Demand Your Legislators Vote NO on Joseph Walters’ Confirmation as VADOC Director
By: UPROAR Admin · January 27, 2026Demand Your Legislators Vote NO on Joseph Walters’ Confirmation as VADOC Director!!!
Use the one-click ActionNetwork letter tool
This is the fastest way to generate immediate volume and keep a public record of opposition.
After you send it… do the two extra steps below
- Email + call your own Delegate and Senator (direct constituent contact is the hardest pressure to ignore).
- Report what you did so UPROAR can track which offices are responding and which are stonewalling.
Look up your Delegate + Senator
We use Virginia’s official lookup for accuracy. Click the button, enter your address, and copy your Delegate/Senator phone + email.
What to do here:
1) Enter your address and open your results.
2) Copy your Delegate email and your Senator email (or their contact page email).
Next: In Step 3, click Open Email Draft. Your email app will open pre-filled.
Then paste your Delegate + Senator emails into the To: line (comma-separated) and send.
Tip: Paste both addresses into To: separated by a comma. The email draft already includes uproar1966@proton.me as BCC.
Send a one-click email (opens your email app)
Click the button below. Your email app will open with the subject, body, and BCC already filled. Then paste your Delegate and Senator emails into the To: field and press send.
After it opens: Paste your Delegate + Senator emails into To: (comma-separated).
BCC is prefilled to: uproar1966@proton.me
Subject: Vote NO on Joseph Walters’ Confirmation as VADOC Director
Dear [Delegate/Senator LAST NAME],
I am a Virginia constituent in [CITY/TOWN]. I am urging you to vote NO on Joseph Walters’ confirmation as Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Walters has been in the background during the past year of crisis in Virginia’s prisons—self-immolations and extreme conditions at Red Onion, violent suppression of dissent across the Western Region, and repeated reports of retaliation, information blackouts, and cover-ups.
Families and advocates have sent legislators thousands of emails detailing abuses and the failure of accountability. Virginia taxpayers have paid at least $5 million in settlements between 2021 and 2024 (not including 2025). Confirming Walters signals continuity: the same culture of abuse and denial with a different title.
Please vote NO on confirmation and publicly state your opposition.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[ADDRESS or ZIP]
[PHONE – optional]
Call script (copy-ready)
Call your Delegate and your Senator. Leave a voicemail if needed.
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [CITY/TOWN], Virginia.
I’m calling to urge [Delegate/Senator LAST NAME] to vote NO on Joseph Walters’ confirmation as Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Walters has been in the leadership and oversight chain during a year of escalating crisis in Virginia’s prisons—self-immolations and extreme conditions at Red Onion, violent suppression of dissent across the Western Region, and repeated reports of retaliation and cover-ups.
Families and advocates have been emailing legislators for months. Virginia taxpayers have paid at least $5 million in settlements between 2021 and 2024—not including 2025. Confirming Walters signals “new boss, same plantation”: continued abuse and continued denial.
I’m asking the [Delegate/Senator] to oppose confirmation and to publicly state that opposition.
Can you tell me: will the [Delegate/Senator] vote NO?
Thank you.
If staff push back, repeat: “I’m asking for a NO vote and a public statement opposing confirmation.”
✅ Let UPROAR know what you did
“As long as you struggle against abusive government individually, you have no power to affect them or their image. But brought together into a group united with other loved ones of imprisoned people… you have the power to make and take away the careers of those in power by exposing and challenging them publicly.”
— Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, A Call to Organize a Prisoner Support Network (2024)
UPROAR tracks collective action so we can escalate when necessary, identify which offices are ignoring complaints, and build a record for future legal and legislative work. Reporting what you did—anonymously if you wish—helps us plan the next steps.
Briefly note which steps you took (ActionNetwork letter, calls, emails), who you reached, and anything you were told.
📰 Read & share: The Fire Inside (UPROAR Newsletter #1)
Get the timeline, the pattern, and the organizing logic: how the grievance machine turns lived violence into paperwork that goes nowhere— and why collective action is the only way to force officials to respond.
✊ Join UPROAR as an organizer
UPROAR is a union of prisoners’ loved ones and supporters building organized pressure—not one-off outrage. If you want to help coordinate actions, outreach, testimony, and documentation, join as a member.
Questions: uproar1966@proton.me
🔗 More UPROAR updates & campaigns
- 🧾 When “Oversight” Calls Self-Immolations “Not a Crisis”: Senator Marsden & Dependent Oversight
- ⚙️ Joseph Walters & the Grievance Machine at Red Onion
- 📰 The Fire Inside – UPROAR Newsletter #1 (site post)
- 🔥 Protect Maceo Peoples – Self-Immolation, Suicide Attempts, and Western Region “Treatment”
- 🛡️ Witness at Risk: Kenneth Evans & Western Region Deaths in Custody
- 🛡️ Protect Ekong Eshiet – End Retaliation & Domestic Exile
- 🛑 Protect Kevin “Rashid” Johnson – Stop Transfers, Isolation & Medical Neglect
- ⚡ Protect William Tanner – End “Safety Agreement” Retaliation at Red Onion
- 💻 Red Onion Kiosk Outage (C-1) – Power & Communication as Collective Punishment
📬 Get UPROAR campaign alerts
Join our list for short emails with concrete actions. We email when there is something you can do.
After you submit, check your inbox for a confirmation link. Questions: uproar1966@proton.me.
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