The Great Farce of Virginia: The Virginia DOC. Today is January 2nd, 2026. On the 5:30 news WRIC, out of Richmond, a ongoing report about a dead correctional officer at River North was brought up to date. There is now a lawsuit from his widow against the state of Virginia, and she’s seeking policy change, as opposed to money. More importantly was a CO, or ex-CO, who during the segment, called Virginia’s DOC “the greatest farce in the state of Virginia.” While I’m sure that he and I would disagree on why that’s the case, we both agree that the Virginia Department of Corrections is the greatest farce in Virginia.
There’s concerns about understaffing. Virginia is only about 19 or 20 percent actually understaffed, from what its numbers would like to be at. More to the point: they’re way overcrowded. Using dorms as an example, Haynesville, Lunenburg, Coffeewood, you’re talking about 80 people sharing four toilets and forced to take showers one at a time because the showers that are meant for four or five people are not Prison Rape Elimination Act compliant. They have no separators, so no one will take showers together. You’re talking about the same thing at higher level facilities except for two, sometimes three people in a cell, depending on the facility and the situation.
You’re talking about environments that are toxic air, toxic water — which, by the way, guards won’t drink, or other staff. They all drink bottled water because they know the water is garbage— lack of exercise, poor nutrition, psychological duress 24/7, lack of proper programming. And when they do have programming, you’re talking about the kind of programming that is 30-40 years old and long ago shown to be basically useless and not up to modern standards.
You’re talking about a lack of mental healthcare that fits with modern understandings of neuroscience and behavioral adaptation based on modern neuroscience. All of which, and including modern psychology, point to prisons as detrimental by default. When you create this sort of environment, and you also have a staff who are completely beyond reproach — they are never, ever, ever held accountable for any of the wrong things they do, as many of my reports have shown — then you create a level of animosity that builds and builds and builds and creates a dangerous situation for everyone involved, guards and prisoners.
This is the conversation that now needs to happen. Not just in Richmond, because Richmond has failed for a couple of decades. The Virginia DOC has failed for a couple of decades. Politicians have failed for a couple of decades. The governor has failed over and over and over again. The citizens of Virginia need to not only have that conversation, but demand real change that ends a punitive, harmful, punishment-based correction system and goes with one that is restorative, that is impactful, that helps bring healing. This is what has to change.
So, I applaud that man who spoke during the 5:30 segment on WRIC, who said that the Virginia DOC is the greatest farce in Virginia, because he is, in fact, correct. And even though I stand on this side of the fence and there is exactly zero equivocation about how I feel about the system, I would love to have a conversation with that person about where we can find the middle ground that fixes that until we can get rid of prisons altogether. My name is David Annarelli. I’m a contributing writer at prisonjournalismproject.org, davidannarelli.wordpress.com.
And one more thing, I have just filed suit regarding that First Amendment violation against me, and the attritious abuse that I had to endure and still endure because of it, as well as a couple of other claims that are on there, and as soon as I have a case number, I will make that present. But the file ended in the Eastern District of Virginia court today, and it’s Annarelli v. Dotson et al. Be good, Happy New Year everybody. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
