Hello. My name is David Annarelli, contributing writer to Prison Journalism Project. Today is June 9. It is Monday, 2025. This is Uniquely Virginian, Virginia DOC. On June 5, 2025, Lawrenceville Administration put out an email regarding a story for a contest submission about basketball in prison. The story itself is very well written. Sadly, it contains several flaws. Those flaws are astounding because they are either factually false or require a Jonestown adherence to false narratives. Specifically, the author claimed that Lawrenceville is, “radically different”, “something new, something uniquely Virginian”, and that it is called, “the Virginia model”. Not one of this is accurate. “Radically different” is almost offensive.
Lawrenceville, listed as open to levels 3, 2, 1, is, like most Virginia DOC prisons, operated as a level higher than listed. Excessive controlled movement and abusive staff scream Red Onion and Wallens Ridge. In fact, the staff openly interfere with program schedules and movement. An observer would see and hear captives say to staff these very things. Numerous captives have already requested transfers. Even the false narrative presented by Virginia DOC officials, who despise truth and facts, is not radically different, but instead the same old smoke and mirrors used to distract everyone from the same old rotten truth they hope to hide under fresh coats of cheap paint.
Something new and uniquely Virginian, is therefore, a flat out lie. Some people might point out the salads, enhanced food menu, or better cheap mats or the field days and peer led programs. Though a solid response to such state support is that bread and circuses did not prevent Rome’s demise. “Let them eat cake” worked out poorly for Miss Antoinette. In other words, some people might be wrong. The better food is a matter of law, Virginia General Assembly, 2022, and now three years later, finally being rolled out as an incentive, which is basically just a budgetary necessity. It is not something new, but old, and required by law. The mats are the same double stuffed so that an aging captive population is not sleeping on hard steel, leading to major orthopedic problems, adding to medical costs, mostly lawsuit payouts, because the Virginia DOC does not provide proper medical care. Otherwise, the same old routine.
Here are a few things that actually are unique to Virginia: highest DOC expenditure, 27% of the state budget, excessive sentencing to a level unheard of elsewhere. Virginia’s 50th in education, dead last, a 20% rate of wrongful convictions, highest in the United States, and a 47% rate of mortality for birthing mothers was actually just recently announced on the local news. Actually, the list is quite extensive, and goes on for some length and includes allegations of corruption statewide, and can leave a person’s mind numb. Virginia is uniquely horrible, and its DOC reflects every bit of it.
The Virginia Model is what they call this fabrication. They had to change the title because at first it was “based on the Florida and Texas models.” Those models rely on DOC sanctioned programs based on modern educational standards that Virginia cannot match. Those models also provide for time off sentences when programs are completed. Virginia relies on 40 year old outdated programs, or programs created by captives that are not DOC sanctioned, though sometimes better than DOC programs, and Virginia provides no time off its excessive sentencing. Also, the Virginia DOC has another incentive program called “security levels,” which are also based on good behavior and also provide not a single real incentive, privilege, or reward. The Virginia Model is just another layer of paint on a rotten house. Besides, only the Virginia DOC can take basic human standards and spin that into incentives. Saying they are says everything you need to know about the Virginia DOC and it’s “radically different, uniquely Virginian, Virginia model.” My name is David Annarelli, davidannarelli.wordpress.com, Instagram @david_annarelli, contributing writer for prisonjournalismproject.org. Thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
