A written statement from Virginia’s department of corrections acknowledged that men imprisoned there had harmed themselves, although the authorities confirmed six incidents while others reported that 12 men were injured.
“In recent months, six inmates at Red Onion state prison have burned themselves using improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets,” the director of Virginia’s department of corrections, Chad Dotson, said in a written statement.
Dotson added that some of those injured were treated for burns at the corrections department’s “secure medical facility”, while others “did not require outside medical treatment”.
Dotson’s announcement comes after reporting from the incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, who first drew attention to self-harm at the state facility in October through his work on Prison Radio, a non-profit activist organization.
Johnson reported that he had met an individual in September named Ekong Eshiet, who claimed to have returned from the hospital the day before after being treated for self-inflicted burns. On Prison Radio, Johnson said Eshiet had told him that “the racism and abuses, the hard and inhumane conditions at Red Onion, were so intolerable that he and others were setting themselves on fire in desperate attempts to be transferred away from the prison”.
About a week later, Prison Radio also released an audio recording from Ekong Eshiet himself, in which Eshiet talked about how he had started a hunger strike since returning from being treated for his burns. He said he was protesting “discrimination”, which he says he has to deal with every day at Red Onion.
“I’m going about this the right way, I guess, like with the hunger strike way,” Eshiet said. “But if I have to, I don’t mind setting myself on fire again. This time, I would set my whole body on fire before I have to stay up here and do the rest of my time up here. I would rather die before I stay up here, because every day I’m dealing with discrimination, whether it’s behind my race, my last name or my religion.”
According to reporting from Al Jazeera, Johnson, the incarcerated journalist, was put into solitary confinement in early November, shortly after he first drew attention to the self-harm.
Noelle Hanrahan, the founder of Prison Radio, said in an interview that she had spoken with Johnson’s attorney and been told that Johnson had been placed in solitary confinement. Johnson’s initial reporting on Prison Radio mentioned that he heard of 12 men at Red Onion who had burned themselves.
The Virginia Legislative Black caucus (VLBC) group of lawmakers released a statement on X condemning the conditions at Red Onion. “The VLBC is horrified at recent reports of incarcerated individuals setting themselves on fire in response to the degrading and inhumane conditions at Red Onion state supermax prison in Wise county, Virginia,” the group wrote in its statement. “These acts of self-immolation are desperate cries for help.”
The caucus claimed in its statement: “People who have been incarcerated at Red Onion State prison describe being regularly subjected to 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 having been covered in maggots and officers’ spit, and violent dog attacks.”
A report from more than 20 years ago from Human Rights Watch said Red Onion “raises serious human rights concerns”.
Source: The Guardian