Calling for immediate action to prevent self-harm and to protect the human rights of incarcerated inmates within the walls of the Red Onion State Supermax Prison.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) condemned what it called degrading and inhumane conditions leading to acts of self-immolation by as many as 12 Black men since mid-September. Self-immolation or self-inflicted burn is defined as “the action of setting fire to oneself, especially as a form of protest or sacrifice.”
The caucus and activists alleged systemic abuse, neglect, and insufferable human rights violations, which has drawn additional scrutiny to the entire American prison system. Activists and inmate advocates sounded the alarm which is shedding light on what prisoners say they endure at the facility.
Incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, first brought attention to the issue of self-harm inside Red Onion State Prison through the nonprofit Prison Radio organization, whose stated mission is “to include the voices of incarcerated people in the public debate.”
Mr. Johnson told Prison Radio of burn victim, Mr. Ekong Eshiet, and his alleged motivation for going to such an extreme in protest of what he described as inhumane prison conditions. Prison Radio later released an audio recording of Mr. Eshiet and once the story went public, Johnson was placed into solitary confinement, according to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news outlet.
“I’ve been in fear for my life, for even going back to the yard, because at the end of the day, I’m not gonna let these people do anything to me,” Ekong Eshiet said on the Prison Radio recording.
He shared he had five years remaining on his sentence and shared “They put their hands on me I’m gonna defend myself, but I’m not trying to get no more time, and I’m not trying to let these people kill me, y’know I mean, trying to say I was resisting or something.
Trying to find a reason to just put their hands on me, especially while I’m in handcuffs, [unintelligible] I can’t even defend myself. So, that’s my reasons for being on the hunger strike,” he said.
“I’m trying to get up off this. I’m doing my best, like I’m going about this the right way, I guess, like with the hunger strike way. But if I have to, I don’t mind setting myself on fire again.
This time, I would set my whole body on fire before I have to stay up here and do the rest of my time up here, I would rather die before I stay up here, because every day I’m dealing with discrimination, whether it’s behind my race, my last name, or my religion,” Mr. Eshiet, a Muslim, continued.
Although it took multiple cases of radical self-harm to expose and bring national attention to what is happening at Red Onion State Prison and the increasing number of inmates languishing within correctional facilities across the country, Dr. Melina Abdullah, of the Los Angeles-based.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots, and former vice-presidential running mate with Dr. Cornel West’s Independent bid for the 2024 presidential election, told The Final Call that the American prison system is inherently flawed because of the profit motives behind what she described as a modern form of slavery.
“The Prison-Industrial-Complex is absolutely built to fortify White supremacist capitalism, it is used to feed White supremacist capitalist interests and imprisons people who are disproportionately Black,” Dr. Abdullah noted.
“We make up more than 40 percent of those who are caged. Black people feed that system as exploited labor, as exploited consumers, and as commodities, so it’s an extension of the dehumanization of that which we experienced under chattel slavery.”
A Nov. 26 news release from VLBC addressed other disturbing allegations at Red Onion State Prison. “People who have been incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison describe being regularly subjected to racial and physical abuse from correctional officers.
Medical neglect including the withholding of medicine, excessive stays in solitary confinement with one report of 600 consecutive days, inedible food having been covered in maggots and officers’ spit, and violent dog attacks,” the news release said in part.
“It is extremely concerning that there have been reports of increased abuse, harassment and intimidation after inmates have spoken publicly about their living conditions.
This is not only a clear violation of human rights standards, it is a violation of our commitment to human dignity and any principles of morality by which civilized society purports to abide,” their statement continued.
In response to the group of 32 Black Virginia General Assembly members who called for an independent investigation into conditions within the Red Onion State Prison, and other correctional facilities throughout the state, Chad Dotson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC), disputed reports of self-immolation as exaggerated, in a statement released November 27, according to a WRIC Richmond ABC 8 News report.
“The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) has, on numerous occasions, invited all legislators to visit Red Onion State Prison (or any other VADOC facility) to personally observe facility operations and conditions, and to speak with inmates and staff,” the news channel reported of Mr. Dotson’s response.
“The recent round of stories about Red Onion are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to try to score cheap political points by advocacy groups who pursue prison abolition and policies that would make Virginians less safe.”
The ABC News 8 story added that VADOC extended an invitation to state legislators to visit Red Onion State Prison, and other prisons under its jurisdiction, to observe their operations and how their facilities are run.
However, according to TheGuardian.com, VADOC acknowledged that six men suffered injuries from burning themselves, while other reports said 12 men were injured, leaving more questions than answers.
“I do think that part of the investigation is to understand how they’ve happened and why they’ve happened,” Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin said. “We have been in conversations with the department of corrections about these circumstances.”
Red Onion State Prison is a supermax state prison in Wise County, Virginia and according to the 2023 VADOC Monthly Population Summary, housed 713 inmates. Organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have raised concerns over the years about conditions at the prison in part due to the facility’s high rates of placing inmates in solitary confinement.
The uphill road of service
The conditions of America’s prisons and the abuse of inmates is an issue the Nation of Islam Prison Reform Ministry has highlighted over the years. For example, in 2005 the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad called the Million Family March.
“Million Family March, The National Agenda: Public Policy Issues, Analyses, And Programming Plan of Action,” was produced from that gathering. In the chapter, “Prison Reform,” on page 39 it states, “Too often we allow our incarcerated sisters and brothers to be forgotten and disconnected from the community.” The National Agenda recommended in part:
• Provide incarcerated persons with an avenue for community participation and support
• Prevent incarcerated inmates from being abused or lost in the system, as a result of their own actions or as a result of government
• Monitor the general treatment and parole status of those incarcerated from our communities
Student Minister Abdullah Muhammad is the National Prison Reform Minister for the Nation of Islam and has served in that position since 1990. He works to serve inmates who desire to study and follow the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad as taught by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
He told The Final Call that he feels that a part of a fulfillment of scripture is exposing the fundamental flaws behind America’s once great and powerful façade as the gap between the rhetoric and application of justice continues to widen.
He said there are many issues he has heard regarding the continued problems inmates endure behind bars across the country ranging from gross medical negligence to a callous disregard for those suffering behind bars.
“There is no justice in the criminal justice system period,” Student Min. Abdullah Muhammad explained. “In a righteous world, if somebody is guilty, you judge them and punish them as being guilty, you don’t offer them a plea bargain (for lack of money to mount a defense).
How is that justice?” He then quoted from Isaiah 42:22 which states: “But this is a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared in holes, And they are hidden in prison houses; They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!’”—Isaiah 42:22, (AKJV)
Student Minister Jerry L. Muhammad, of Mosque No. 57 in Norfolk, Virginia, serves in the Nation of Islam Prison Reform Ministry in that state and is a chaplain in Richmond. He told The Final Call that it’s been at least two years since he visited the Red Onion State Prison. He stated there are several challenges associated with outreach to supermax prisons such as Red Onion to be able to serve and minister to inmates.
“A supermax prison is where they have very little contact, as far as outside contacts, they’re mainly there for long prison times, usually 20- or 30-year sentences and it’s hard for us to have religious services because usually they want us to do individual instead of mingling in a group setting,” Student Min. Jerry Muhammad said.
“In a maximum-security facility, they do have chaplains in a chapel, where we can go in as groups and offer our services. To the point of Red Onion, it’s harder for us to come in because it’s far away, and ever since COVID, by them being so isolated, a lot of the alleged treatment goes on unattended, that much I do know from the letters I receive,” he explained.
“It’s taxing mental health-wise, it’s very taxing, and for the families that receive letters from them, especially those in solitary confinement,” he noted, adding that harsh prison sentences affect not only the individual inmate, but also entire families, neighborhoods, and communities.