The brutality of the system of incarceration in the United States has been put on full display with recent incidents at a state prison in Virginia. Several inmates have resorted to inflicting severe injuries on themselves in order to draw attention to systematic human rights abuses at the hands of prison guards. In recent years, there have been several documented cases of prisoners at the Red Onion State Prison in Virginia setting themselves on fire to force a transfer out of the prison.
These prisoners join a wave of incarcerated people organizing for better conditions behind bars, especially in the Deep South, where the histories of slavery and the present reality of mass incarceration intersect. Incarcerated organizers in Alabama, for example, have for several years organized shut downs of forced labor throughout the state, most recently this year, accusing the state of upholding modern day slavery. These organizers have been refusing to engage in forced prison labor.
There is a long history in the US of prisoners utilizing whatever means at their disposal to resist inhumane conditions. In 1951 at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, which was built on the grounds of a former slaver plantation and which still practices what critics call a form of legalized slavery, 55 prisoners, now known as the “Heel String Gang,” cut their own Achilles tendons in protest of brutal conditions, including the rampant use of corporal punishment.
Since opening in 1998, Red Onion has been the subject of concern by both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch over concerns over human rights violations. Critics of the prison have also cited Red Onion’s extremely high rates of solitary confinement, a form of imprisonment that has been labeled as torture by the United Nations.
Prisoners take extreme measures to highlight extreme conditions
Since 2022, several Black prisoners in Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison have set themselves on fire. On May 25, 2022, DeAndre Gordon deliberately started a fire that resulted in third-degree burns to his leg.
“I didn’t know any other way that I could get out of their custody besides to set myself on fire,” said Gordon in an interview with Radio IQ. Gordon reportedly feared for his life after being beaten by prison guards, and inflicting injury on himself was his plan to be transferred from Red Onion. “Because they don’t have a burn center in Southwest Virginia, I knew that I would be going to Richmond.”
Gordon was indeed transferred, but not before being threatened once again by Red Onion guards. According to Gordon, an officer told him before he left: “‘Yeah that was real clever of you. You’re going to the doctor to get your booboo fixed, but when you get back, I’m going to see you,’ and he’s smiling at me‚ shaking his head—like he’s really dangerous.”
On August 23 of this year, Red Onion inmate Demetrius Wallace claims to have purposely set fire to his foot in order to transfer out of the prison.
“I did actually set my foot on fire,” Wallace told The Virginia Defender. When asked why he had set himself on fire, Wallace cited intimidation and threats by guards: “I got a lawsuit in because I was assaulted and sprayed by the COs twice while I was handcuffed. So as soon as I filed the lawsuit, they started retaliation. They denied my fiance access to the prison, for no reason; you had COs and a lieutenant looking at her Facebook; they messaged her… She has screenshots.”
According to Wallace, there are several other inmates who have turned to self-immolation to get out of Red Onion. “I was in medical, and I witnessed five other offenders who came back there. They had burned their legs or arms. There are still two or three there now,” Wallace said on November 1.
On September 15, two other Black prisoners, Ekong Eshiet and Tre’vaughn Brown, also set themselves on fire within the prison’s solitary confinement unit. “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,” Eshiet said in an interview with Prison Radio. Eshiet’s mother and sister report extensive abuse by prison guards against Eshiet, including racial slurs and severe brutality including rubbing pepper spray directly into his burn wounds. Eshiet has since launched a hunger strike, demanding to be removed from Red Onion.
These incidents have prompted Virginia’s Black Legislative Caucus to call for prison reform and for “all members of the legislature, press and public to unite in solidarity with incarcerated individuals and their families against inhumane conditions in Virginia’s prisons, including Red Onion State Prison, until Governor Youngkin and his administration awaken their humanity.”
VDOC issues denial
Despite these direct testimonies from prisoners themselves, on November 27 the Virginia Department of Corrections denied that any of the inmates had self-immolated at all.
“In recent months, six inmates at Red Onion State Prison have burned themselves using improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets,” said Chad Dotson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC). “To be clear, these inmates did not set themselves on fire or self-immolate, as some reports have ludicrously suggested.”
“All six inmates have been referred to mental health staff for treatment, and it should be noted that several of these inmates have a history of engaging in self-harm,” Dotson said. “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.”
On October 25, reporter Phil Wilayto spoke with the warden of Red Onion, David Anderson. When asked about reports that as many as a dozen prisoners had set themselves on fire, Anderson said, “no, it’s not true,” later admitting that “I really shouldn’t be commenting on this.” Despite later forwarding several additional questions to Red Onion, Wilayto has thus far received no response.
The state of Virginia has now confirmed that six prisoners at Red Onion had set themselves on fire, with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin perpetuating the narrative that the prisoners were merely engaging in a form of self-harm. “We don’t want to see inmates in our correctional system harmed. In some circumstances self-harm is a difficult thing to combat sometimes, when it’s perpetrated in a way that is part of the basic infrastructure of the facility,” Youngkin said.
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