Austin Arocho Emergency Demands

What Austin Has Gone Through

Austin entered DOC in 2018 on a 10-year sentence. April told VADOC leadership that when he came in, his documented diagnoses were ADD, oppositional defiance disorder, and emotional distress. After years inside Wallens Ridge, Red Onion, River North, and Marion, his medical and mental-health record had grown into a much larger crisis file.

By February 2023, VADOC’s own records showed Austin on suicide precautions/restraints after he warned staff that if he was returned to the wrong placement, he would set himself on fire, electrocute himself, or hang himself. The same record showed that he was asking how he would get his property back while he remained on restrictions, safety precautions, and mental-health watch.

In March 2026, UPROAR told VADOC leadership that Austin’s records showed he set himself on fire three times and set a fourth fire between February and June 2023 at Wallens Ridge. VADOC punished him with disciplinary charges instead of treating those acts as a mental-health emergency. UPROAR also raised that burn-care documentation was sparse, including a February 3 fire with no burn-wound-care mention until February 17. The felony charge from the fourth fire was dropped after public pressure, while the broader punitive pattern continued.

Austin has described being pepper-sprayed, shackled, and assaulted while restrained. In a July 2025 interview, he said that on June 6 at Wallens Ridge he was pepper-sprayed, brought out in handcuffs and shackles, held under steaming water during “decontamination,” and then assaulted while restrained. He described bleeding from his mouth and nose, being punched, kicked, and jumped while still in restraints.

The new VADOC administration says it is reforming itself. Austin’s case shows the same old logic continuing at Marion. When he warned staff that if they put him in five-point restraints or pepper-sprayed him he would fight back, that expression of fear and self-defense was pathologized as aggression, and he was prescribed additional antipsychotic medication.

At least twice at Marion, Austin was pepper-sprayed after banging his head on the cell. Self-harm behavior was met with chemical force, followed by return to the same environment.

Austin has described serious medication concerns at Marion. In March 2026, he told April that staff were crushing his medications and giving him Thorazine, Seroquel, Zyprexa, Depakote, “Capra”/possibly Keppra, and other medication together twice a day. He said he was salivating so heavily that he was trying not to spit everywhere.

On June 21, Austin said he refused Depakote because the psychiatrist had stopped it, but staff still gave it to him that morning. He said the medication was not helping: he was still hearing voices, still depressed, still angry, and still beating himself up.

After UPROAR exposed the medication-crushing issue publicly and asked supporters to call and email, Marion reportedly stopped crushing most of his medications. Austin’s ear injury was addressed after UPROAR launched an emergency phone zap. The felony from the fire was dropped after public pressure. Again and again, Austin gets care when the public forces VADOC to act.

He also described no working air conditioning where he is housed, only hallway fans that do not reach the cells, broken windows, and continued confinement in a cell with a bed in the middle. He said he is trying hard not to bang his head or hurt himself because he wants to progress, get off the compound, and be around people.

Austin’s contact with April remains blocked by restrictions imposed during mental-health crisis periods. On June 21, he confirmed that he remains on phone restrictions even after enhanced sanctions were supposedly lifted. He identified at least one continuing restriction as tied to a self-mutilation charge after he slammed his forehead into a window frame. VADOC is using self-harm as a basis to block contact with the person most able to help stabilize him.

His property has been missing across institutions for years. Austin has described missing electronics, clothing, hygiene, and a JP6/tablet, and said he has been told to restart trouble tickets at each institution, allowing property to be passed from prison to prison and sit for months. April told VADOC that Austin has gone about three years without his property, that televisions and basic property disappeared across transfers from Sussex to Wallens Ridge to Red Onion, and that he lacks meaningful tools to file grievances or complaints.

Austin is Puerto Rican. The outside evaluation and transfer review must address disability, mental-health crisis, family contact, and racial or ethnic bias in how staff interpret fear, self-defense, self-harm, communication, and “aggression.”

On June 22, April warned VADOC directly that Austin is being managed with medication, OC spray, and isolation instead of care. She said he is receiving “absolutely no program,” “absolutely no conversation,” “absolute isolation,” and “absolute nothing else.” She said her son has been in isolation for almost eight years and “cannot take it anymore.”

Step 1 — Call VADOC, ADA, Mental Health / Medical, OSIG, and the Governor

Call during business hours if possible. If you reach voicemail, leave a message. Be firm, brief, and repeat the four demands: property, phone access, outside evaluation, Greensville SAM pod.

Call Script

Step 2 — Email Officials

Use this email to put VADOC, ADA, Health Services, OSIG, the Governor, and selected legislative pressure targets on written notice. Edit it if you can, then send.

Step 3 — Show Up With April

Step 4 — Donate to Support the Vigil

Step 5 — What Actions Did You Take?

This form helps UPROAR track how many calls, emails, clemency letters, donations, and in-person support actions are going in so we can coordinate follow-up. You can submit anonymously.

Additional Step — Support Austin’s Clemency Petition