This is the Red Onion update. My name is David Annarelli, contributing writer at Prison Journalism Project. Today is March 28, 2025.
On March 26, 2025, during both the 5pm and 6pm news broadcasts, News 8 in Richmond, an ABC affiliate, aired a report about the nefarious Red Onion Correctional Facility in Virginia. Red Onion is one of 37 Virginia Department of Corrections facilities, the only supermax in that state, and it has become the glaring example of Virginia’s deprivations, corruption and lack of any proper oversight. Red Onion is the example, not the exception.
Reporters Allison Williams and Roland Wilson did a great job of exposing a small part of the truth, especially by getting first hand reports from two previous captives who spent time at Red Onion and a third who has been reporting on that facility and Virginia DOC from within. They also spoke with Virginia delegates, Jones and Siebold, both of whom visited and saw Red Onion; the Red Onion nightmare firsthand, with their own eyes. There was one thing missing, and that was a follow up investigation into comments by Virginia DOC director Chadwick Dotson. Director Dotson claimed that Red Onion and by extension, the entire Virginia Department of Corrections, were in compliance with American Correction Association [ACA] standards.
There are two points to this statement. One, none of the Virginia DOC are in compliance with ACA standards. And in fact, Virginia as a whole seems to be working overtime to avoid and circumvent any sort of federal standards or ruling across its entire legal system. Second, ACA standards are quite literally meaningless. In March 2024 It was reported by Forbes magazine that the Federal Bureau of Prisons did not renew its contract with the ACA, citing its “sham investigations” that “rubber stamp” prison self-reporting. In Virginia, where corruption is now bordering on legendary, any claims to being in compliance with an oversight group like the ACA is nothing more than an admission of guilt. The Virginia DOC is a massive can of worms, as is the state of Virginia. Hopefully, the can is finally being opened wide, but much more needs to be investigated and exposed. My name is David Annarelli, contributing writer prisonjournalismproject.org, davidannarelli.wordpress.com, and thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
