Kevin “Rashid” Johnson statement

“All of this has been directed at preventing me from communicating, preventing me from publicizing abusive conditions.”

In October 2024, I initially broke the story about the guys that set themselves on fire at Red Onion. Y’all are aware of the media backlash that came behind that. Chadwick Dotson went into the media lying saying it never happened. Also Warden Anderson denied it ever happened. But later, when Phil Wilayto with the Virginia Defenders contacted the prison to investigate, it was exposed that they lied. The Virginia Mercury got a hold of actual email exchanges between the assistant warden, an investigator, and a major from the time the burnings were happening. Those emails stated specifically that three guys had just set themselves on fire, and staff were recorded discussing trying to get them to stop. Legislators in the New York Times acknowledged that guys had self-immolated and wanted to know why.

That was absolutely major. Journalists got in contact with me, got on my JPay, and I was contradicting everything they were trying to say in the press, exposing that the abuses continued. So they transferred me to South Carolina in the midst of all of that.

As soon as I got here, they put me into solitary confinement. Well, first they subjected me to extreme restraints. When I got here at the airport, they restrained me almost in a fetal position. Black box, chains, handcuffs, shackles, a chain connected the handcuffs to the shackles, which had me squat down, almost in a fetal position, so semi hog-tied position. I couldn’t stand up. They put me in a van that had the factory seat belts removed — steel lined van with no padding, no nothing. I couldn’t put my feet on the floor because of the way they had me restrained. So they lifted me up, put me in the van on the seat, and they drove at high speeds, the caravan they were driving with lights flashing, sirens blaring, like they was in a high speed car chase. Driving at high speed, braking hard, taking turns at high speed, accelerating hard.

I was bounced all around the inside the van, restrained so that I couldn’t brace myself, I couldn’t protect myself. I was slammed all around. I ended up with a shoulder injury and injury to my leg, and the pain in my leg was so severe, I initially thought it was broken. First, they sent me to the receiving center, which is Kirkland Correctional Institution. When I got there, they threw me in solitary for nothing. Threw me in a cell with no property, with a smock on — a nylon smock — no sheets, no blanket, nothing but a mattress that smelled like feces with a shower inside the cell. They threw me in solitary confinement. I refused to eat. I told them I wanted an attorney call.

So the next morning, they transferred me to Perry.

They threw me in solitary here. I stayed on the hunger strike. Per protocol of being on a hunger strike, the warden pulled me out two days after I got here. He asked me why I was on a hunger strike. I told him because they got me in solitary for no reason. I was in general population where I just came from in Virginia. He was like, well, we just want to see how you will act. Shit, I could barely walk with my leg damaged from being slammed around in the van. They X-rayed my leg initially when I was at Kirkland after transport. But they couldn’t determine if it was broken and they refused to send me to hospital. They didn’t give me treatment. So they made me hobble to the cell. But when I got here, solitary.

After I was confronted by Warden, the regional director, named Willie Davis pulled me out of the cell, said the same thing while I was on hunger strike. He said they will honor me remaining in the single cell, put me in general population after they saw how I acted, but they didn’t have any grounds releasing me because I stayed on hunger strike. Basically trying to get me to come off the hunger strike. I stayed on hunger strike like two weeks. Finally, they said, because people called complaining to headquarters about my condition, my treatment, they released me. Told me, if I ate, they would release me to population. They released me. I think it was May 1st when I started the strike, two weeks, I did get released. I forget the exact date.

I didn’t stay in population. They let me out. I wrote the article about my transfer treatment, the inhumane conditions in their lock up, in solitary confinement, about the treatment. The way they transferred me, what they call a rough ride in a Freddie Gray van. The article got published on the 15th of May.

On the 20th of May, they fabricated a disciplinary charge against me so they could put me in solitary. As soon as I got in solitary, five minutes after they took me to lock up, a guy came to my cell named Jamie Fergeli. He said he was a special agent from the inspector general’s office. He said he drove an hour from headquarters to give me a message. He said, I better tell the media and tell my people — he said, tell your motherfucking people — to stop contacting headquarters about you and what’s going on. Stop writing more articles about SCDC, or we will cut off all your communication.

I said, you tell ’em. I said, I’m not telling them shit. I have people talking to them behind the door. So he said, well, you heard what I said. You tell your people and the media, stop contacting headquarters. I drove an hour to give you a message from headquarters. I said, man, you tell them. He said, okay, I’m gonna cut all your communication line. He threatened that I was gonna get hurt and I was gonna stay in lockup.

This was on the 20th — two days later, after he made these threats, they moved me to C building, C-wing, which is a non-communication wing, with six cells in it. Signs on the door said the occupant cannot have a phone nor a tablet. No communication. And I was banned from using the phone and banned from having a tablet. They put me on phone and tablet restriction. I was banned from using the phone I’m paying for, banned from having a tablet. Ever since, I’m denied every privilege other SCDC prisoners got. They have GTL tablets where they can send messages, they can watch movies, they can listen to music. Ever since the 22nd of May, after Fergeli came to me specifically threatening to do that in response to me writing that article, and journalists and folks contacted headquarters about my transfer and conditions, they took all my privileges. I stayed back there for almost two months.

When they moved me to C building, they put me in a cell that had, spread all around the sink, around the window, this white powder. I wouldn’t find out for some months later that that was a neurotoxic insecticide. I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was like powder that a prisoner had sprinkled around there trying to keep bugs out or whatever. So I didn’t know. Actually can’t clean it with water — if you put water on it, it sticks.

It was all around the base of the cell, all around the walls, around the toilet, on top of the sink, around the sink, inside the sink, around the window. It was like a white sticky powder. And if you put water on it, it sticks. Does not dissolve. It’s supposed to use outside. I got a prisoner who works grounds to give me the label off one of the cans. You can look it up. It’s called Bengal, B-E-N-G-A-L, 2X, and it’s a fire ant insecticide. It’s highly toxic. It can penetrate the skin — you supposed to wash it off, or if it gets in your clothes, dispose of them. The label tells you it’s highly toxic, carcinogenic. All face up. Y’all looked it up the time that I first told y’all about it.

So they had sprayed it all over. See, I got sick. As soon as I moved to that cell, I got sick with respiratory infection. They had to put me on antibiotics. They put me on some type of medication for my respiratory, my lungs. I sounded like I had water in my lungs. Rattling was so bad. I had so much phlegm in my lungs. But that’s what it came from. I knew something in that cell was making me sick. I thought it was something coming out of the vent. I was sick the whole time I was in the cell.

On July the 3rd, I developed an abscess in my tooth, which was part of my immune system getting worn down. I got sick really sick. And you know, I never get sick. So I knew something was attacking my immune system. So I ended up with infection in my mouth, which was how I got the abscess. They didn’t treat the abscess. The dentist wouldn’t give me any treatment, so I ended up having to pay for outside dental treatment. A human abscess is potentially fatal, if it goes untreated. So they ended up letting me out of the hole, and I went on a hunger strike while I was in there with this insecticide everywhere. So it really compromised my immune system. I lost a lot of weight. I was put on antibiotics because of how sick I got.

I think I went and got seen on sick call probably within three days of me being put in that cell, and they had to put me on medication for my lungs, to try to clear up the congestion in my lungs. So I stayed on antibiotics almost the whole time I was in the cell and I was constantly sick. They released me to general population, put me back in the single cell initially. Then they came back and told me that my single cell status was being revoked. And the warden asked me if they put somebody in the cell with me, would I let somebody be moved in the cell? I said no.

So they locked me back up again, put me back in the exact same cell, with that insecticide all over it again. I got sick again. As soon as I got in that cell, soon as they moved me back inside, immediately I got sick. As soon as I was released, all the chest congestion, all the sickness, all that shit cleared up. Soon as they locked me right back up, put me in the same cell, I got sick all over again.

I went on a hunger strike when they put me back in that cell. They told me it was up to me, if I was willing to go to a cell with somebody, they would release me back to population. So I went back to population.

When I got back out here, they started pushing all type of shit. Kept deadlocking me. Denied me my property since I’ve been here. Wouldn’t give me any of my legal property, my personal property. They were ordered by a judge on July 21st — the Wise County Circuit Court ordered them to give me all my property so that I can meet a hearing deadline. The Attorney General’s office bucked the court’s order. They never gave me my property.

So not 30 days after the judge issued that order for them to give me my property, they created a policy here that limited prisoners to three boxes of legal property. So that policy obviously was created in response to the judge ordering them to give me all my property. They didn’t want me to have my property, so I haven’t had my property.

They kept me on phone restriction, tablet restriction. They took me off phone restriction probably after I got out the second time, which was around October, but I can only make one phone call a day. All of this has been directed at preventing me from communicating, preventing me from publicizing abusive conditions.

I also wrote an article about Tyrone Perry being denied medical treatment because he has a cardiac condition and he has small vessel brain disease. And when I wrote that article about him, three days after that article went out, they transferred me to McCormick, they sent me to McCormick Correctional Institution.

I got to McCormick. I was taken into an office with the warden, assistant warden, major, some CERT team officers, regular officers, and a bunch of other big guys. Talking, yeah, we’ve been reading about you online. You like to stir up trouble. You like to cause problems. The assistant warden, a Black dude, was trying to decide, do I want to put you in general population? He said, well, you at a new institution, you don’t want to start here.

I said, no, you’re the one with all these people standing around like you’re trying to intimidate me. You know I’m one man, how am I scaring you? We talking, well, well, we not gonna get physical. I said, what are y’all in here standing around me for then? Minister, like, yo, yo. Y’all got some movie mind. What’s up? So he said, well, you like to cause problems, we don’t want you here. I said, why you got me here? So he said, I’m done with you, I’m done. They released me to population and put me in a cell with feces and blood splattered all over the wall, stuck all on the floor.

So I ended up scrubbing the cell all night. So they called me down to property. They said I was, they called me to go get my personal property. When I got down to personal property, they took me, chained me up, put me on the van, brought me right back to Perry.

But the transfer was basically retaliation for the article I wrote. I was talking about the nurse that was here who were denying Tyrone medical treatment. He went to medical with pretty much stroke-level high blood pressure, and the nurse practitioner wouldn’t give him treatment. So when I wrote the article, as soon as the article went out, soon as it got published, they transferred me to McCormick, put me in a nasty cell. I guess it was an intimidation game. Then they sent me back. The next day, brought me right back, right back.

Like I said, I haven’t had my property. They won’t give me a tablet, not allowed to communicate, and even trying to frustrate my every means of communication. They try to make sure anybody who tries to help me communicate, they retaliate against them. So that’s the basic outline of what’s been going on.