The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus says it’s horrified by recent reports on inmates burning themselves in response to what it calls degrading and inhumane conditions at Red Onion Prison in Wise County. The group claims 12 prisoners have done that. The Department of Corrections has confirmed just five cases.
Among them, 27-year-old Demetrius Wallace who says he got into an argument with guards, was handcuffed, shackled, beaten and sprayed with a chemical irritant:
“The female sergeant is smaller than everybody else here," he explains. "She didn’t know if I was going to spit on her, so she sprayed me.”
Initially, he was placed in solitary confinement, and when he was sent back to his cell, he found others had been there before him.
“My TV is broken, and I’m missing most of my property," he recalls.
Feeling desperate, he told RadioIQ that he stuck a wire into a power outlet. It caught fire, and he held the flame to his sock.
“I know it sounds dumb to harm yourself, but I just felt so overwhelmed that I set the top of my left food on fire, so I end up going to the hospital for two weeks -- getting two surgeries.”
He had hoped his action might trigger an investigation, but he noted just one change at the prison.
“They turned everybody’s power off," he says.
Wallace, who was sentence to twelve years for armed robbery, says he’s now been in solitary confinement for five months. He’s suing the department of corrections and has refused efforts to dissuade him.
“They try come and give you a transfer or give you a job or give you some commissary to let it go, but I told them I’m not letting it go.”
He claims to have been on a hunger strike for 12 days, and once he began eating again, he contends officers spit tobacco juice on his food or delivered a tray bearing nothing more than peanut butter.
We asked the Department of Corrections for comment but have not yet received a response. The state did recently hire an ombudsman to handle complaints about state prisons, but there has been no official announcement, and it’s not clear whether she is ready to investigate reports.
