Virginia’s two supermax prisons—Red Onion and Wallens Ridge—are in a documented state of emergency. Since Fall 2024, at least six men have set themselves on fire, including multiple incidents in May alone. Others have engaged in extreme acts of self-harm: cutting open their own arms, swallowing razor blades, or attempting suicide by electrocution and starvation. These desperate acts continue even after the Department of Corrections introduced a coercive so-called “Safety Agreement” program earlier this spring—offering fish fries and snacks to prisoners who signed a promise not to harm themselves. Instead of investing in real psychiatric care or ending the conditions that cause these crises, VADOC has weaponized these agreements to isolate, silence, and punish whistleblowers.

Retaliation has intensified. Prisoners who report abuse or attempt to file grievances are now being threatened with violence and administrative charges. In May, Warden David Anderson issued a formal memorandum authorizing the use of force—including live rounds—against anyone who steps outside of painted red lines during pod activity, including to reach the grievance box. This is a direct attack on the right to report abuse, dressed up as a “compliance policy.” [View Memo PDF]

Reports have also surfaced that an incarcerated man was killed by guards at Wallens Ridge during the first week of June, though the Department has not confirmed or commented. Witnesses report increasingly violent beatings, including assaults on compliant prisoners in full restraints. Others are being left naked in cold, feces-covered cells without showers, food, or medical treatment. In some pods like C1 at Red Onion, broken kiosks and externally controlled power outlets mean incarcerated people cannot contact families, attorneys, or advocates, leaving them completely silenced.

Medical neglect remains rampant: infected burns, broken bones, and chronic illnesses like MRSA, h.pylori, and scabies are left untreated. One man reported a respiratory infection worsening while on suicide watch; another was denied antibiotics after slicing his own arm open. LGBTQ+ and disabled prisoners have been especially targeted, subjected to strip searches, sexual humiliation, or abandonment in isolation without access to hygiene, mobility devices, or communication.

This is not just individual cruelty—it is a coordinated campaign of repression. Whistleblowers like Kevin “Rashid” Johnson and Ekong Eshiet have been secretly transferred out of state under the Interstate Corrections Compact, stripped of their belongings, placed in long-term solitary, and cut off from oversight investigators. Others, like Donell Hickman and Randy Lassiter, remain inside, facing starvation, beatings, and medical collapse. Officials have falsified suicide-watch logs, fabricated charges, and ignored even “founded” grievances—ensuring zero accountability.

These are crimes—coordinated, ongoing, and systemic. We demand full investigation, immediate medical care, reversal of retaliatory transfers, and an end to the policies that threaten, isolate, and torture incarcerated people who dare to speak out.