Several incarcerated people in Virginia’s high-security Red Onion state prison have intentionally burned themselves in a protest against harsh conditions at the facility.
A written statement from Virginia’s department of corrections acknowledged that men imprisoned there had harmed themselves, although the authorities confirmed six incidents while others reported that 12 men were injured.
“In recent months, six inmates at Red Onion state prison have burned themselves using improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets,” the director of Virginia’s department of corrections, Chad Dotson, said in a written statement.
Earlier this week, Virginia’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, also confirmed the protest and said there was an investigation into the injuries.
“I do think that part of the investigation is to understand how they’ve happened and why they’ve happened,” Youngkin said. “We have been in conversations with the department of corrections about these circumstances.”
Dotson added that some of those injured were treated for burns at the corrections department’s “secure medical facility”, while others “did not require outside medical treatment”. All six were referred to mental health staff “for treatment”, according to Dotson.
In his statement, he also said: “To be clear, these inmates did not set themselves on fire or self-immolate, as some reports have ludicrously suggested.”
Dotson also 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.”
Dotson’s announcement comes after reporting from the incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, who first drew attention to self-harm at the state facility in October through his work on Prison Radio, a non-profit activist organization.
Johnson reported that he had met an individual in September named Ekong Eshiet, who claimed to have returned from the hospital the day before after being treated for self-inflicted burns. On Prison Radio, Johnson said Eshiet had told him that “the racism and abuses, the hard and inhumane conditions at Red Onion, were so intolerable that he and others were setting themselves on fire in desperate attempts to be transferred away from the prison”.
About a week later, Prison Radio also released an audio recording from Ekong Eshiet himself, in which Eshiet talked about how he had started a hunger strike since returning from being treated for his burns. He said he was protesting “discrimination”, which he says he has to deal with every day at Red Onion.
“I’m going about this the right way, I guess, like with the hunger strike way,” Eshiet said. “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.”
According to reporting from Al Jazeera, Johnson, the incarcerated journalist, was put into solitary confinement in early November, shortly after he first drew attention to the self-harm.
Noelle Hanrahan, the founder of Prison Radio, said in an interview that she had spoken with Johnson’s attorney and been told that Johnson had been placed in solitary confinement.
Johnson’s initial reporting on Prison Radio mentioned that he heard of 12 men at Red Onion who had burned themselves, but Dotson has only acknowledged six.
“We are confident in the basis of this story; the numbers we are still drilling down,” Hanrahan said.
The Virginia Legislative Black caucus (VLBC) group of lawmakers released a statement on X condemning the conditions at Red Onion.
“The VLBC is horrified at recent reports of incarcerated individuals setting themselves on fire in response to the degrading and inhumane conditions at Red Onion state supermax prison in Wise county, Virginia,” the group wrote in its statement. “These acts of self-immolation are desperate cries for help.”
The caucus claimed in its statement: “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 group of lawmakers said “at least 12” Black men had burned themselves in protest.
A report from more than 20 years ago from Human Rights Watch said Red Onion “raises serious human rights concerns”.
In a written statement sent to the Guardian in response to the six burnings, the Virginia state senator Barbara Favola said that the department of corrections “must operate our prisons in a safe, humane and rehabilitative manner”.
“I encourage the governor to order an independent investigation of these allegations,” Favola said.
In his statement, Dotson said that on numerous occasions, the department of corrections had invited “all legislators” to visit Red Onion state prison.
“We have, in particular, sent personal invitations Tuesday to every member of the Virginia Legislative Black caucus in response to their statement,” Dotson said.
Miriam Nemeth, deputy litigation attorney at the Washington, DC-based advocacy group Rights Behind Bars, has been representing Johnson, who first wrote about the protest from prison, and she also told the Guardian that he had been put into solitary confinement on 4 November.
She accused the prison of enacting “unending retaliation” against Johnson “for his efforts to speak out”. Nemeth said she was not currently able to speak to Johnson and she had been told by the authorities that he had been put in isolation for his own safety after a threat against him.
The Guardian requested comment from the Virginia department of corrections on this aspect of Johnson’s situation, but did not receive a response prior to publication.