1. Who Is Ekong?

• Name: Ekong Ben Eshiet Jr.
• Family: Son of Martha Pritchett and Ekong Eshiet Sr.; brother to Akon, Breon, Ben, and Aaliyah.
• Hometown: Danville, Virginia.
• Conviction and sentence:
  • Convicted for a broad daylight shooting in January 2018.
  • Sentenced to 12 years in prison after Judge Reynolds called him “one of the most dangerous people” he had ever met.
  • Ekong has said he did not like being labeled that way by someone who did not know his full life story, but he has accepted responsibility for his actions and has tried to change while incarcerated.
• Efforts at rehabilitation (before supermax transfers):
  • Repeatedly tried to get a prison job.
  • Waited about a year to get into a GED program.
  • Consistently requested mental and behavioral health treatment.
  • Was constantly told he was “on the waiting list.”
  • Asked to be placed on psychiatric medications and was denied until he went on suicide watch and a hunger strike in 2022.
  • After receiving medication, he requested placement in a mental-health housing pod with weekly therapy and programs; those requests were denied while his mental health deteriorated.
• Mental health status:
  • Describes himself as “seriously mentally ill.”
  • Reports trauma, night terrors, sleep paralysis, and intrusive sensations linked to past abuse and current conditions.
  • Instead of consistent therapy, he has been given heavy doses of medication while being warehoused in solitary.
  • Under VADOC policy, he understands that seriously mentally ill prisoners are not supposed to remain in segregation beyond short time limits (for example, 30 days), yet he has been kept in segregation for months at a time.
• Current location and status:
  • Virginia prisoner transferred out of state under the Interstate Corrections Compact (ICC).
  • VADOC retains legal custody; Indiana DOC (IDOC) is the “receiving state.”
  • Currently held at Westville Correctional Facility in Indiana.
  • Confined in long-term solitary confinement in a restrictive housing “control unit” under a “safekeeping” designation he never requested.
  • Has extremely limited out-of-cell time, very restricted property, and irregular phone access.

2. Why Did Ekong Set Himself on Fire? (In His Own Words)

Ekong is one of several Black prisoners who set themselves on fire at Red Onion State Prison in 2024. He has described the Virginia supermaxes as “prisoner torture warehouses” and “hell on earth,” run by “new Confederates.” He has been explicit about why he chose self-immolation:

1. Group protest against inhumane conditions:
   • He and several other men began self-immolating by setting themselves on fire because of the “inhumane conditions” they were experiencing.
   • Their primary goals were to escape “that prisoner torture warehouse” and to get protection and services for the trauma they had already endured at Red Onion State Prison.
   • He describes this as a desperate act to force the system to recognize that what was happening to them was torture, not “corrections.”
2. Personal reasons tied to denied mental health care and discrimination:
   • He repeatedly asked for mental and behavioral health treatment and for placement in a mental-health pod with weekly therapy and programs.
   • He was kept on waiting lists or simply denied, while staff increased his psychiatric medications to “eight or nine pills a day” without combining them with meaningful counseling.
   • At Red Onion, he describes ongoing discrimination and harassment because of his last name, religion (as a Muslim), and race.
   • Officers twisted and mocked his Nigerian surname on day one and continued even after he asked them to say it correctly.
   • He writes that he felt “hurt and neglected and received no help whatsoever” and that staff were basically telling him to “take [his] meds and shut up.”
3. “Back against the wall” desperation:
   • After repeated denials of treatment and daily racist harassment, he describes reaching a point where his “back was against the wall.”
   • He saw no path to mental-health care or safety inside Red Onion State Prison.
   • He decided he had to do something that would get him away from “hell on earth,” and he chose to burn himself.
   • He later stated that if he had to, he would set himself on fire again rather than spend the rest of his time in the same conditions, saying he would “rather die” than stay in that environment.

For Ekong, self-immolation is not a stunt or manipulation. It is a last-resort survival strategy rooted in denied medical care, racist abuse, and the belief that the system will not listen to anything short of self-destruction.

3. Core Patterns of Abuse and Medical Neglect

A. Wallens Ridge State Prison: Dog Attack and Untreated Puncture Wounds

• December 2023 altercation:
  • Ekong was involved in an altercation with another incarcerated person.
  • By the time staff responded to the distress call, both men were lying flat on their stomachs with their hands out, not actively fighting.
• Deployment of a dog on a prone prisoner:
  • Despite both men already being prone, staff unleashed a dog on Ekong.
  • The dog caused puncture wounds which, according to his mother, were treated only “in-house,” not at a hospital, even though they should have been.
• Medical neglect and lack of accountability:
  • The dog attack and inadequate medical care were never truly investigated or remedied.
  • This set an early pattern: racialized aggression, excessive force against a compliant prisoner, and inadequate medical care.

B. Red Onion State Prison: “Plantation” Conditions, Self-Immolation, and Medical Abuse

1. Property confiscation and early hunger strike

• Shortly after arriving at Red Onion (around June 2024), staff:
  • Accused him of taking a screw out of his media player, even though another officer had previously signed off that it was fine.
  • Confiscated the player, cutting off family contact.
  • Later took his television and other property, which were then “lost.”
• His mother reports:
  • They took his player and television.
  • They marked him as receiving food trays on hunger-strike days when he was not eating, falsifying tray logs.
• Facing property loss, falsified records, and abusive conditions, he initiated a hunger strike.

2. Group self-immolation and burn treatment

• Ekong and other prisoners decided there was no other way to be heard and set themselves on fire.
• His burns were serious enough to require emergency surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond.
• Before the surgery, Red Onion:
  • Left him in the prison medical unit for about three days after he burned himself.
  • Treated his injuries as a “little burn wound” and applied a cream that his mother reports made the wounds worse.
  • Failed to provide proper burn dressings and gauze because the prison did not have the correct materials.
• Only after three days of neglect did they transfer him for emergency surgery on September 18, 2024, a seven-hour drive from Red Onion.
• At the hospital:
  • His body went into distress; he could not urinate and was catheterized.
  • His family was not allowed to visit, despite being prepared to do so.
  • He was not allowed to call his family from the hospital, cutting off all contact during a life-threatening medical crisis.

3. Post-surgery isolation, religious deprivation, and threats

• Once back at Red Onion:
  • He was placed in an isolated medical cell with no privacy for prayer, making it impossible to properly perform his five daily prayers as a Muslim.
  • He was cut off from other prisoners and normal movement, allegedly because he was “causing” others to go on hunger strike.
• His mother reports:
  • A ranking official, Major Hall, threatened his life.
  • Staff began spitting in his food.
  • They interfered with his long-standing medications, leading to new hallucinations and disturbing sensations, including sexual side effects.
  • She fears he may have been poisoned and has demanded a blood test to find out what he is being given.

4. Hunger strikes, religious harassment, and severe beatings

• After surgery and return to Red Onion, he:
  • Engaged in a hunger strike to protest conditions and demand transfer out of Red Onion.
  • Was targeted daily by officers who used the hunger strike as a pretext for harassment.
• He reports:
  • Repeated cell searches where officers trashed his property, especially his religious items.
  • During one search, an officer threw his Qur’an on the floor. When he objected, he was told that if he did not like it, he should end his hunger strike.
  • When he refused an unreasonable cell move, a team of seven or eight officers came to his cell, sprayed him with mace (including on burn wounds), and shocked him with a shield more than five times, even after he stopped resisting.
  • He believed he would be beaten or killed if he continued the hunger strike and ended it out of fear of lethal retaliation.

5. Retaliatory out-of-state transfer and suicidal risk warnings

• After the self-immolations and hunger strikes, VADOC initiated an investigation. Ekong:
  • Spoke twice with Special Investigations Unit (SIU) agents.
  • Initially said he would consider going out of state only if he could not be placed at an in-state mental-health facility (for example, Greensville or Sussex).
• When he learned that Director Chadwick Dotson and Warden Anderson publicly claimed he had requested an out-of-state transfer, he:
  • Corrected the record with SIU.
  • Told them on camera that they were lying, that he no longer consented to an out-of-state transfer, and that if they forced him out of state anyway, he would kill himself.
  • Filed complaints documenting these warnings, so VADOC has written notice that an out-of-state transfer dramatically increases his suicide risk.
• Despite this, he was transferred hundreds of miles away to Indiana under the ICC. He understands this as retaliation for speaking out about racism, torture, and self-immolation at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge.

C. Indiana (Westville): Long-Term Solitary, Mental Health Neglect, and Hunger Strikes

1. Transfer to Indiana and placement in restrictive housing

• Under the ICC, he arrived in Indiana around April 2025.
• He spent several weeks in reception on “23-and-1” lockdown.
• He was told he would go to a mental-health unit (e.g. at New Castle) but instead:
  • On May 6, 2025, he was sent to Westville Correctional Facility and placed on “department-wide restrictive housing” – a long-term control unit.
• No one gave him a clear explanation; he was told it was “up to administration” how long he would be there.
• He was classified as “safekeeping” or protective custody, despite never requesting this in North Carolina, Virginia, or Indiana, and despite wanting to waive it and enter general population or a non-solitary protective unit.
• He notes that under Virginia policy, seriously mentally ill prisoners are not supposed to remain in segregation beyond short time limits; by June 9, 2025, he had already been in segregation in Indiana for more than 33 days and counting.

2. Hunger strike in June 2025

• On June 9, 2025, he announced a hunger strike from Westville, stating he had “no intention to eat or drink anything” until he was taken out of segregation.
• He said he would “rather die from thirst and starvation” than continue being held in the hole for no legitimate reason.
• He appealed to supporters to pressure both Virginia and Indiana DOCs to stop keeping him in segregation in violation of his mental-health status and ICC obligations.

3. Medical neglect during hunger strikes in Indiana

• During hunger strikes in late 2025, he reported:
  • Refusing multiple consecutive meals (e.g., seven trays) and his prescribed mental-health medications.
  • Staff failing to log his refusals and failing to initiate hunger-strike or medical protocols.
• He understood this as deliberate neglect of his life and health.
• He explicitly framed the situation as life-or-death, saying his only options were “to get out of the hole or to die.”

4. Sleep disturbances and trauma symptoms

• He describes severe nightmares, sleep paralysis, and intrusive bodily sensations, which he sometimes interprets through spiritual language but which clearly reflect extreme trauma.
• He links these sensations to past abuse and to medication changes at Red Onion that coincided with hallucinations and sexual-side-effect symptoms.
• Together with his mother’s concerns about medication tampering, this raises serious questions about poisoning, improper administration, and the absence of trauma-informed mental-health care.

4. Communication Suppression and Punishment for Speech

A central pattern in Ekong’s story is communication being cut off whenever he is effective in exposing abuse.

A. Red Onion: Devices and Hospital Calls Cut Off

• Staff confiscated his media player and later his television, directly reducing his communication and coping tools.
• Tray logs were falsified during hunger strikes while he was isolated in medical.
• At VCU after self-immolation:
  • His family was denied visitation.
  • He was not allowed to call his family from the hospital.

B. ICC Transfer and Retaliation for Speaking Out

• After self-immolation and surgery, he began speaking with reporters, Prison Radio, and advocates about:
  • Racism and torture at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge.
  • The self-immolations as protests against oppression.
• Once his testimony reached the public and others began self-immolating, Red Onion administrators moved to send him out of state.
• He later learned that Director Dotson and Warden Anderson told the public he had requested the out-of-state transfer, which he says is false.
• He told investigators, on camera, that he did not consent and that if they forced him out of state anyway, he would kill himself.
• He believes the out-of-state transfer was retaliation for his speech and for exposing burn incidents.

C. Westville: Phone and Tablet Cut Off for “Access to Social Media”

• After supporters posted recordings of his statements online:
  • His JPay tablet began showing that it was “unavailable to use,” and staff then confiscated it.
  • His phone privileges were cut off.
• When he asked why, an internal affairs or mental-health staffer told him:
  • The reason his phone and tablet were cut off was that he had done a recording that constituted “access to social media.”
  • She complained that people were calling the facility and described these calls as “threatening and intimidating,” even though supporters were simply demanding protection and accountability.
• Ekong emphasized:
  • In Virginia, he recorded commentaries with Prison Radio, which were publicly shared.
  • He does not operate social media accounts or have passwords; outside supporters post his audio.
  • Indiana officials are punishing him for other people’s use of their own platforms.
• His phone was off for weeks at a time with no clear charge or hearing. At one point, he counted 49 days since he spoke with internal affairs about the cutoffs and 55 days in the same control cell.
• Even mental-health staff told him he was not in the cell for mental-health reasons; it was the warden and internal affairs who had cut communications.

D. Social Media Pretext and First Amendment Concerns

• Recordings posted around November 2025 gained thousands of views and hundreds of likes; Indiana staff appear to be reacting to that visibility.
• He does not run social media; organizations like UPROAR and Prison Radio do.
• The state is effectively punishing him because outsiders are using their own speech to criticize conditions — a serious First Amendment and retaliation issue.

Documented actions & decision points (why this is happening)

• Indefinite “safekeeping” used as de facto solitary: He reports a non-voluntary “safekeeping” label is being used to justify long-term control-unit confinement rather than protection with programming.
• Communication restrictions tied to publicity: He reports phone/tablet shutdowns and confiscation after recordings circulate, with staff citing “social media” rather than any concrete disciplinary charge.
• Over-classification blocks programs: He reports being treated as RSU/Level 4 despite eligibility arguments tied to remaining time, and he filed a classification appeal.
• Mental health treated as surveillance + segregation: He reports severe symptoms but not the kind of regular therapy/programming he is requesting, and that conditions tighten around “mental health” interactions instead of improving care.
• ICC enables buck-passing: Indiana controls daily conditions while Virginia retains legal custody; both can evade responsibility unless pressured with a unified demand: end isolation/retaliation and provide treatment/programming or return him safely.

5. Oversight Failures: OSIG, SIU, and Senator Marsden

A. OSIG Interview in Indiana

• After his transfer, an OSIG representative from Virginia came to Westville to interview him about Red Onion and the burnings.
• He recalls this was around May or June 2025, and the interviewer’s first name was “Tony.”
• At the end of the interview, the OSIG rep asked, “Why did you really set yourself on fire?”
• Ekong understood this as implying that his already-stated reasons — racism, mental-health neglect, and torture — had “no credit.”

B. OSIG Report on Red Onion and Self-Immolation

• OSIG later produced a report on Red Onion and the wave of self-immolations.
• The report:
  • Acknowledged that some interviewees described the environment as racist, oppressive, harassing, and discriminatory, and that racism was a factor in self-immolation.
  • Nevertheless declared the allegations “unsubstantiated,” claiming that no one attributed a rights violation as a contributing factor.
• This language admits racism and oppression but strips out “violations of rights” as a recognized cause, minimizing and erasing the legal significance of what people like Ekong did.

C. SIU and the Manipulated Narrative About the ICC Transfer

• Ekong spoke twice with VADOC’s SIU:
  • Initially saying he would consider going out of state only if no appropriate in-state mental-health placement was possible.
  • Later telling SIU that Director Dotson and Warden Anderson lied when they said he requested an out-of-state transfer.
  • Stating, on camera and in complaints, that if they sent him away anyway, he would kill himself.
• He was nevertheless transferred to Indiana, and VADOC and IDOC now point to the ICC as though it were a neutral administrative choice rather than retaliation against a whistleblower.

D. Senator Dave Marsden’s Minimization

• In January 2026, UPROAR met with Senator Dave Marsden, who chairs key corrections and oversight committees.
• Marsden:
  • Suggested he did not believe the self-immolations reflected a real crisis.
  • Claimed people had been “manipulated” into setting themselves on fire.
  • Referred to incarcerated people as liars and dismissed their testimony.
  • Mentioned Ekong by name and complained that he “would not shut up on the phone.”
• For Ekong, this confirms that both DOC leadership and legislative oversight are more concerned with protecting the system’s image than confronting torture and suicidal desperation.

6. Current Conditions and Risk

• As of January 2026, Ekong:
  • Is held in long-term solitary at Westville under a “safekeeping” designation he did not request.
  • Is still dealing with post-burn pain, unresolved medical issues, and fears about medication tampering.
  • Experiences severe mental-health symptoms (nightmares, trauma responses, intrusive sensations) without adequate therapy.
• His communication:
  • Phone access has been intermittently restored but remains fragile and subject to sudden removal.
  • Tablet access remains tightly restricted, limiting electronic communication and access to religious and educational materials.
• In his own words:
  • Being held in the hole is destroying his mental health.
  • He frames his situation as “death before dishonor” and says his only options are to get out of the hole or die.
• Both Virginia and Indiana are on notice about his suicide risk, the origins of his self-harm, and the retaliation he is facing for speaking out.

7. Core Demands (Updated and Expanded)

1. End Long-Term Solitary and “Safekeeping” Warehousing
   • Immediately remove Ekong from long-term restrictive housing at Westville.
   • Either:
     • Return him to Virginia and place him in a mental-health or step-down pod with full programming, or
     • Place him in an appropriate mental-health treatment unit in Indiana with daily out-of-cell time, group and individual therapy, and rehabilitative programs.
   • Ensure that any housing designation (protective custody, safekeeping, etc.) is voluntary where possible, time-limited, reviewable, and supported by written reasons.
2. Mental Health Evaluation and Trauma-Informed Care
   • Conduct a comprehensive, independent mental-health evaluation by clinicians not employed by VADOC or IDOC.
   • Provide ongoing, trauma-informed therapy and appropriate medication management.
   • Prohibit long-term segregation for seriously mentally ill prisoners and require regular mental-health review of all segregation placements with outside oversight.
3. Investigate Medical Neglect and Possible Medication Tampering
   • Fully investigate:
     • The dog attack at Wallens Ridge and failure to hospitalize him for puncture wounds.
     • The three-day delay in burn treatment at Red Onion, use of harmful creams, and lack of proper burn dressings.
     • The decision to deprive him and his family of phone access while he was hospitalized at VCU.
     • Medication changes at Red Onion that coincided with hallucinations and sexual-side-effect symptoms.
   • Provide:
     • A full toxicology and blood workup to rule out poisoning or improper medication administration.
     • An independent review of his medical records from Wallens Ridge, Red Onion, and Westville.
4. Stop Communication Suppression and Retaliation for Speech
   • Restore and protect his phone and tablet access consistent with standard policy for his security level.
   • End restrictions based on recordings being shared by outside organizations.
   • Confirm in writing that:
     • He is free to speak with media, advocates, and organizations about conditions.
     • Outside recording and publication of his calls cannot be used as a pretext to discipline him or cut off communication.
   • Provide clear written notice of any future restrictions, with a documented appeal process and the ability to involve counsel.
5. Address Racist Violence and Religious Targeting
   • Investigate:
     • The dog attack at Wallens Ridge.
     • The throwing of his Qur’an and other attacks on his religious practice.
     • Racist harassment tied to his name, religion, and race at Red Onion.
   • Guarantee:
     • Access to his Qur’an and other religious materials.
     • A clean and private prayer environment (not forcing him to pray next to an uncovered toilet and shower).
     • Protection from staff who have threatened him or tampered with his food and medications.
6. Reopen the Self-Immolation Investigation with Real Oversight
   • Require OSIG and other oversight bodies to:
     • Re-interview Ekong and other self-immolation survivors with trauma-informed practices and, if requested, advocates present.
     • Explicitly acknowledge how racism and denial of rights contributed to self-immolation protests.
     • Correct the public record that labels the self-immolation claims as “unsubstantiated” despite admitting to a racist, oppressive environment.
7. ICC Compliance and Return to Virginia Under Safe Conditions
   • Enforce ICC requirements that he receive at least the same legal protections he would have in Virginia.
   • Stop using ICC to disappear prisoners who expose abuse.
   • Either:
     • Transfer him back to Virginia under a binding plan for non-segregated, mental-health-focused placement, or
     • Place him in an equivalent therapeutic setting in Indiana, with Virginia still accountable for his welfare and oversight.