This is the Virginia Model. More deprivations at Lawrenceville. Today is July 29, 2025. It is a Tuesday. As the Virginia Department of Corruption prepares for a one year anniversary of its Virginia Model, we are forced to report that the Virginia DOC has changed nothing. The allegations of a recent murder of a captive this past week at Rollins Ridge, currently in the process of being simultaneously investigated and covered up, is evidence enough. Meanwhile, the Virginia DOC is slowly returning a very few of the standards once considered mandatory and attempting to pass them off as incentives. If that wasn’t bad enough, there is the recent admission by Lawrenceville staff that the water is not good enough to drink at Lawrenceville. That admission was clear and obvious when the new dog program, the Fetch Program, just started up at Lawrenceville. They were given Brita filters for the dog water because the dogs had to have safe water to drink. That is verified by numerous eyewitness reports, including three separate dog handlers. The water coming out of the faucet is not fit for dogs to drink without first being filtered. The captives can be damned. Tap water in months-old, or older bags of water that have changed temperatures too many times to count, are what captives get: tap water that is regularly turning various colors of brown, seemingly without reason and often at random.
There are other deprivations involved in the Fetch Program. As everyone knows, Virginia DOC prisons are terribly overcrowded. A cell that is too small for a Volkswagen Beetle has two people in it, along with all their possessions. The Fetch Program added a dog crate that is large enough for a German Shepherd with room for the dog to move around a bit. Cruelty to animals and cruelty to human beings, that is the Virginia model, and nothing besides. For those interested in ferreting out the truth of Lawrenceville and about the Virginia Model in general, we suggest researching the incentive prisons so called found in California, Florida, Texas, Norway, and Germany. You will quickly find that the Virginia Model paled by comparison. We also suggest you research those perks that prisons in Virginia offered captives 25 years ago. You will quickly discover that the Virginia Model is not about moving forward but returning to basic standards of human decency to those citizens being held captive. That the Virginia DOC would try to pass this off as an incentive is simply deplorable. The Virginia Model, forcing captives to drink possibly toxic water while ensuring dogs receive filtered water. The Virginia Model, where a cage big enough for a German Shepherd is put into a too-small concrete box with two people. The Virginia Model, “Don’t believe the hype,” especially because it is still nothing more than a means of covering up the harm it causes. My name is David Annarelli. I’m a contributing writer with Prison Journalism Project, davidannarelli.wordpress.com, and you can find me on Instagram @david_annarelli. Thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
