Virginia’s Black Legislative Caucus is asking on the governor and the state division of corrections to provoke an unbiased investigation into allegations of abuse and poor circumstances at a supermax state jail.
Not less than six inmates at Pink Onion State Jail in western Virginia have allegedly burned themselves in protest of what they name abuse and “insupportable” residing circumstances, in line with Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, an inmate at Pink Onion, who broke the story in October by way of 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 arduous and inhumane circumstances at Pink Onion have been so insupportable that he and others have been setting themselves on fireplace 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 power coronary heart ailments. That prisoner, Charles Coleman, “suffered repeated bodily, verbal and psychological abuse and denied therapy by Pink Onion guards and medical employees,” Johnson stated.
In keeping with Christian Martinez, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s press secretary, the boys burned themselves utilizing improvised units that have been created by tampering with electrical shops. They have been handled for electrical burns and cleared to return to the ability.
The director of the Virginia Division of Corrections, Chad Dotson, in an announcement Wednesday known as the tales popping out of Pink 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 Pink Onion burning themselves.
The burns “have been totally investigated by our Division of Corrections. And I do suppose that a part of the investigation is to grasp how they’ve occurred and why they’ve occurred. Now we have been in conversations with the Division of Corrections about these circumstances,” Youngkin stated.
Youngkin didn’t tackle the studies of poor therapy of inmates and dire residing circumstances at Pink Onion.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus urged additional investigation into circumstances on the jail in a submit Tuesday on X. Ceci Cain, the caucus’ legislative director, instructed NBC Information that whereas at the least six males had self-immolated since September, as many as 12 have harmed themselves on this method since Might 2023.
In an announcement, the caucus cited circumstances that it stated inmates have shared previously: “Individuals who have been incarcerated at Pink Onion State Jail describe being commonly subjected to racial and bodily abuse from correctional officers, medical neglect together with the withholding of medication, 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 Pink Onion and different state services to look at the circumstances themselves. Dotson additionally stated all six of the inmates who not too long ago 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 Pink Onion. The jail has additionally been probed through the years by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide for alleged violations of human rights.