In a recent report on WRIC, The Virginia DOC was exonerated of all wrongdoing regarding the people who set themselves on fire; the captives who set themselves on fire at Red Onion prison. This is the great Virginia DOC farce, as labeled by a DOC guard and as repeated by myself. What’s going on now in the Virginia DOC is that Marion Correctional Center for mental health treatment is under the gun again. There was just a rally outside the Virginia DOC headquarters regarding the ongoing abuses of inmates, and nothing is changing.
Regarding the Red Onion investigation, people are already commenting on the WRIC site, going, “Where did you get your information from? Who are these oversight committee people?” Because all of their information is inaccurate. In fact, the Corrections ombudsman is basically five people who are lackeys for the Virginia DOC. And in fact, in a recent previous interview regarding the guard who called the Virginia DOC one of the greatest jokes in the state — regarding the oversight lawsuit that he, or that story, was involved in, we actually have some details regarding the dead officer at River North and the lawsuit that’s going on.
It’s worth noting that WRIC claimed to not be able to get any details regarding this lawsuit. We know that the Virginia DOC — the court is being asked to require the Virginia DOC to “respond to credible threats against staff, act on intelligence about planned attacks, prohibit orders to ignore medical or safety emergencies,” which is really ugly, who orders that kind of thing? “Stop retaliating against officers who report concerns or seek legal counsel.” In other words, there’s problems going on that staff are trying to get adjusted and they’re being blocked and “put oversight measures in place to ensure these rules are followed.” We would ask the court to apply all the same thing to the hundreds and thousands of inmates who have been reporting abuses for decades, and it’s atrocious, because we die left and right, and no one seems to give a damn. One guard drops over and of all the sudden, everyone wants change. I feel sorry for the dead officer and their family, but I feel just as sorry, or more so, for the fact that it’s taking all these bodies to get change and it has to end now.
Also, we’d like people to understand that there are inmates and attorneys and delegates who are keenly aware that the details that are being reported by the DOC and its so called oversight committee are simply flat out false. Provably, where there’s most likely documentation that’s been provided, we know that the Oversight Committee is ignoring reports of law breaking staff, and in my own case, I can cite that from reports that I’ve put here on this outlet, through Prison Radio, and that have also been published elsewhere. I have been reporting, personally, reporting staff abuses for a decade; beatings, harassment, violations of human and constitutional rights, repeated lack of mental health care, lack of medical care. I have just filed a lawsuit, and I’m simply waiting for a case number now regarding the First Amendment violation I suffered and the fact that my hands have been partially disabled because of lack of medical care after I suffered a severe beating by police the night I was arrested. It’s been ignored over and over and over again.
I go out of my way to give people the most accurate and up to date information as possible. Sometimes, I feel like the only thing that gets people’s attention is is the kind of over the top situations. For instance, the amount of people who are dying. There’s something really wrong when it takes bodies to get attention, and that’s where it’s at. And it’s not just the Virginia DOC. Apparently, that’s going on all over the nation at this point. Just take a look at your news feed while masked goons are running around. Those kind of tactics start in departments of corrections, and when they get away with it in your prisons, they bring it to your neighborhoods. These people will kill your grandmother, and then they’ll face rape her corpse and blame you for the privilege. How do you like that rhetoric? Because that’s where we’re at in this country. It’s ugly that I have to say things like this. People are dying, and no one gives a damn.
So, this is a call out to the Virginia General Assembly where I was told I’m not allowed to vent my concerns. And I have that on paper from the head of the Eastern Region of the Virginia DOC; just turned it over to the Coalition for Justice, and it’s safely stored with my family in case these goons try to come in and get me, because that’s what they’ve done before. Okay. Ten years of documentation stored up, rallies happening, head of the DOC under the gun. Something has to change people, something has to change. How many more bodies is it going to take?
I would like to tell the officers who are involved in that lawsuit that I side with the lawsuit, as long as there’s caveats to protect us as well. We deserve the same treatment. We’re human beings. Virginia DOC is currently holding 4800 people illegally, wrongfully convicted. That’s all I got to say for now. I’m better off with a prepared script, but, sometimes you just have to say it how it is without reading a script.
My name is David Annarelli. I’m a contributing writer at Prison Journalism Project, davidannarelli.wordpress.com, you can find me on Instagram, you can Google me for tons, tons of reports, and I ask you to share all this loudly and widely. Speak hard. Thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
