Hello. This is, “The Virginia Model: The War on Proper Medical Care.” Today is August 7. It is a Thursday. The mounting reports about the Virginia Department of Corrections and its inhumane treatment of captives goes on: captives murdered by staff, captives assaulted by staff, gross mismanagement at every level. There is no part of the Virginia DOC that is safe or that serves citizens.
With an overinflated annual budget of $1.5 billion, so much more should be expected in the care of our fellow citizens, and nowhere is this more obvious than in medical care. To be clear, medical care in the Virginia DOC is beyond subpar, and that is the Virginia Model. The Virginia Model has a long history of using the deliberate denial of medical care as a means of harming its captives. Any minimal research into this fact will turn up an ongoing flood of lawsuits. I myself have been left with permanent vision problems as a result of multiple concussive blows by state agents, and a partially disabled hand that surgery was recommended for almost three years ago. So, the most recent development at Lawrenceville should come as no surprise.
Recently, a package of self-medication – medications safe enough for captives to self-administer – was taken from a captive. It was not given to him by medical, but by the captive [that] medical had given it to. The captive was given a drug charge, as if it was illicit, and immediately shipped from the compound, before a hearing, in violation of policy. The medication in question, Gas-X, a simple, legal, over-the-counter medication for indigestion and flatulence. Totally innocuous, and an over-the-counter medicine your 10-year-old child could purchase without any question.
Clearly, the Virginia DOC’s ongoing battle against the staff-supplied illicit drugs – always available – has hit a new level of cover-up effects. Aside from the obvious – how totally asinine Virginia DOC investigators are as a default – give a thought to what kind of twisted individuals go so overboard about tummy medicine. The problem isn’t that the captive had Gas-X. The problem is that he had likely pestered medical for weeks and months, and they manufactured some arbitrary reason to deny him the meds.
In fact, this happens so often, over legal medicine that cannot be misused, that the average person would be offended. Tylenol, Ibuprofen, aspirin, Gas-X, Zyrtec, Claritin, Flonase and its variants and on and on. In fact, just this past week after being told that my Zyrtec was approved, because I have allergies to the toxic air inside the prison, I’ve been waiting a week and it hasn’t even been ordered. The Virginia Model of captivity specializes in the denial of proper care, and one thing captives all through history have learned is how to find a work around. If medical won’t provide a captive with their basic right to legal over-the-counter meds, that captive will ask around until they find a captive who has managed to navigate the Minotaur’s labyrinth of Virginia DOC medical care, and obtain the Holy Grail of the over-the-counter, legal medicine.
The Virginia DOC, the Virginia Model, is about killing people in any manner that can be gotten away with. It always has been, and nothing has changed. The deliberate denial of proper medical care is one of the best ways to accomplish this. The Virginia DOC knows it. The Virginia Model applies it. And sadly, the laws and courts designed to protect “We, the People,” now support the harm and oppression of “the People.” The Virginia Model’s war on legal meds, is only another iteration of this deepening feudalistic fascism.
My name is David Annarelli. I’m a contributing writer at prison journalism.project.org, davidannarelli.wordpress.com. Instagram: david_annarelli. Thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
