As early as 1890: the U.S. Supreme Court in the case: In Re Medley, 134 US 160 [1890] dealing with Solitary Confinement or as it's currently nuanced euphemistically Administrative Segregation wrote:
"A considerable number of the Prisoners fell after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and other became violently insane; others, still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases, did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community."
That 1890 court concluded that Solitary Confinement is "an infamous punishment"
"That isolating a Human Being from other Human Beings year after year or even month after month can cause substantial psychological damage, even if the isolation isn't total".
The court went on to state "there is plenty of medical and psychological literature concerning the ill effects of Solitary Confinement [of which Segregation is a variant]
In 1995; The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in Madrid v. Gomez 889 f.supp.1146[A case so comprehensive in it's finding that the state of California didn't even bother to appeal] wrote:
"Subjecting individuals to conditions [Solitary Confinement] that are "very likely" to render them psychotic or otherwise exacerbate a serious Mental Illness cannot be squared with evolving standards of humanity and decency, especially when certain aspects of those conditions appear to bear little relation to security concerns. A risk this gravethis shocking and indecent----simply has no place in civilized society".
No Study of the effects of Solitary or Supermax-Like confinement that lasted longer than 60 days failed to find evidence of negative psychological effects".
Recently the fourth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals which has Jurisdiction over the Commonwealth of Virginia and four other states determined in the 2015 case, Incumaa v. Stirling 791 f.3d 517 [2015]that:
"[Prisoner] had liberty interest in avoiding Solitary Confinement in security detention, as required for his claim that his placement in Solitary for 20 years violated [U.S.] Fourteenth Amendment Procedural Due Process: [Prisoner] was subject to near daily cavity and strip searches, he was confined to small cell for all sleeping and waking hours aside from 10 hours of activity outside the cell per month, he was denied educational, vocational, and therapy programs, [Prisoner] was socially isolated, and confinement was indefinite."
In light of the above cited, quoted and excerpted authorities which are but a sample of the exhaustively comprehensive legal and Mental Health findings and works on practice of using Long Term Administrative Segregation or Solitary Confinement, of which contrary to recent noises by the Virginia Politicos and officials at it's flagship primary Solitary Confinement Prison, Red Onion State Prison [ROSP] that Solitary Confinement in VADOC has been reformed and done away with.
It is to the above-referenced works as back drop, that the Mental Health Department of ROSP, a Prison where Solitary Confinement is the Primary Form of detention. Gave the terse response "NOTED"in it's professional capacity to my question on:
"What is the current contemporary consensus from Mental Health Professionals on Psychological and physiological effects of Long term Solitary Confinement or Administrative Segregation". [see response from ROSP Mental Health Department:"NOTED".
What is to be made of the situation where ROSP officials are indifferent and unwilling to recognize that a practice of detention utilized as their Primary Operational Model----Solitary Confinement is distinguished by negative critique extending over a hundred years?
By William Thorpe
William Thorpe is detained at ROSP in Solitary Confinement since 1998 Related Articles & Links:
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 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
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
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.”
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.
Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only
When our form of Government gives us accountability, we recognize it.The incident of the case, BURKE v. STANLEY YOUNG 2024 Va. App. Lexis 550 (9/24/24) is an instance, a moment and we recognize it. Our Virginia State Courts do not have a track record of much dealings with the circumstance of the Virginia prison officials' created conditions and nature of Virginia's prison system, because the Virginia prisoner for certain historical reasons normally goes to the Federal Courts for redress and attempts at exacting accountability, but there are a few instances i.e. OGUNDE v. PRISON HEALTH SERVICES 274 VA. 55 (6/8/2007), BILLUPS v. CARTER 268 VA.701, so when a Virginia court as the Court of Appeals recently gave us accountability in the Burke Stanley Young case, I won't say its momentous but we recognize it. I speak specifically from the vantage of a Virginia prisoner, under the Commonwealth's jurisdiction, but exiled to the Texas prison system. As I've noted due to certain historical specifics, prisoners all across the Nation typically go to the Federal Court system seeking accountability. Yes it is an indictment against States and The States Right leeway but that's a discussion for another day, what I want to focus on is what the Burke v. Young case present and enables .BURKE,Conrad Burke is a Virginia prisoner who was held and confined during the facts that brought cause of the case in question at Virginia's POCAHONTAS STATE CORRECTIONAL CENTER. IN 2019, Prisoner Burke filed a grievance on a Pocahontas guard, JAMES POORE. First of all prisoner filed grievances are mandated by United States Law,at 42 U.S.C.S 1997(e) and Virginia also has its mandatory grievance law at Virginia Code 8.01-243.2.What these grievance procedures simply mean is regardless of the facts a prisoners claim will be dismissed when the prison official and their representative, The Virginia Attorney General attacks the prisoners compliance with the grievance law. So Conrad Burke's grievance on James Poore was necessary to save Mr Burke's option of going to court. Then, Pocahontas prison guard James Poore retaliated against prisoner Burke by claiming ,Burke had the cell's intercom covered, that he had extra clothes, food in the cell and had cussed out a nurse, then Poore claimed Burke had pushed a meal tray at him in a manner where food got on him, the claim was found to be "meritless". Now prisoner Conrad Burke suffers from, "SEVERE THORACIC SCOLIOSIS, DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE and CONGENITAL HIP DYSPLASIA" and Pocahontas Prison Officials had him assigned to a special medical cell, with hand railing e.t.c to stabilize his mobility. So this is the context where a number of Pocahontas prison guards on February 22,2019, fully cognizant and aware of his medical condition, ordered Prisoner Burke to strip to his boxers, hog tied him with shackles, handcuffs, chains and a black box that keeps ones hands rigid and left him without food, bathroom breaks for appx.21 hours,during which he fell and couldn't right himself up. The prison guards who subjected prisoner Burke to this savage and barbaric treatment told him it was under the direction of the prison's warden, Stanley Young, because of the claim that he had tossed food. I ask you the reader to get the case and read it. We congratulate his lawyers, DANNY ZEMEL (ALLAN STUART GRAF, JOHN F.PREIS, DAVID FLORES, THE KRUDYS LAW FIRM, UNIV.OF RICHMOND SCHOOL OF LAW DAVID FLORES)
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
Marcos Santiago heard the clatter of metal chains outside cell 201 next door. Locked in the most isolated unit at Lee federal prison in western Virginia, he knew that sound meant officers were readying to shackle another man to a concrete slab and leave him there for hours — as they had done to him weeks prior. Santiago was left with open wounds from the restraints on his ankles, and the sharp pain of a broken rib.
Over nearly 24 hours on July 4, 2022, Santiago heard muffled thuds and screams from the adjacent cell. It sounded like guards were following the same playbook he said they’d used on him: beating him in his torso with their fists, slamming their riot shields into his body and twisting his hands and feet. In between guards’ visits, Santiago talked to the man through the air vents in their cells.
Santiago asked for his name and prison register number, and tried to distract him from the searing pain in his limbs. Not long after that prisoner was moved out, another person was taken to cell 201 — a younger man from Puerto Rico, who asked Santiago to call his mother and tell her what happened to him.
Santiago wrote down his name and number too — in code, in case officers found his notes. Throughout the summer of 2022, even after he returned to the general prison population, Santiago kept gathering names of people who said they had been shackled and beaten, and those who had heard their screams.
Collectively, their accounts describe a pervasive culture of racism and violence in the prison’s Special Housing Unit, a separate tier where people are locked down for nearly 24 hours a day. Numerous lawsuits examined by The Marshall Project and NPR allege that officers smashed incarcerated people’s faces into concrete walls and broke their teeth, ground down their feet and legs with steel-toed boots, kicked and groped their testicles, and cut off their dreadlocks and ripped off their beards. One man now requires the use of a wheelchair as a result of abuse at Lee, his lawsuit said.
“When I think about what they did to me it just fills me with rage,” Santiago said in a phone call from a different federal penitentiary, in California. He sued federal prison officials in January 2023. “I’ve been in prison for 22 years now. There’s abuse in every prison, but I’ve never witnessed anything like Lee.”
In an email, Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Emery Nelson said the agency “does not comment on anecdotal accusations,” conditions of confinement for any individual or ongoing lawsuits. He said employees may be prosecuted if they are found to use brutality or physical violence. “The vast majority of our employees are hardworking, ethical, diligent corrections professionals, and want those engaging in misconduct held accountable,” he wrote.
The president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1405, which represents officers at Lee, did not comment for this story.
The Marshall Project reviewed 17 federal lawsuits filed in the last five years and spoke with over two dozen people with knowledge of Lee. Nine of those suits, including Santiago’s, were filed with the help of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, a D.C.-based legal nonprofit, and D.C.-based law firm Gilbert LLP.
The violence at the prison has continued despite federal officials’ vow to crack down on mistreatment across all Bureau of Prisons facilities, lawyers representing the prisoners said.
The same summer Santiago and others ended up in shackles, the bureau appointed a reform-minded director, Colette Peters. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this July, Peters reiterated her commitment to “address employee misconduct” and increase resources to investigate abuse.
The complaints at Lee mirror accounts from what was then a federal penitentiary, USP Thomson in Illinois, especially the overuse of four-point restraints. After a 2022 investigation by The Marshall Project and NPR uncovered significant abuse and violence in Thomson’s Special Management Unit, the bureau closed that unit in February 2023. The inspector general for the Justice Department is currently investigating the use of restraints across all federal prisons.
Abuse at Lee “is not a well-kept secret,” said Kristin McGough, who previously ran the prisoners’ rights team at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee. “They have a protocol,” she said of the officers in the Special Housing Unit. “There’s no real attempt to hide what they’re doing. If anything, things are getting worse.”
Bureau policy says restraints are to be used as a last resort to gain control of someone who is a threat to themselves, others or government property. The policy also dictates that “an employee may not use brutality, physical violence, or intimidation toward inmates, or use any force beyond that which is reasonably necessary to subdue an inmate.”
But inside the Special Housing Unit at Lee, officers seemed to follow a pattern that violated those policies, according to dozens of testimonies and the lawsuits. People were walked backward and bent over at the waist into a cell and dressed in paper clothes. In the last few years, many said they were also given a helmet before the assault began. Then they were cuffed at the wrists and ankles and chained at the waist, and made to kneel on the cement floor facing the wall while officers beat them with their fists and shields. Some were also put in four-point restraints, where every limb was chained to a concrete slab.
According to Nelson, the bureau spokesperson, prisoners may be given protective headgear “for their protection only.” Paper clothing must be approved in writing by a warden, he wrote, and should be issued only when a prisoner uses regular clothing in a way that “poses a threat.”
Former prisoners at Lee said it was difficult to speak out about the abuse while they were there, as they felt a constant threat of retaliation from guards. Officers often refused to provide them with grievance forms, or intentionally delayed or lost their paperwork, cutting them off from their only real chance at recourse, according to lawsuits. Multiple people said they were only given a pencil in solitary confinement, but the forms had to be filled out in pen.
Under federal law, prisoners can’t sue the bureau without first going through each step of the prison’s remedy process, starting with filing a grievance. That creates another legal hurdle for plaintiffs, who have to prove they were denied access to the grievance system on top of their other claims.
Santiago believes it was his attempt to file grievances and sue over other issues that made him a target for abuse in the first place. In an incident report, officers wrote that he was moved to the Special Housing Unit after refusing to return to his housing unit, and that he was put in restraints for violently resisting. Santiago denies this.
He said officers tried in multiple ways to keep him from creating a paper trail of what happened. “They do everything in their power to block you,” he said. He began sending copies of every form to his sister Jackie Gutierrez, in case officers destroyed his files.
In a motion to dismiss Santiago’s lawsuit, federal lawyers representing prison staff wrote that “each of the Defendants deny the Amended Complaint’s serious and disturbing allegations.” They argued Santiago’s case failed to follow the prison’s administrative remedy process. The court has yet to rule on their request.
Prisoners at Lee said staff targeted them for a variety of reasons. Some were singled out because of sex offenses on their record, or if they were accused of masturbating in front of staff. But others said they were assaulted after more innocuous encounters, like asking for medical help or to see a psychologist.
After being denied his medication, Ryan Amelia experienced a psychotic episode at Lee in August 2023. He hit the emergency distress button, prompting a fight with his cellmate. According to his lawsuit, that’s when officers pepper-sprayed him, pulled him out of his cell and took him to the Special Housing Unit, where he was locked in four-point restraints. Over the three days he was left chained to a concrete block, he went in and out of consciousness. Officers sporadically came to slam him with their riot shields or break his toes, the complaint says.
When Amelia was finally released, there were wounds on his wrists and ankles. His limbs were so weak he couldn’t raise his arms or walk, forcing him to shuffle around his cell on his knees. Medical records show he started losing weight and an oozing ulcer, over an inch wide, opened on his left ankle.
More than two months after he was restrained, Amelia was hospitalized for severe pain and a softball-sized bump that had developed on his hip. Doctors discovered that the infection in his ankle had led to septic arthritis in his joints, medical records show. Despite multiple surgeries, the infection remains in his bone. He will need to be on antibiotics for the rest of his life and will never walk on his own again, his lawsuit states.
“If it ever gets into my blood it will kill me,” Amelia said of the infection, in a phone call from a different penitentiary. He needs his cellmate to help him with tasks such as putting on his shoes. He suffers constant pain, and a doctor has recommended he be transferred to a federal medical facility. “Because of what they did, and what they let go at Lee County, I won’t ever be able to get out of a wheelchair,” Amelia said.
He filed his lawsuit in October. Lawyers for the Bureau of Prisons have not responded to the complaint.
“If any of us were to do anything close to what they did, we would be sitting in prison,” Amelia said of the guards. “I would like to think they would be held accountable.”
The U.S. Penitentiary Lee sits in Appalachia, near the Virginia borders with Tennessee and Kentucky. The nearby town, Pennington Gap, has a population of about 1,600. Lee County is nearly 94% White.
The staff at Lee penitentiary is 98% White, according to the bureau, and multiple people said that guards seemed to be especially hostile to Black prisoners — who make up 62% of the prison’s population. “That was the only institution I’ve been to where the White staff don’t have a problem calling a Black dude a N-word,” said Cinquan Umar Muhammad, who was at Lee from 2015 to 2019. Dentavia McNair said officers cut off his dreadlocks and used the racial slur while kicking him and punching him in the face, as he was held in restraints in September 2023.
“Lee County was the worst,” said McNair, who was released from prison in October. “That’s an experience I don’t want to see nobody go through. It’s traumatizing.”
Anthony Harrell was incarcerated at Lee in the summer of 2020, as protests over George Floyd’s murder exploded across the country. In court records and interviews, Harrell said staff targeted him after he pushed back on their decision to turn off the televisions showing news coverage of the growing protests. Once he was led into the Special Housing Unit, “They kicked me, punched me, called me the N-word, said, ‘Fuck George Floyd,’ ‘Fuck Black Lives Matter,’ ‘Can you breathe now?” Harrell said. He was left in four-point restraints for nearly 30 hours, he wrote in a lawsuit. “I wondered if they were going to kill me.”
Harrell sued soon after, but the suit was thrown out for not following the bureau’s administrative grievance process. He was released from prison in 2022. “I never felt hate in my life before that day,” he said of his time in restraints. “When you have guys you’re trying to rehabilitate, you don’t lock them in a cage and kick them for years. That’s not making society safer.”
Nelson stressed that bureau policy forbids officers from using “profane, obscene or abusive language,” or acting in a way that is “demeaning” to incarcerated people.
Most of the violence happened in spaces without cameras, prisoners said, or in rooms where the cameras were covered up. Under bureau policy, nurses are required to record video of their medical assessments of prisoners in restraints. But people incarcerated at Lee said they were threatened by officers and told to report “no injuries” on camera when medical staff asked.
“They were on a rampage that summer, putting people in four-points and beating their ass,” said Bruce Altenburger, who was being held in the Special Housing Unit from May to December of 2022. He was held in restraints for nearly 24 hours, he said. “It felt like every night you would hear a man in four-points screaming.”
Some of the abuse escalated to sexual assault, according to lawsuits and interviews with incarcerated people. Two men said officers put fingers or mop handles in their anus while they were in the Special Housing Unit, according to letters and legal complaints. At least 10 people said their genitals were groped or injured while restrained.
According to Bureau of Prisons records, five official complaints were filed at Lee under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act from 2021 to 2023. The records don’t provide details of the allegations. None were substantiated.
Prisoners at Lee said officers weren’t the only threat. Many said employees ignored, or even intentionally stoked, violence between cellmates. Four people have died by homicide at Lee in the last five years, according to the state medical examiner.
After Amelia was released from restraints, he was beaten by his cellmate for the next two weeks at the urging of officers, according to Amelia’s lawsuit. The cellmate smothered him with “blankets, clothing, a sheet rope, and eventually, his hands,” until Amelia lost consciousness. The lawsuit says the man was given “additional privileges, such as books and additional time on the phone, in exchange for assaulting and torturing Mr. Amelia.”
Cathy Thompson was working in the bureau’s national Psychology Services branch in 2022 when she started hearing concerning stories about Lee from other psychologists. Prisoners were being transferred from Lee to other facilities, especially Atlanta, and telling staffers about their mistreatment. Thompson planned a visit to Lee penitentiary to review operations, especially regarding accounts of sexual abuse. But weeks before the trip was scheduled, officials canceled the visit.
“I think [they] phrased it like, ‘Now’s not a good time,’” said Thompson, who retired from the bureau last year. “I was just furious. Because what I had heard was so distressing. If 25% of the allegations were true, if even one of the allegations were true, it was too much.”
Nelson, the bureau spokesperson, would not comment on Thompson’s account. He wrote that a site visit was conducted at Lee in October 2023, but would not provide further detail.
The conditions described at Lee have persisted for years, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Corrections Information Council, a watchdog for prisons where D.C. residents are held. The group issued a report in 2019 that found accounts “of staff violence were many and varied.”
Investigators wrote, “Throughout the facility, inmates the CIC spoke with expressed concerns about a culture of violence extending to facility leadership, and including staff both perpetrating and encouraging violence against inmates.” Half of respondents said they had been “harassed, threatened or abused” by staff there. Many reported being afraid of retaliation if they even spoke to investigators about conditions.
Anthony Thomas was incarcerated at Lee in 2018 and worked as a custodian in the Special Housing Unit. “You see blood. I had to clean up urine and feces just because they’d been in there so long and they won’t let you use the bathroom,” he said of the prisoners who were held in restraints. “If you’re crying, they’re gonna keep coming in and messing with you.”
According to Nelson, prisoners in restraints should be given the opportunity to use the toilet every two hours unless the person is “continuing to actively resist or becomes violent while being released from the restraints.”
In a response to the D.C. group’s findings, a Justice Department official called them “unsubstantiated allegations” based on a “small percentage” of prisoners. The official reiterated bureau policy on the use of force and noted that staff received yearly training on the issue.
The bureau updated its use of force policy this summer, to specify that officers have an “affirmative duty to intervene” and stop or prevent abuse, and that restraints may not be used “in a manner that causes unnecessary physical pain or extreme discomfort.” Anyone who uses excessive force could face criminal charges, the policy states.
Also this July, President Joe Biden signed a law that would create an independent ombudsman to field complaints from federal prisoners. The statute also requires regular inspections of bureau prisons, especially “higher risk” facilities.
Throughout Santiago’s time at Lee, he and his sister Jackie Gutierrez continued to gather stories of people who said they had been assaulted there. Gutierrez started calling their wives, mothers and sisters. They both started writing to senators, representatives, judges and the NAACP. In total, they gathered the names of more than 50 people who had been incarcerated at Lee and said they had experienced or witnessed widespread abuse. Many of those prisoners would go on to file lawsuits against the bureau.
“I am trying to get help re: the torture/abuse/beatings/threats at USP Lee,” Santiago wrote in a November 2022 letter to U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who represents Virginia. “My life is in danger and I do not want my sister to have to plan my funeral.”
In an email, a spokesperson for the senator said they forwarded Santiago’s letter to the Bureau of Prisons.
After Santiago sued prison officials, he was transferred out of Lee and to Victorville penitentiary in Southern California two months later. Another man at Lee who had worked with Santiago continued collecting testimonies and working with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee.
McGough, the former attorney for the committee, hopes their lawsuits might bring an end to the violence at Lee.
“People just want to serve their time in peace,” she said. “Nobody is trying to get out of prison, these folks just want this abuse to stop. There’s lasting trauma that no amount of money in the world can ever repay.”
