Virginia’s Black Legislative Caucus is asking on the governor and the state division of corrections to provoke an impartial investigation into allegations of abuse and poor circumstances at a supermax state jail.
A minimum of six inmates at Crimson Onion State Jail in western Virginia have allegedly burned themselves in protest of what they name abuse and “insupportable” dwelling circumstances, based on Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, an inmate at Crimson Onion, who broke the story in October through Jail Radio, a information outlet that focuses on prisoners’ tales.
Johnson stated that two cellmates set themselves ablaze in September, citing “racism and abuses.” Johnson added, “the laborious and inhumane circumstances at Crimson Onion had been so insupportable that he and others had been setting themselves on hearth in determined makes an attempt to be transferred away from the jail.”
Johnson recalled that one of many males, Ekong Eshiet, stated his was not an act of protest however an “act of desperation.”
One other prisoner alleged that he had not acquired take care of persistent coronary heart ailments. That prisoner, Charles Coleman, “suffered repeated bodily, verbal and psychological abuse and denied remedy by Crimson Onion guards and medical workers,” Johnson stated.
In response to Christian Martinez, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s press secretary, the boys burned themselves utilizing improvised units that had been created by tampering with electrical retailers. They had been handled for electrical burns and cleared to return to the power.
The director of the Virginia Division of Corrections, Chad Dotson, in a press release Wednesday referred to as the tales popping out of Crimson Onion “bad-faith efforts to attempt to rating low cost political factors by advocacy teams who pursue jail abolition and insurance policies that might make Virginians much less protected.”
Youngkin stated at a information convention Tuesday that he was conscious of six instances in 2024 of inmates at Crimson Onion burning themselves.
The burns “have been absolutely investigated by our Division of Corrections. And I do assume that a part of the investigation is to grasp how they’ve occurred and why they’ve occurred. We have now been in conversations with the Division of Corrections about these circumstances,” Youngkin stated.
Youngkin didn’t handle the experiences of poor remedy of inmates and dire dwelling circumstances at Crimson Onion.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus urged additional investigation into circumstances on the jail in a publish Tuesday on X. Ceci Cain, the caucus’ legislative director, informed NBC Information that whereas not less than six males had self-immolated since September, as many as 12 have harmed themselves on this method since Could 2023.
In a press release, the caucus cited circumstances that it stated inmates have shared up to now: “Individuals who have been incarcerated at Crimson Onion State Jail describe being often subjected to racial and bodily abuse from correctional officers, medical neglect together with the withholding of drugs, extreme stays in solitary confinement with one report of 600 consecutive days, inedible meals having been coated in maggots and officers’ spit, and violent canine assaults.”
Dotson, the corrections director, stated the division had invited legislators to go to Crimson Onion and different state amenities to look at the circumstances themselves. Dotson additionally stated all six of the inmates who just lately burned themselves have a historical past of self hurt.
In June, Johnson wrote in The Virginia Defender that he and 6 different prisoners went on a starvation strike in December 2023 to protest using solitary confinement at Crimson Onion. The jail has additionally been probed over time by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide for alleged violations of human rights.