Virginia Prison Director Tells Self-Immolating Prisoners to ‘Behave’

This afternoon, the head of Virginia’s Department of Corrections dismissed complaints about inhumane conditions at Red Onion State Prison— and instead told lawmakers that prisoners who intentionally burned themselves had misbehaved and were manipulative. 

On Monday, the Virginia House Public Safety Committee held a hearing on several incidents of self-harm that have occurred at Red Onion, a supermax prison in rural Western Virginia. In October, the independent news outlet Prison Radio broke the story that men at Red Onion were so desperate to be transferred that they had burned themselves. During today’s meeting, Virginia Department of Corrections Director Chad Dotson confirmed that six Red Onion prisoners scorched parts of their bodies between March and October “because they wanted to get away from Red Onion.” 

“There are no conditions that they’re truly protesting, other than being up in the mountains and away from their family and friends and it being harder for them to manipulate staff and harder for them to smuggle in contraband,” Dotson told legislators. “Those are the only conditions that are present down there.”

Dotson said that if prisoners want to be transferred out of Red Onion, they should “behave.” 

“You can misbehave and try to force it like we saw with these others,” he said. “Or you can behave, and we’ll get you there. It’s a pathway to leaving Red Onion.”

Dotson spent most of his remarks characterizing the prisoners at Red Onion as dangerous men who are serving time for violent offenses and have repeatedly broken prison rules. He said he had previously invited legislators to visit and reiterated that invitation. 

“Inmates who don’t like repercussions for their bad behavior are going to continue to complain about Red Onion,” Dotson said.

Prisoners, civil rights attorneys, and human rights advocates have long condemned the prison’s inhumane conditions, which have been the subject of numerous lawsuits. A 2018 legal complaint said that one man kept in solitary for more than 12 years hallucinated and spoke with his dead parents. In another case, a man isolated for over 600 days allegedly began to speak in numbers, lost more than 30 pounds, and signed his name with a series of random letters. The DOC settled both lawsuits. Last year, several prisoners at Red Onion launched a hunger strike.

In November, The Virginia Defender, which has reported on the recent incidents of self-harm, held an event about Red Onion and shared prepared statements from men at the prison.

“I did actually set my foot on fire,” said one man who burned himself. “I got the charge that shows it. They came to my cell door, and they saw the flames on the side of my leg. They took me to medical. They assessed me right there that night and told me they don’t deal with burns, and that they would have to talk to the nurse practitioner, and that I would have to be taken off the mountain.”

He said he burned himself on a Friday but was not taken to the hospital until Monday, where he stayed for two weeks. 

“After 14 days, I was sent back to Red Onion State Prison,” he said. “Everything is still the same—stuck me in the hole.”

Dotson’s testimony today did not seem to sway some state lawmakers. Early in the meeting, Public Safety Committee Chair Marcus Simon confirmed that the state’s newly appointed Corrections Ombudsperson would launch an investigation into Red Onion.

Likewise, Delegate Holly Seibold said she visited the prison earlier this year and noted that people in solitary confinement do not have access to programming. (Dotson denied that VADOC subjects anyone to solitary confinement.) 

“One of the things that seem to be a common theme in my visit, and from what I’m hearing today, is that if you behave, you should be released from Red Onion,” she said at the hearing. “It’s hard for me to believe that people in these conditions can learn to, quote-unquote, behave. They’re being locked 20 hours a day, and then their only rec time is in another cage—if they have that. And we’ve heard stories where they’re not even receiving that much.”

During the meeting’s public comment period, one woman told lawmakers that employees at Red Onion had held her loved one in solitary confinement for more than 20 days. During one phone call, she said she heard staff beating a prisoner with mental illness. She said she was nervous to speak because of retaliation.

“I overheard officers beating another individual, his screams echoing in the background as pepper spray went under my loved one’s cell door, leaving him choking and struggling to breathe,” she said. “This is only one example of the abuse he and others face daily.”

She said the facility forces men into “harsh, degrading, and inhumane conditions.” Another person told lawmakers that when her son was at Red Onion, he twice attempted suicide. The woman said her family member lost 40 pounds in two months and was given “ghost trays,” which are meal trays that contain no food. 

“The guards think it’s funny to see my son starving behind a door,” she said.