An investigation into conditions at Red Onion State Prison will be prioritized once the newly formed Office of the Department of Corrections Ombudsman is fully staffed, a spokesperson said during a House of Delegates Public Safety Committee hearing Monday.
The hearing was scheduled following numerous media reports that said inmates at the prison in Wise County engaged in self-harm in order to get transferred out of the facility. The super-maximum security prison uses solitary confinement as a means of housing and in an attempt to rehabilitate inmates. As of October, Red Onion housed 764 inmates, according to a Department of Corrections population report.
“Sometimes that deprivation itself doesn’t actually provide that incentive to move forward and causes a downward spiral in the other direction,” Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church and the committee chair, said during Monday’s hearing.
Chad Dotson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, invited members of the committee to visit Red Onion in response to allegations of racism, abuse and neglect.
“We’re happy to show our work,” Dotson said.
The Office of the Department of Corrections Ombudsman is new and was established by a law that passed in the 2024 legislative session.
‘Desperate cries for help’ or ‘bad-faith efforts’?
Concern for the well-being of inmates at Red Onion arose after recent reports of inmates setting themselves on fire, or burning themselves with modified electronic devices, in order to get transferred out. Prison Radio broke the story in October. Prison Radio is an independent media company that focuses on the stories and experiences of inmates in prison systems across the country.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus issued a statement in response to those reports at the end of November.
“These acts of self-immolation are desperate cries for help,” the statement read. “These repeated and tragic self-immolation attempts, and accompanying hunger strikes, reflect the psychological and physical toll that gruesome prison conditions can have on incarcerated individuals.”
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus stated that inmates at the prison have described racial and physical abuse from correctional officers; medical neglect, including the withholding of medicine; excessive stays in solitary confinement, with one report of 600 consecutive days; inedible food covered in maggots and officers’ spit; and violent dog attacks. The caucus called on the Department of Corrections and Gov. Glenn Youngkin to launch an investigation into allegations of abuse at the prison.
The Caucus said 12 Black men burned themselves.
Dotson discredited the news reports of inmate self-harm in late November, calling them “nothing more than bad-faith efforts to try to score cheap political points by advocacy groups who pursue prison abolition.”
He said that 12 inmates did not “self-immolate,” but he did concede that six inmates at the prison had burned themselves between March and October of this year. Some of those inmates were treated at the department’s secure medical facility at VCU Medical Center before they were cleared to return to the prison. Others, he said, did not require outside medical treatment. All of the inmates who had burned themselves were referred to mental health staff for treatment, and some of them had a history of self-harm, Dotson said.
Virginia state Sens. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, and Barbara Favola, D-Arlington County, also sent a letter to Dotson at the beginning of November, seeking clarity on a number of issues related to living conditions at the prison. They sought details about lockdowns, water quality, access to hygiene necessities like showers, whether the toilets were flushing, access to outdoor recreation and details into the self-burning of at least two inmates. Dotson and the Department of Corrections responded and answered each of the senators’ questions in a six-page letter dated Nov. 20.
Advocates say problems are systemic
Geri Greenspan, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Virginia, called the issues at Red Onion systemic, rather than isolated incidents. The ACLU of Virginia has been locked in a legal battle with Red Onion over its use of solitary confinement.
Greenspan noted that inmates in the most restrictive parts of the prison are only allowed four hours out of their 8-by-10-foot cells per day, and little to none of that time is spent with other people. In order to leave their cells, inmates are subjected to a “humiliating” strip search, put in five-point restraints, and subjected to the presence of dogs while they’re escorted from their cell to a small, outdoor “recreation cage” where they continue to spend time alone. She said that all of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought by the ACLU had spent several years in solitary confinement, and some began to experience suicidal ideation.
“We believe that VDOC cannot be left to police itself,” Greenspan said and called for an independent investigation into allegations of racism, abuse and neglect at the facility.
Kenneth Hunter, organizer at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, was incarcerated for 22 years on a nonviolent drug offense, including some time at Red Onion. He said he spent three years in solitary confinement, which he said was the worst experience of his life, with lasting effects that have negatively impacted his life today.
“We know that long-term solitary confinement has severe and lasting effects on mental and physical health,” he said. “Prolonged isolation often leads to psychological issues such as depression, anxiety, hallucinations. The lack of social interaction and environmental stimulation can cause mental decline and emotional instability.”
DOC will cooperate with investigation
“I’ll give you a way to get away from Red Onion: Behave!” Dotson said during his presentation to the committee on Monday. “All of the inmates said that they did it because they wanted to get away from Red Onion.”
Dotson said the Department of Corrections is ready to cooperate with the ombudsman’s office in its investigation.
“I hope that you all come and look, and I hope the ombudsman comes and looks,” Dotson said to the committee. “There are no conditions that they’re truly protesting other than being up in the mountains, away from their family and friends.”
Red Onion has had a history of complaints and lawsuits, related to allegations of poor treatment of inmates, leveled against it over a series of years prior to recent reports.