the caveat on sophistication and qualitative refinement, which is the point I make as proof of the material objectivity of humanities wisdom. Because the sophistication of our artistry and technology has been a recent quality, with the undeniable, as I've stated, millennia of idealistic and incremental innovations, till the explosion of what is accepted as the, Industrial Age. So collectively humanity, walked without cars, existed in homes without comforting amenities, interacted without structured and organized opposition to misanthropy and its selfishness, in other words, the delusions of "supremacy and intelligence exclusivity" hadn't assumed the distortions we now contend with. Tragically its on this basis, these distortions that Governor Glenn Youngkin and his Virginia Republican rank and file have perversely attributed.

First of all our Virginia Political leaders who profess and claim to pursue The People's best interest are not doing so. This point isn't a consideration of The Virginia Republican politician, because their, anti-People position is clearly stated and only the insidious and delusional will argue otherwise.Now Virginia's Justice Infrastructure as expressed in The Virginia Department Of Corrections and its imprisonment scheme is the highest function and value of The Commonwealth of Virginia, in otherwords it is it's quintessential accomplishment as proven by being the State's largest agency. What I'm saying is if The People of Virginia didn't consider imprisoning its members as the most VALUED social activity and most profound accomplishment of The Social Contract, it wouldn't fund it above all other governmental duties, nor would we find its terms, the locus of violations and compromises of The Commonwealth's Constitutional aspirations and Statutory authorities. In so many words, even as The Commonwealth utters declaratives of enlightenment and progress, it in the same breadth dialectically denounces itself by repudiative acts. These repudiating acts are what I've described as Virginia Politicos despite claiming to have the citizenry's interest do not. As I have also pointed out and some will say, facetiously, that the most valued social activity and most profound accomplishment of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the imprisonment of its members, along with the contemporaneous violations and compromises of its Constitutional aspirations and Statutory authorities. The question then isn't that of simply blaming the pathetic Virginia Republican politician for the propensity to cut of the nose to spite the face, or the docility and timidity of those Virginia politicians who at least mouth accountability then betray it at the altar of permissive criticism. But we present the question squarely to The People, that it's their complicity that on all accounts, what we are confronted with is violations of the fundamental and basic terms of The Social Contract in the form of The Rule of Law and its Process. Because if imprisoning members of society as function of Law, then it behooves reason, that the Virginia prison official tasked with and granted the privilege of performing the will and intent of The People of Virginia by imprisoning its members is allowed by the same People to violate its rule of law. The question isn't whether the Virginia prison official is incorrigibly professionally corrupt, but how will the citizenry communicate it to those Politicians and Legislators, who to a degree have a hint of conscientiousness, that impunity isn't a tenable term of The Social Contract?. Notwithstanding the history and ability of the Commonwealth of Virginia to devalue, denigrate and dehumanize, the person hood and life, its recent incarnation by the Virginia prison official to blatantly use "FOOD" as a weapon and tool of management, at THE KONCENTRATION KAMP RED ONION STATE PRISON is impudently absurd, for one, if statutorily the Virginia prison official is prohibited from using food punitively, then it goes to say The Virginia Department of Corrections is precluded from using it as a misnomered incentive. Naturally voices have been raised in protest in the halls of Virginia's General Assembly, albeit pro forma, unbefitting the enormity and monstrousness of the barbarity and savagery of the Virginia prison official's deeds. Despite the fact that the prison official are the primary actor, The People are responsible.

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

CAN WE DEPEND ON A VIRGINIA REPUBLICAN PARTY TO PURSUE OUR BEST INTEREST OVER THE PURPOSE OF VIRGINIA'S IMPRISONMENT SCHEME, WHEN THEY'RE COWED TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP THEIR LEADER, THE CONVICTED FELON? By William Thorpe

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

First of all, of course the answer is NO and it is insulting for anyone to act as if this Republican Party has credibility, has standing, has a basis to critique anything, speak on anything especially issues and matters concerning, Law and Order, and Criminal Justice when what we get from them is craven silence, pathetic complicity and unimaginative hypocrisy over the spectacle that is the convicted felon, Donald Trump, President of The United States. Of course its another incomprehensible but simple NO. Virginia Republicans have historically exploited Virginia's Justice System, for nothing more than speculative political power considering its antecedent and The People of Virginia have behaved as that proverbial ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, ignoring the demonstrable truth that the narratives deployed by Virginia Republicans characterizing Virginia's Justice System and its imprisonment scheme have and had nothing to do with their Constitutionalized aspirations, but instead have mocked, profaned and violated it. But with the emergence of the Donald Trump spectacle, no one, not his Republican ally defenders nor his critics and detractors, meaning The People of Virginia, can dare act like Law and Order and Criminal Justice are objectively honest assertions of the terms of Virginia's Social Contract as historically presented by narratives of political opportunists in pursuits of speculative political power. Which brings us to the 2025 Session of Virginia's General Assembly, where again we encounter this unoriginal, unimaginative same old, same old gambits of law and order and criminal justice, audaciously exploited by the Virginia Republican, again claiming to be pursuing a social good, in the interest of the full and all around development and realization of the people of Virginia, but we know to be diametrically opposite at best and in the anticipatory employ of resurrecting antebellumesque delusions of monstrous proportions at worst. So once again filling the reactionary rank and file, battle orders of The Virginia Republican a, Mr. Mark J. Peake (R) and his SB 1071 a punitive proposal treating the drug offender as if trillions of dollars hasn't been redistributed applying the imprisonment scheme futilely. Again, Mr. Mark J. Peake unable to stop plying the imprisonment schemes with his SB 1080.Then Mr.Wren M.Williams (R) and his HB 1589 bill making more of a fraud what's left of Virginia's parole scheme. Then Nicholas Freitas (R) and his HB 2192 repeal of The Earned Sentence Credits incentive for prisoner good behavior law. Again another Republican, Mr.Mark L. Early, Jr. (R) acting like there hasn't been an epoch, War on Drugs, with his HB 2296.Then Mr. Scott A. Wyatt (R) with his HB 1773 acting as if he doesn't seek "grace" even as he denies it to the Virginia prisoner. Now Mr. Chris Obenshain (R) with his HB 2272 is funny it seeks to restrict access to information generated by the Virginia Parole Board, a Government entity performing a public duty using public tax payer funds and how can society maintain faith and trust in The Social Contract if its cloaked in secrecy.[see this case Mr. Obenshain "A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT MUST THEREFORE PRACTICE FAIRNESS AND FAIRNESS CAN RARELY BE OBTAINED BY SECRET,ONE-SIDED DETERMINATION OF FACTS DECISIVE OF RIGHTS" (JOINT ANTI-FASCIST REFUGEE COMMITTEE v. McGRATH 341 U.S.123)] Then Mr. Eric Phillips (R) with HB 2576 anti-Sr. bill.

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