From gang wars to race wars, officials continue to manufacture gang violence in Virginia prisons. In a 2023 article, I outlined how officials manufactured gangs in Virginia’s remote supermax prisons, Red Onion and Wallens Ridge, and instigated violence between them.
I also demonstrated why this was done, namely, to justify the continued operation of these two expenses, and demonstrably unused prisons. The name of that article was, “How Prison Officials Manufactured Gangs and Gang Wars in Virginia Prisons,” which can be read on my website, RashidMOD.com and also in the new book, edited by Joy James, titled “Beyond Cop Cities.”
Not only are the same culprits still inciting violence between prison groups in Virginia prisons, but they have now perpetuated and incited violence from racist White gangs against the now existing Black gangs. As my earlier article shows, there were no gangs in Virginia prisons prior to 2004. In fact, there were no criminal gang roles on the books in Virginia at all prior to 2000. That’s because there were no gangs in Virginia at the time. Officials in Virginia’s prisons manufactured it, and it spread from there. Now the officials are facilitating the development of violent racist White gangs in the same prison, again, where no such group previously existed.
Beginning in 2013, Virginia officials transferred numerous prisoners to other states who distinguished themselves for challenging and resisting abuse at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge. I was the first to be transferred in this manner in early 2012. My own transfer made Virginia officials motives of placing problematic prisoners in racially hostile settings apparent. I was sent to Oregon, one of the only states where Blacks are in minority in the prison, and where there are some 13 different Aryan gangs. The object was clearly to set me up for violent conflict with the White supremacist gangs, which I wrote about in an article, “Political Struggle is a Deeper Prison Reaction from Virginia to Oregon,” which can also be read on my website, RashidMOD.com.
Other Virginia prisoners were transferred to Colorado into a prison environment much like Oregon, but where White supremacist gangs were in overt war against Blacks. I recall corresponding with Peter Watkins, a Virginia prisoner, identified Black gang leader, and comrade of mine, who was shipped to Colorado after he and several others at Red Onion went on the historic 2013 hunger strike with California prisoners who were protesting long term solitary confinement.
Peter described to me how Colorado prison officials were enabling White supremacist gangs to attack and even kill Black prisoners, and that Virginia officials had dropped them into an open race war there. Subsequently, other Virginia prisoners identified as Black gang leaders were also sent to Colorado, including Kofi Donkor aka L.I., who describes a violent race war Virginia deliberately inserted them into, in Colorado, in his article, “Blood in the Clenched Fist Alliance,” which could also be read on my website, RashidMOD.com.
Virginia officials knew exactly what they were doing by putting us in these racially hostile environments. In fact, I was shipped between five different state prison systems from 2012 to 2021 and in each one was only housed in cell blocks with groups of confirmed Aryan and Latino gang members that are known to be hostile towards Blacks. Not coincidentally, upon my return in 2021, I found an Aryan gang presence in Virginia’s prisons where none had existed before.
I learned that in my absence for a decade, Virginia officials had facilitated the development of—in its predominantly White staffed prisons, like Red Onion, Wallen Ridge, Keen Mountain, River North, and Augusta. But upon returning to Red Onion in October 2023, I saw what was now amiss. Prisoners from Colorado, Oregon, specifically, ones belonging to actively violent Aryan gangs were being interstate transferred to these Virginia prisons and put with Virginia [inaudible] Aryan groups who they were infusing with their own violent brands of Anti-Black politics. Worse still, I’ve listened to Red Onion guards laughing both about facilitating attacks by these Whites on Black prisoners to create a race war between these groups.
One such attack occurred on December 30th, 2023, on a Red Onion solitary confinement exercise yard. While on hunger strike at Red Onion, I was taken to a local hospital to receive intravenous fluid on January 4th, 2024. The three guards who transported me to the hospital, a father named H. Lewis, a guard named R. O. and another guard named Short, exposed staff’s role in that incident as they talked and laughed about how Red Onion officials knew this documented Aryan prisoner was plotting to stab several Black Crips on the solitary exercise yard, and had cut a hole in the yard’s fence so he could crawl through and attack one of the targeted Blacks.
On the appointed day, Red Onion guards had deliberately moved the regular guards and K9 Officer from the area and assigned only rookie guards to the post. They said staff knew the fence had been cut, and watched as the Aryan crawled through after the rookies had brought the Black prisoner out of handcuffs. The Aryan did attack and repeatedly stab the still handcuffed Black prisoner as the rookies ran and guards on the gun post shot their guns, but deliberately missed the Aryan. They laughed about officials having allowed something similar to happen a decade earlier at Red Onion, where a White supremacist prisoner, Robert Gleason, was allowed to take a rope outside to the solitary confinement exercise yard at Red Onion and strangle a Black Crip to death through the fence. Gleason pled guilty and was executed during 2013 for this and another killing he was allowed to carry out on a targeted prisoner.
Other prisoners revealed to me, as I also observed, that the Virginia Interstate Compact Office was bringing known violent Aryans to Virginia from Colorado, Oregon and so on, and mixing them with Virginia’s home grown Aryans, allowing them to infuse the Virginia groups with their violent racial politics. At the center of this was one of the main orchestrators of the first wave of manufacturing gangs and gang wars of these remote prisoners through and since 2005, who I identified in my prior article, James Bitney, who is now Red Onion’s Chief Investigator and top, so-called, “Gang Specialist.”
Whether it’s gang wars or race wars, the ruling class through their armed enforcement have always been behind the scenes pulling the strings, playing the poor and oppressed against each other. Divide, agitate and rule. This is Kevin Rashid Johnson coming to you from within America’s gulag archipelago. Dare to struggle. Dare to win. All power to the people.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.