My name is Ekong Ben Eshiet Jr. son of Marsha Pritchett & Ekong Eshiet Sr. Brother of Akon Eshiet, Breon Eshiet, Ben Eshiet, and Aaliyah Eshiet. I am 1 of the several brothers that was incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) who decided to take a stand against the oppression, the crookedness, the corruption, etc. that was being operated by ROSP employees… Sad to say but these same employees who swore by oath to protect & serve, are only protecting & serving themselves by harming and depriving the inmates & convicts housed at that warehouse…
So due to the inhumane conditions that me and several other inmates were experiencing, SEVERAL of us started self immolating by setting ourselves on fire, in hopes of not just escaping that prisoner torture warhouse, but also getting the protection and services needed for all the trauma we had endured there at RO. And while those were the main goals that we were trying to get accomplished, we also had some different reasons for setting ourselves ablaze… So I’m here to tell you about my reasons.
I am locked up for a broad daylight shooting that occurred in January of 2018. I was sentenced to 12 years for this shooting after Judge Reynolds called me one of the most dangerous people he had ever met… And while I didn’t like what that judge who didn’t even know me or my whole life story said to me, I still, as a man, accepted the actions and accepted the sentence that I was giving and I instantly started working on correcting my ways behind the wall in the Department Of CORRECTIONS. Numerous times I tried getting a job, enroll in the GED program, and having my mental and behavioral issues addressed, but it was to no avail – except for school which took me a whole year to get enrolled in…. As for treatment I just kept getting told I was on the waiting list. I tried getting put back on pysch meds which I kept getting DENIED until I went on suicide watch and a hunger strike back in 2022.
After getting back on meds I kept asking to get put in a mental health pod where I would be able to get weekly therapy and be able to attend mental health programs but I kept getting DENIED! So I just kept getting in trouble until Wallens Ridge, another supermax facility in Virginia, finally got tired of me and sent me to Red Onion which is the worst prison that I ever did time at. As soon as I got off the van, the COs who had seen my name on the transfer paper started disrespecting my heritage by twisting my last name. So I told them that what they were saying was not my name and I told them how to say it the proper way, but they still continued to disrespect it. So basically from day 1 at Red Onion the anger and stress started vigorously building up inside me until I ended up burning myself.
Before I did I had constantly asked mental health for help which I was DENIED of course… Only thing they would do is increase the dosage on my meds. I was taking like 8 or 9 pills a day… Just increasing the dosage on my meds but denying me treatment, counseling, or therapy which was only making my mental health worse, especially with the discrimination I was facing everyday because of my name, my religion, and my race. So I was basically just hurt and neglected and received no help whatsoever! It was like Red Onion employees were just telling me to take my meds and shut up…
With my back against the wall and no help from the ones who took oaths to help me I came to the decision that I had to do something that would get me away from what felt like hell on earth… So I burned myself. But after being taken to medical, put in a filthy cell for 3 days before I was sent to VCU hospital on the other side of the state for an emergency surgery I started wondering maybe I should’ve just killed myself because it seemed like I was just trapped in an uncomfortable situation… Once I got to VCU I broke down and told nurses, hospital staff, the COs, and whoever would listen what I was going through at RO. Though it did seem like they cared, it donned on me that they couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to help me stay out of my “hell on earth”. It was even worse when the assistant warden told me that I couldn’t get a visit with my family. My family was going to come see me until they were denied, because, according to RO Warden Anderson, I was a threat to myself and others. So at that point I was feeling dumb inside and everyday I was waking up at VCU and thoughts of me going back to RO would fill my mind, and eventually those thoughts became a reality. On my 6th day at VCU, two COs from Red Onion popped up in my room and screamed Merry Christmas… I was broken, I was defeated, I was dumbfounded…
On the way back to RO I started thinking of what I could do to get an emergency transfer. I thought about setting myself ablaze again but that option wasn’t available for me because I was put in a medical cell which had no power sockets for me to set a fire. So I thought about breaking my back, which an inmate who had just broken his back told me would get me housed at Greensville, a medium security facility in VA. After surgery I would need therapy which would take months, probably a year to complete. But due to me being scared of being paralyzed I didn’t go through with that. So my last option I could think of was a hunger strike which I went on for 7 days before stopping it because of COs purposely targeting me everyday.
The COs would pull me out everyday to search my cell and intentionally mess my property up, especially my religious property. They would threaten me and continuously disrespect me. I ended up coming off hunger strike after They beat me up for refusing to move to another cell. Moving cells made absolutely no sense to me because there were no issues with the cell I was in. It only takes 2 COs to escort an inmate, but when they told me I had to move they came to my door like 7 or 8 deep so I knew something was fishy.
So short story shorter, I bucked and they sprayed me with mace including my burn wounds. Then dey ran in my cell and shocked me with the shock shield over 5 times even after I had stopped resisting. I began to fear for my life after that and I decided to eat because I felt and almost certainly knew if I continued with my strike they was going to find another reason to beat me up or worse kill me. I ended my hunger strike because of me being in fear of RETALIATION. The very next day after I ended my hunger strike I spoke with Warden Anderson about me being in fear of my life at RO and asked for a transfer.
I was breaking down crying to this man asking for help and he showed no sympathy for me. All he did was ask how I felt about going back to Wallens Ridge. I said I didn’t want to go back there because it was not much different from RO. I also told him I couldn’t go back there because I had 5 separation orders there. When I told him that he looked like he was mad and he said he would see what he could do. I then asked about Sussex 1, another max security facility in VA, and he lied and said Sussex was no longer a level 5 prison saying it was now a level 4.
Warden Anderson told me he would get back with me, which he never did until I started talking to news reporters and advocates about how me and several others were setting ourselves on fire in desperate attempts to get off Red Onion. After I started shedding light on what was going on at RO, Anderson told the counselors and the unit manager of the building to let me know I was getting put in for out of state, which I wasn’t mad at until I realized that the out of state transfer was just a retaliatory measure in response to me exposing what him and ever other Red Onion employee was trying to cover up about all the burn incidents occurring in the facility. I told my advocates to push for a transfer to Greensville or Sussex Mental Health pod and to push for an investigation.
Red Onion has been investigated internally by VADOC. It was a BIASED investigation in favor of Red Onion employees. During this investigation I spoke with SIU agents twice. The first time I spoke with the SIU agents I told them that I was only willing to go out of state if Greensville or Sussex 1 Mental Health pods wasn’t an option for me. But after finding out that director of VADOC Chadwick Dotson and Warden Anderson lied to the public and told them that I had requested an out of state transfer, I spoke with the SIU agents again. I told them since Dotson and Anderson lied to the public and didn’t give them the full truth I was no longer willing to go out of state. I told them while they had body cameras that if I go out of state I will kill myself and I even filed complaints about it so what I said is documented in VADOC.
Now 7 months after setting myself on fire I am sitting in a cell in Indiana shaking my head… And Red Onion employees are talking about charging me and all the other brothers that set ourselves on fire. They are doing this only out of spite, because even though I got sent out of state, other brothers got sent out of state or are waiting on a transfer, the TRUTH is out there about Red Onion, Wallens Ridge, and the corrupt VADOC system that is being operated under the DICTATORSHIP of Chadwick Dotson.
To be honest, even though I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, if I could go back and do it again I would. At the end of the day whether I get charged or not the truth is out there!!! Sometimes in life you have to sacrifice for what’s RIGHT and for what you may want in life. Though you may not get exactly what you want, at least knowing that you sacrificed for what is RIGHT. My brothers and sisters will know that you still did something Righteous in this life and through your actions change did or will come!
I’m in Indiana right now and may face some bogus street charges for setting myself on fire, but with me knowing that the truth is finally out there about the CORRUPT VADOC system, I am in high hopes for the rest of my brothers & sisters that are doing time or got to do time in VADOC. CHANGE is coming! And though I may not experience that change myself, I am high spirited for my brothers & sisters that will experience the Changes. The Struggle Continues & The fight doesn’t stop! You can kill a revolutionary but you can’t stop a Revolution!
– Edited and compiled from small texts Ekong sent via Chirp