History of Abuse at Red Onion State Prison Human Rights Watch Summary of violations at Red Onion State Prison

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/redonion/ A flurry of activism followed the summer, 2000 death of electro-shocked prisoner Lawrence Frazier at Wallens Ridge State Prison. Wallens Ridge is one of two super maximum facilities in western Virginia. One prisoner who has done time in both Wallens Ridge and the nearby, Red Onion State Prison, has carefully documented that while the activism has died down, the racist abuse and torture of prisoners in these secretive facilities continues. Kevin (Rashid) Johnson, currently an inmate at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP), documented in a recent expose (released on October 31 of 2004 and supplemented on January 1 2005), numerous incidences of Correctional Officers beating restrained prisoners; and using tear gas, electrical stun weapons, and five-point ambulatory restraints to punish prisoners who do not, Rashid writes, show appropriate deference and submission to guards. The expose details denial of meals, confiscation of mails, and Correctional Officers enabling the suicide of prisoners. According to inmates, the officials of Red Onion State are failing to let prisoners file the standard grievance process leaving little evidence of abuse and obstructing any further litigation. Rashids complaints are not new. Investigations of cruel and unusual punishment, including torture, have dogged ROSP and its sister supermax facility Wallens Ridge State Prison (WRSP) since the prisons were opened in 1998 (ROSP) and 1999 (WRSP). These prisons have been the target of a 1999 Human Rights Watch report (Red Onion State Prison: SuperMaximum Security Confinement in Virginia), letter-writing campaigns by Amnesty International in 1999 and 2000, and a 2000 investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (under the Civil Rights of

Institutionalized Persons Act). Following the intensive struggle for changes in ROSP and WRSP, Ron Angelone, Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, resigned on May 9, 2002. The states of New Mexico and Connecticut, and the District of Colombia recalled the state and district prisoners they had bought cells for in WRSP. These and other changes seemed to indicate progress in Virginias compliance with Constitutional and international conventions on protection of human rights. However, the Commonwealth failed to implement any of the recommendations made by Human Rights Watch in 1999, and reports of excessive force and brutality continue to pour from the prison. Rashid sent his expos, Racism and Brutality Equal Kind and Usual Punishment in Virginia, to Governor Mark Warner on 31 October, 2004. The Governor routed the document to Sgt. D. Tate at ROSP. According to Rashid, Sgt. Tate is both the ROSP investigator and a supervisor in the super-segregation unit he has himself been involved in various prior abuses of prisoners, myself included. In fact, Tate is named frequently in Rashids expos and proceeded to find himself not guilty of any allegations. Prisoners must be treated with respect for their dignity as human beings and for their fundamental rights, whatever their crimes. Since January of 2005, FedUP!, has been receiving complaints from inmates including beatings of prisoners while in handcuffs and shackles, one instance of a broken arm and another of a fellow needing 18 stitches, medical staff complying with guards to cover up abuse, medical neglect in general, administration refusing to look into inmate grievances, personal property destroyed, and throughout Wallens Ridge, Red Onion State, and

Keen Mountain racism is playing a major role and a contributing factor into the abuse. The flow of letters FedUp! has been receiving exposes that these events are not isolated instances but prove a pattern of abuse. In the first addendum (January 1,2005), Rashid ends with the following statement: The states government is using a poor, economically depressed and exploited segregated White community to brutally oppress a vastly non-white prisoner body, exactly as impoverished whites were deliberately used to savagely brutalize Blacks with license and impunity during the chattel slavery process of this same rural Amerikan south. There is clearly no interest and no intent by government officials to reign in such abuses. [In fact, the situation is] created by such authorities. Home

Kevin Johnson, No. 185492 Red Onion State Prison P.O. Box 1900 Pound, VA. 24279

To: Various Concerned Parties. Re: Follow-up on October 31, 2004 Expos on Racism and Abuses of Non-White Segregation Prisoners by White Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) Guards.

This is written as a follow-up and supplement to an article that I circulated on October 31, 2004 and was further circulated and is in process of being published by various people and publishers entitled Red Onion State Prison an Expos - Racism and Brutality Equals Kind and Usual Punishment in Virginia.

That article elaborated various perpetual racist abuses of non-white segregation prisoners here at ROSP and the absolute refusal of government authorities to genuinely address and correct the situation. As proof of the latter, shortly after that article was circulated the chief wardens here at ROSP and Wallens Ridge State Prison were replaced (mere reshuffling of personnel), yet nothing has changed in relation to the abusive conditions raised in that article. In fact, since I sent that article out the routine attacks on restrained non-white prisoners has continued unabated by the same groups of guards identified in that article. Several of such attacks are described below, with the complicity of medical staff described. On November 11, 2004 while kneeling in handcuffs and shackles (awaiting the shackles removal) Roberto Mejias #306726 was slammed face first to the concrete floor by prison guards Wright and Harr. Mejias landed on his left shoulder and suffered a dislocation and/or fracture at the joint (clavicle-spatula joint), leaving a ping-pong ball sized knot and discoloration at the joint. He was unable to raise his left arm for several weeks afterward; he was also refused medical attention. He was only seen by the institutions doctor and a nurse on November 12, 2004 following my refusal to come off the exercise yard except by force, unless he be given medical attention. The white doctor who examined Mejias (Dr. Williams) initially expressed concern that Mejias had a serious injury, until Mejias explained to the doctor that guards were responsible for his injuries. Mejias asked the doctor for X-rays to which the doctor replied I want a million dollars but we cant all have what we want. X-rays were denied and he was prescribed only some over-the-counter pain medication, i.e. Aspirin or Motrin. On November 22, 2004 M. Claibourne #307397 was beaten by an extraction team while in the shower. The extraction team consisting of known abusive guards including S. Long, J. Ely, J. Stanley and others, under supervision of Sgt. D. Tate, Lt. S. Harrison and others. While performing the extraction on Claibourne the guards wrapped a cord around his neck and choked him with it. He was beaten in the face and had fingers dug into his eyes. Among resulting injuries was a laceration to his mouth requiring several sutures to close and extreme facial swelling. On December 29, 2004 William Benbow #304841 was subjected to a premeditated beating while handcuffed and shackled. The incident occurred while a hand-portable audio/video camera operated by Sgt. R. Austin was present, and a unit surveillance camera was trained directly onto the cell in which the attack occurred. Guards who were involved in the beating were Lt. S. Harrison, and prison guards R. Boyd, Wright and Evans. (Wright and Boyd being frequently involved in attacks). When the attack began Sgt. R. Austin had the portable camera trained down on the floor, and, as Benbow began screaming in pain and asking why he was being attacked while restrained, Austin turned the camera off and began fumbling with it as though it was malfunctioning. Other guards in the area, R. McConnell, R. Fleming, C. Hill, B. Mullins, Sgt. Mahan and others turned their backs to the cell when the beating continued in an exaggerated act of pretending nothing was amiss.

During the attack Benbow was kicked, stomped, beaten with fists, had fingers dug into his eyes, and his own fingers bent backward, also he was punched in the face by R. Boyd, using handcuffs as brass knuckles. Benbow suffered extensive facial swelling and bruising, a bloodied nose, lacerated lip and a laceration above his left eye which needs stitches. A licensed practical nurse G. Meade was brought in to check him after hed been placed into ambulatory restraints, and stated he was fine, offering him no care except a band-aid. About 30 minutes after the attack Security Chief Richard Fleming, Capitan K. Chris, and Sgt. R. Austin (the same Austin that failed to film the attack), came to Benbows cell to speak with him, assuring him that photographs would be taken of his face. None were taken. A further scheme followed where guards then claimed that Benbow had climbed onto the sink in the cell and jumped or fell off injuring himself. Two mental health workers came to speak to Benbow and when they left guards returned to strap Benbow down to his bunk. While strapped to his bunk, Benbow was denied all his meals by Lt. S. Harrison, Sgt. Mahan and Sgt. Tate, who would set the meal trays into the cell out of Benbows reach and leave the cell with him still strapped to the bunk. Sgt. Tate is both the ROSP investigator [!] and a supervisor in the superseg unit he has himself been involved in various prior abuses of prisoners, myself included, see previous article. A copy of my previous article with a cover letter was directed to the office of the Virginia governor by me on October 31, 2004 and exactly as anticipated in that article, the article and cover letter was routed back to this prison and responded to by one of the same abusive officials here, namely Sgt. D. Tate. Tate was one of the involved in the October 5, 2003 attack on myself and five other prisoners. I enclose copy of my cover letter to the governor and Tates so-called investigative response. Tate also confronted me after having sent me his reply to the letter and article stating to me, You didnt really expect much of an investigation did you? I asked him how he was able to investigate situations in which he was involved as a participant. He replied I guess Im special. Furthermore, the prisons grievance department staff have for several months refused to process or respond to any but two of my attempts to formally grieve abuses here via the grievance procedure. This is also being systematically done to other prisoners whove tried to grieve abuses of themselves, by guards here. The object being obviously to prevent records being made of abuses here, and to impair our ability to exhaust the grievance procedure as prisoners are required to do by law before pursuing any litigation, except that prison officials obstruct such channels. This states government is using a poor, economically depressed and exploited segregated white community to brutally oppress a vastly nonwhite prisoner body, exactly as impoverished whites were deliberately used to savagely brutalize Blacks with license and impunity during chattel slavery process of the same rural American south. There is clearly no interest and no intent by government officials to reign in such abuses which is in fact a situation created by such authorities.

Kevin (Rashid) Johnson

No. 185492

Jan. 1, 05

Kevin "Rashid" Johnson #185492 Red Onion State Prison PO Box 1900 Pound, VA 24279

To: Concerned Parties Re: Third Addendum to October 26, 2004 Report on Racially Motivated Abuses at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) Date: May 10, 2005

This is a third amendment to my October 2004 report supplemented on January 1, 2005 and February 27, 2005, originally entitled "Red Onion State Prison, an Expos - Racism and Brutality Equals Kind and Usual Punishment in Virginia."

That expos and its supplements described ongoing brutal and racist abuses of nonwhite segregation prisoners here at ROSP by white staff, and general abusive conditions as well as official authorities' blatant refusals to resolve those problems. The following is a factual account of such continued abuses and additional abuses not previously recorded.

Since having circulated the original October, 2004 article, a copy of which was sent to the Virginia governor's office and routed back to this prison for pretended investigation and resolution by one of the very guards named in that report as involved with the abuses, I and other prisoners named in that report as prior victims of abuse have been specifically targeted for retaliations. Additionally, the new ROSP warden Tracy Ray assigned to this prison during or about January, 2005, has had ROSP staff - particularly those in the grievance department - deliberately destroying and refusing to process prisoners' complaints, which tend to confirm a continuing pattern of abuses at this prison. Ray has been enforcing this measure also to create an apparent record, or an absence of one, which gives the impression that the abuses exposed in the previous articles no longer or never did exist since no record will show prisoners complaining about abuses. Also, this prevents exhaustion of the grievance procedures in order to impair possible prisoner litigations. This is a clear effort to cover up abuses and avoid a redress and oversight.

Retaliations for Prior Report On April 26, 2005, a premeditated scheme to target each prisoner in superseg, who were named in my prior reports as victims of prior abuses, was staged by guards named in that report as principal actors in such abuses. Premeditated attacks on prisoners are often planned to occur on weekends when there are no administrative staff at the prison or regional offices.

On that date during showers prison guards R. Boyd and Wright attacked George Slaughter #255923 in front and inside of his cell. Slaughter is the one white prisoner named in the October 2004 report as targeted for routine abuses because of his refusal to submit to ROSP guards' efforts to alienate him from black prisoners. Slaughter was in handcuffs and shackles and being brought out of his cell en route to the showers. His shoes were sitting outside of his cell where the guards had placed them during his strip search. Upon being brought out of the cell, Boyd told Slaughter to kick the shoes back into the cell, which he did. Without warning, Boyd then slammed Slaughter bodily into the cell door and threw him onto the floor, partially inside and outside of his cell. Boyd, atop Slaughter, began repeatedly punching him in the face and slamming his face into the floor, while Wright kicked him several times in the groin. The entire unit overheard, and some saw, this attack, which was carried out in direct view of the unit surveillance camera.

Other guards entered the unit, including lieutenants R. Fowler and J. Honaker, Sergeant A. Kilbourne and several others. I was standing at my cell door inquiring of other prisoners what they had seen (as I was in the cell in the tier beneath Slaughter's cell and although I heard the entire attack, I could not see it) and writing down their responses. Fowler, Honaker, and prison guard plg R. Phipps came to my cell several times commenting sarcastically about my "taking notes" and asking if I was going to send out "another report to the governor." They also attempted to provoke me with verbal antagonisms, threats, and challenges which I ignored.

These guards had Slaughter put into ambulatory restraints and "checked" by a nurse, W. Stidham, with a portable audio/visual (AV) camera filming this. The nurse's question to Slaughter was "Damn, did it hurt?" On the AV tape Slaughter narrated what happened to him and directed attention to his badly swollen and bruised face.

Another prisoner, Lonnie Gholson #186066 - tired of the frequent assaults on and abuses of prisoners (himself included) and as a deterrent reaction to this - admits to kicking his cell door and smearing body waste over the open areas of his cell's floor and window area to compel the guards to cell-extract him and have to wallow in waste in the process. Gholson had packed all of his belongings up and stored them under his bunk away from contact with the body waste. Gholson's cell was one cell away from my own.

I stood at the cell door in full view of the unit surveillance camera and was also repeatedly filmed by the portable AV camera which was trained on Gholson's cell. I stood observing guards in the unit, some of whom where inciting a protective custody prisoner (whom they also use to harass others) to also kick his own cell door to provide a row for the benefit of the AV camera while a couple of others who were actually

enraged by the assault on Slaughter were also kicking their doors. The AV camera and he unit surveillance camera show hat I was never kicking my door or making any threats. I did comment for the camera that the guards were attacking another restrained prisoner and were threatening others, that the reactions in the unit were in response to this, and that plg Wright (who was operating the camera) kept putting his finger over the microphone on the camera to keep my statements from being recorded. In fact, he was signaling the protective custody agent provocateur inmate above Gholson to kick his door to drown me out.

A cell extraction was performed on Gholson and he was out into ambulatory restraints in another cell until his cell could be cleaned. Lieutenant Fowler then went cell to cell hand selecting every other prisoner in the unit whom I'd named in the previous reports as victims of prior abuses and had us each put on strip cell for several hours. Fowler, Phipps, and the other guards then fabricated reports claiming each of us were kicking doors and making the exact same threat, word for word, viz: "We need to start killing these motherfuckers." Those confronted were myself, Christopher Tinker #283653, Timothy Morgan #242086 (Morgan admits to kicking his door but made no threats), Roberto Mejias #306726, Maurice Hawkins #242361. All of Tinker's, Morgan's, Meijas, And Hawkins property was removed from their cells. I was moved to a vacant cell while all my property remained in my former cell. While in the vacant cell I observed Sergeant A. Kilbourne enter Gholson's cell and remain inside for several minutes. He then came out, went to the unit office for an AV camera, and returned to the cell. Apparently he'd entered the cell the first time to run Gholson's belongings through feces, and then returned to find the property in that condition to make it appear that this was the state in which he originally found it. All of Gholson's property was then thrown away upon claiming that it was all contaminated with hazardous waste.

While we remained on strip cell Tinker was arguing with Phipps about the guards setting him up. Phipps along with Fowler and other guards then had Tinker put into ambulatory restraints upon false claims that he was kicking the door while in his strip cell.

Upon being returned to my assigned cell prison guards R. Phipps, Wright, McConnell, and Mullins entered the cell and ransacked my property, tore documents, and did not return the notes I had made earlier about incidents of abuse in the unit. Phipps broke and confiscated my watch.

Under VDOC policy #432 strip cells are not to be used except only to search a person's property and/or cell upon probable cause, however, we were each placed on strip cell status because of (false) claims that we were kicking cell doors and making threats. The motive for confronting us with the strip cell placements was to provoke our resistance and refusals to be handcuffed and brought out of our cells, so that we could be therefore "justifiably" cell-extracted by a mob of armed guards consisting of the known abusive group named in my previous reports. Fowler predicted that we would refuse this placement, knowing we had done nothing to warrant it.

Two days later, on April 28 (Monday), the institutional investigator T. Adams entered the unit to talk to Slaughter, during which time I was able to speak with him at my cell. I specifically asked that he view and preserve the pod surveillance and AV tapes of events in the unit on April 26, which showed the assault on Slaughter and guards deliberately selecting a specific group of prisoners - all nonwhites - for malicious strip cells who were not involved in any claimed disruptive acts (this would show false reports of disruptive acts and the targeting of a select group of prisoners). I requested that these taped records be preserved for

future possible evidentiary uses because ROSP officials routinely destroy and erase taped records, despite that this is a crime in Virginia (See copy of text of VA Code section 18.2-472 herein). I followed this verbal request up with a written one. The next day - April 29 - I was moved to another unit.

Upon speaking to Adams again on a later date he informed me that the tapes had been turned over to the internal affairs unit and an investigator, Barnes, but that nothing is expected to come of the investigation.

Inadequate Nutrition At ROSP and Wallens Ridge State Prison we are denied adequate nutritional diets. The statewide master menu which is adhered to by all VDOC prisons is never complied with at these two prisons. Meals consist of whatever the kitchen staff desire to serve. The daily diets, particularly at ROSP, has next to no fiber sources, while vegetable and fruit servings (no more than a total of two to four small servings given daily) are almost always rotten, unripe or overcooked and thus inconsumable or without any nutritional content. Meals otherwise consist primarily of starches, (breads and potatoes) with entire required courses from other food groups not served at all, or served in such small portions as to amount to but a small fraction of the required serving portion.

The overall diet in quality and quantity consists of less than 2000 calories daily (being the minimum required by sedentary people). As of 2002 at these supermaxes the already inadequate rations were cut even further, admittedly to save money during a state budget crisis, by reducing our meals on weekends and holidays to only two meals per day. These are actually the same proportions we get on weekdays but with the lunch meal completely excluded.

As a result of inadequate meal quality and portions all segregation prisoners I know suffer frequently with hunger pangs, and many are suffering a wave of dysentery and colonitis-type symptoms, prolonged and frequent diarrhea, frequent bloody or mucous discharge in stools, hemorrhoids, severe abdominal pains, weight loss/fluctuations, etc. Most prisoners suffering from these symptoms are reluctant to complain or seek medical help due to embarrassment at these symptoms and because the white prison doctor Williams frequently makes homosexual remarks (which many prisoners find demeaning an provocative) to those who come to him with complaints of these symptoms. Among those who have sought and received care for these symptoms are myself, Christopher Tinker #283653, Anthony Smalls #281754, Lonnie Gholson #186066, Calvin Hayes #303216, Maurice Hawkins #242361and many more. The most common and consistent symptom is that of prolonged diarrhea and bloody stools.

The ROSP nursing staff are required under ROSP policy #718 to monitor all segregation prisoners' weight and health on a weekly basis, yet they all collectively refuse to do so to avoid evidence of our malnutrition and its toll on our health.

Obstructions of Complaints

During 2004 I brought a state civil action (still pending) which required the state attorney generals office to obtain a copy of my prison grievance and complaint record to determine whether I had exhausted the prison's grievance procedure on all claims I'd raised. The review of my grievance record revealed a lengthy file of complaints in which prison officials in sarcastic replies had repeatedly admitted to a rash of abusive and illegal actions and many instances of overt cover-ups of abuses and lies.

Subsequently, the attorney generals office in concert with the VDOC deputy directors office had the entire grievance procedure modified to allow officials more leeway in refusing to process or answer prisoner complaints and deny prisoners' uses of the procedure.

Under the September 2004 revised procedure no central record is kept of complaints and grievances that staff refuse to process. This is so that staff may effectively censor prisoner complaint records by reducing and stopping certain types of grievances (specifically those pertaining to racism, brutality and other illegal abuses) from entering the record, to prevent a pattern from being demonstrated of similar complaints, and to try to impair prisoner's litigation efforts upon claims that they have not exhausted the procedure.

The ROSP grievance office staff have, since the new policy came into effect and since Tracy Ray became ROSP warden, systematically rejected almost every prisoner complaint addressing issues described above and repeatedly put articulate prisoners on complaint and grievance restrictions upon false claims of habitual abuse or excessive filings, yet they can never substantiate these claims by pointing to even a few specific instances of misuse of the procedure.

Violations of ACA Standards ROSP has been and is accredited by the American Correctional Association (ACA) and professes to abide by ACA standards while in actuality it does not. The ACA accredits ROSP as compliant when it is not, and is thus complicit in the ROSP abuses. It should be noted that Ronald J. Angelone is Virginia chairman of the ACA - Angelone was the VDOC chief director under whom ROSP and WRSP were constructed and began operating and repeatedly lied to the public concerning the need for and intended use of these prisons.

Various specific instances of ROSP deviations from ACA standards are specified hereafter. ACA standard 4-4131 requires all single-occupancy cells to have 35 square feet of unencumbered space when confinement exceeds10 hours per day, and ACA standard 4-4134 requires that such cells to which confinement exceeds 10 hours per day also have "writing surfaces and proximate surfaces to sit." Prisoners are routinely housed in isolation cells in ROSP for no less than 23 hours per day (namely cells 301, 302, 401, and 402 in each of ROSP's- A, B, C, and D buildings - a total of 16 such cells) that have neither 35 sq feet of unencumbered space nor writing or sitting surfaces. These cells contain only a sink/commode unit and a large restraint bed situated in the center of the cell floor leaving little space for unencumbered movement and exercise. I have been housed in such cells myself for months on end.

ACA standard 4-4148 requires cell openings which admit natural light and have a view to the outside. ROSP cell windows to the outside have been covered over with a sheet of frosting that diffracts incoming light and prevents any view of the outside so as to subject prisoners to sensory deprivation and denial of a needed, natural source of vitamin D (namely sunlight).

ACA standard 4-4150 requires that housing unit noise levels not exceed 70 dBA (A scale) in daytime and 45dBA (A scale) at night. However noise levels constantly surpass those limits and usually because of guards banging on and slamming cell door hatches night and day.

ACA standard 4-4155 requires that segregation unit exercise yards have a minimum of 180 sq. feet of unencumbered space per person. The individual exercise yards at ROSP do not meet this requirement.

ACA standard 4-4185 requires that the chief warden and all department heads visit prisoner housing units routinely to develop informal contact with prisoners. This does not occur at ROSP, indeed Tracy Ray as well as previous warden Daniel Braxton only handpicks select prisoners to confer with informally, and have them brought out of their housing unit and into an office.

ACA standard 4-4222 requires that all housing units have a system for immediate release of prisoners in an emergency. This is not the case in C300 and C400 superseg units (a total of 44 cells) , which have manual locks affixed to the sides of each door preventing them from being opened electronically from the control booth. It often takes guards 10 - 15 seconds to remove one of these manual locks so that the cell can be activated from the booth. In an emergency these locks would be impossible to remove "immediately", especially with obscured vision from smoke or fumes.

ACA standard 4-4281 requires the protection of prisoners against abuse, corporeal punishment, personal injury, property damage, and harassment. As this and past reports make abundantly clear, no such protections are observed at ROSP.

ACA standard 4-4400 requires that prisoners in segregation be assessed by medical staff and that health care providers visit such prisoners daily. This does not occur. Although nursing staff make pill rounds daily, they specifically refuse to consult with prisoners about medical issues at these times.

ACA standard 4-4488 holds that there can be no limit on volume, length, language, content or source of letters, mail or publications received or sent out by prisoners, except when such endangers public safety or prison safety or security. However at ROSP prisoners can not receive incoming letters that weigh over one ounce (that is, they can not cost over $ .37 to post), cannot receive unused postage stamps, cannot receive photos larger than 4"x6", etc. thus limiting volume, content, length of letters, etc. Also, my October 2004 report "Red Onion State Prison: an Expose..." was published by a publisher in Illinois who attempted to return me a copy of the published format. This attempt was intercepted here by ROSP officials and has now

been banned from entering all VDOC prisons upon claims that it endangers security (see attached). This absurd claim demonstrates the unity of efforts by VDOC officials to consciously conceal abuses from exposure, as anyone reading this report can see that it is simply a narration of abuses of ROSP prisoners, and any claims to it's being a security threat are obvious lies, as are most claims made by VDOC officials to cover up and deny the illegal and heinous conditions within its prisons.

ACA standard 4-4491 requires that prisoners be informed any time mail is withheld in part or in whole. And ACA standard 4-4495 requires that incoming mail be held no longer than 24 hours. However at ROSP incoming mail is routinely held for weeks with no notification to the prisoners. The mailroom staff will falsely date the mail as having just been received on the date they decide to deliver it. When complaints are made they always say the Post Office is to blame, yet outgoing mail routed through the same post office tends to reach its destination in 2-4 days.

Attempts to Transmit Viruses A deliberate measure is enforced at ROSP and WRSP whereby prisoners in segregation are deliberately exposed to the possibility of contracting deadly viruses such as chronic hepatitis (C), AIDS and HIV, which are transmittable through bodily fluids and broken skin. The attempts are made through the use of leg shackles. There are many prisoners who have these viruses whom the staff knows about but the prisoners do not.

At these prisons segregation prisoners are required to wear leg shackles any time we are brought out of our cells, and must often walk extensive distances in them. All staff knows that any time a person walks extensive distances in the leg shackles they will receive lacerations around their ankles and Achilles tendon as a result of the shackles rubbing back and forth in a semi-circular motion as one walks. The shackles thereby frequently come into contact with, and expose prisoners to, exchange of bodily fluids through these cuts, which cloth socks and garments do not protect against. ROSP and WRSP staff know of this danger, which is why latex and rubber gloves are made available to all guards and are required to be worn whenever guards handle restraints. No such precautions are taken for prisoners who must wear restraints.

Leg shackles are used sequentially on prisoner after prisoner without cleaning or sterilizing (a timeconsuming and inefficient process in itself). One pair of shackles may be used hundreds of times in a 12 hour shift.

I know of prisoners who have contracted deadly viruses in segregation and thus could not have been infected in any other way, and I know guards at this prison who admit to efforts to transmit diseases to disliked prisoners in this manner.

Conclusion

The conditions described above all jointly and severely violate well-established constitutional laws. However, there is a complete refusal on the part of any "authority" to address or correct them, making it clear that now, as well as in antebellum times, Blacks have no rights which white America feels bound to respect, protect or enforce. See Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393 (1856).

May 10, 2005

Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Kevin "Rashid" Johnson #185492 Red Onion State Prison PO Box 1900 Pound, VA 24279

To: Concerned Parties Re: Fourth Amendment to October 26, 2004 Report on Racially Motivated Abuses at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) Date: July 10, 2005

This is a fourth amendment to my October 2004 report supplemented on January 1, February 27, and May 10, 2005 originally entitled "Red Onion State Prison, an Expos - Racism and Brutality Equals Kind and Usual Punishment in Virginia."

That expos and its supplements described ongoing brutal and racist abuses of nonwhite segregation prisoners here at ROSP by white staff, and following is a factual account of such continued abuses.

On June 3, 2005 a black prisoner, Tyrone Shelton #158647 was targeted with a brutal, premeditated assault while handcuffed and shackled by prison guards (c/o) R. Boyd, R. Phipps, and W. Wright - the same group of white guards involved repeatedly in attacks on restrained and defenseless nonwhite prisoners. Shelton was, at the time of this assault, housed in the cell above me. On that date plgs R. Boyd and W. Wright were assigned to work the unit I was housed in, namely the C300 unit. (c/o) R. Phipps was assigned to work a unit on the other side of the building, namely the C400 unit. Guards working units on one side of the building have never in my experience left their posts to help guards on the opposite side

escort prisoners to outside exercise or showers. However Phipps, along with several other guards, left their C400 posts and came over to the C300 unit under the pretense oh "helping" pull us for exercise and showers. However, the actual intent was to attack Shelton. While bringing me and other prisoners in off the exercise yard, Phipps remarked to another guard: "I'm going to get that nigger Shelton". Another guard remarked "I'll go ahead and get the ambulatory restraints."

Upon being returned to my cell, Plgs Wright and Boyd skipped over several prisoners who were next in line to receive showers and went directly to Shelton's cell, handcuffed and shackled him. Shelton was brought out, taken downstairs, and while en route to the showers and without warning, Shelton was picked up from behind by Boyd and slammed to the floor. This occurred directly in front of the unit surveillance camera. Shelton's face never touched the floor during this attack, his eyeglasses were still on his face, and no blood was evident anywhere in the unit.

Phipps then ran over telling Wright to let him take over, at which point Boyd and Phipps half carried/ half dragged Shelton up the stairs and ultimately back to his cell. At no point prior to Sheltons being taken into his cell was any blood or facial injury to Shelton evident. No blood was anywhere in the unit outside Shelton's cell.

Upon Shelton's being taken into the cell above me, I could very clearly hear repeated thumping and scuffling (obvious sounds of a beating) and Shelton repeating several times "Why are you assaulting me? I'm not doing anything." Wright also entered the cell and joined in the attack. Boyd was seen repeatedly slamming Shelton's face onto the floor, Phipps repeatedly punching Shelton in the face, and Wright kicking him in the groin. Shelton's face was badly lacerated, causing him a large loss of blood, and he ended in receiving 18 stitches in his eyebrow and chin at a local hospital emergency room. Sergeant T. McCoy entered the cell and, using Shelton's dark blue blanket, soaked up most of the blood from the cell floor to conceal evidence from the portable audio/visual camera that was being brought in as part of the procedure for putting a prisoner in ambulatory restraints. Just before the camera was brought in McCoy laid the blanket across the floor to cover up what blood he could not soak up; he also ran some of Shelton's legal documents through blood. McCoy did this to visibly taint them with blood and thereby justify throwing much of it away as "contaminated" with biohazardous fluid. Shelton is a prisoner known to litigate against prison officials, and won a money judgment in at least one case against prison officials, including one Captain David Taylor. Just prior to this attack on Shelton, I have witnessed him being repeatedly threatened and harassed by all ranks of ROSP staff because of his litigation activities - in fact Taylor specifically threatened Shelton on May 6, 2005 that he was going to be targeted with an attack. When the audio/visual camera was brought into Shelton's cell, I narrated what I'd heard and seen in the assault on Shelton, speaking through the ventilation shaft which connects our cells allowing my voice to be heard clearly inside his cell and recorded on the audio/visual tape.

He attack on Shelton was well-timed and calculated to occur while the prison investigator was on vacation. , when no complaints could be filed or processed for several days (the attack occurred on a Friday and no mail can be sent on weekends), while the warden was not at the prison, and Phipps had a relative in charge of the medical department. David Taylor was the shift commander that day, and according to Shelton told Shelton while he was in the medical unit awaiting transport to the hospital, "I told you I was going to get you."

On June 9, 2005, the day after I and several other prisoners spoke to the prison investigator about the assault on Shelton, I was moved from the C300 unit to the C400 unit where Phipps is assigned. From the first day Phipss repeatedly made provocative, harassing and veiled threatening remarks to me. On the day before I was moved I confronted Captain Taylor at my cell door and stated that it was obvious that he set Shelton up for attack. He replied that I was also "on the list." To make a record of his remark and admitting his role in the attack on Shelton I submitted an informal complaint log #3338.

Upon my move to C400 unit I heard the unit guards repeatedly refusing the prisoner in cell C402 (Walter Teal - number unknown) his meals. Over the past year I've witnessed Teal deteriorate from a normal mental state to one totally dysfunctional, paranoid, delusional, and dissociated from reality. He has lost some 30 pounds due to denial of meals by guards. He is treated not with mental health care but with guard abuses and violence. Mental health staff are content to merely act as spectators to his deterioration.

On July 1, 2005 on one of the few occasions he was given a meal tray, Teal refused to return it and was brutally cell-extracted and put into ambulatory restraints by (c/o) McConnell, Wright, Mullins, Boyd, and P. Lane, under supervision of Lieutenant R. Fowler and Sergeant T. McCoy. Several minutes after Teal was replaced into his cell and "checked" by the nurse, Fowler, McCoy, Wright and Boyd re-entered his cell and began beating Teal. The assault was clearly audible to all in the unit.

On June 26, 2005 I discovered that Fowler and R. Phipps had been propositioning an informant white inmate Dennis Webb #151452 to throw feces on me in the exercise yard, but to occur on a day when Phipps was not working to conceal his involvement. The attack was to have taken place on June 26 while Phipps, Fowler and David Taylor were not at work, but did not occur that day because the guard working the unit (Payne) told Webb he didn't' fell like going through the work of having the feces cleaned up and writing reports. I informed outside correspondents about the plot the same day I discovered it including members of the Fed Up! campaign in Pittsburgh, PA and the director of the organization Research Information Help for Disadvantaged in Richmond, VA. The set-up was then arranged to occur on July 5, 2005 and while being escorted from the shower to my cell had a feces mixture thrown on my back while the pre-alerted escorting guards (including Payne) stood or ran out of the way. Payne, who was well out of the way when the feces was thrown, fabricated reports that feces splattered on him so to mitigate the fact of his role in the set-up. The conspiracy was obvious in that first, despite the required search of the prisoner and his items prior to being brought out of his cell for a shower Webb had taken several bloated bags of the feces mixture to the shower. Second, only Webb, I, and one other prisoner were placed in showers in the unit next door to our own (C500 unit), which unlike our own C400 unit showers has no Plexiglas covering the shower fronts or locking covers on the handcuff slots. The C400 showers are designed this way to keep substances from being thrown from them. So, not only was Webb allowed to take the feces bags into the shower, but we were placed into showers in another unit from which Webb could easily throw the feces.

Webb admits both to throwing the substance on me and sent statements to prison officials (which he has voluntarily given me permission to use) - indeed he threw feces on me in front of the guards and waited until they were present to do it - (see attached affidavit from Webb) but he admits doing it for Phipps and other guards (although he states he will not state this in writing at this time since that may undermine the benefits from the guards for his actions). Payne and Phipps have since been allegedly removed from the unit and orders issued to keep Webb and I separated.

July 10, 2005 Kevin "Rashid" Johnson #185492

From: Kevin Rashid Johnson No. 185492 Red Onion State Prison P.O. Box 1900 Pound, VA 24279

To: Concerned Parties Re: Fifth Addendum to October 24, 2004 Report on Racially Motivated Abuses at Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) Date: 2006 January 2,

This is a fifth addendum to my October 2004 report supplemented on January1, February 27, May 10, and July 10, 2005, originally entitled Red Onion State Prison An Expose- Racism and Brutality Equals Kind and Unusual Punishment in Virginia.

That expose and its supplements described an ongoing situation of brutal and racist abuses of nonwhite segregation prisoners here at ROSP by white staff and general abusive conditions which official authorities refuse to resolve. The following is a factual account of such continued abuses.

On June 21, 2005 a prisoner Ronald Mitchell (number unknown) was confronted early in the morning by Sgt. O Quinn, Sgt. D. Tate and Lieutenant S. Mullins who could be heard threatening him and telling him to back up to his cell door to be handcuffed. This occurred in the C- 400 superseg unit. Upon one handcuff being applied to one of Mitchells wrists these three guards together yanked his arm out of the cell doors food access hatch up to the shoulder using a nylon leash that was attached to the handcuffs. O Quinn then began yelling repeatedly in an excited tone break his goddamn arm! Break his arm! with his extended fully outside the slot by Mullins and Tate, O Quinn began dropping his body weight down onto Mitchells arm attempting to break it at the elbow joint. I spoke up loudly stating to these guards that I heard their stated intent and attempts to break Mitchells arm, and intended to write up complaints within the institution and to outside sources. The attack then subsided; Mitchell was then seen

by a nurse and later that morning taken to an outside hospital for emergency care to his hand and arm. The extents of his injuries are unknown. Mitchell is an apparently emotionally disturbed prisoner who is frequently subjected to threats and verbal abuse by guards, particularly in response to his habit of threats and verbal abuse by guards, particularly in response to his habit of putting a piece of paper at the top of his cell door window which actually does not obstruct guards view into his cell. Having the piece of paper in his window on the June 21st date is what prompted OQuinn, Mullins, and Tate to confront, verbally abuse and then, attack him, in a frustrated effort to break him out of putting the paper in his window.

On July 31, 2005 in the C- 300 superseg unit prison guards (plgs) Strouth and Mullins beat A. Nelligar #327126 while he was fully restrained and kneeling on his cell floor. Nelligar(a white prisoner) suffered severe facial deformity, swelling and lacerations, also internal facial bleeding as a result of this attack. Strouth repeatedly lifted and slammed Nelligars head and face onto the concrete floor of his cell during this attack. Nelligar was threatened by Strouth that hed better voluntarily confess when the audio/ video portable carmera was brought in during the process of putting him into ambulatory restraints, that hed spit on Strouth, which Nelligar had in fact not done, and that hed better not file any complaints to medical staff nor about being attacked, or hed be beaten again, Nelligar did as he was told.

Another prisoner, Kelvin Canada #218813 appalled by the attack on Nelligar and Nelligars fear to complain, himself wrote complaints on Nelligars behalf. Nursing staff who checked Nelligar after the attack refused him medical aid for his actual injuries. Only after Canada filed his complaints and indicated an intent to seek outside attention to and exposure of the attack was Nelligar moved out of the unit and was said to have been taken to the medical department. Nelligar was never brought back to the C- 300 unit.

On July 1, 2005 Calvin Thrower #258986 was beaten and had fingers dug repeatedly into his eyes by numerous guards, and supervised by Lieutenant Ronald Fowler, following an incident in which he allegedly head- butted a guard while in handcuffs and shackles. Thrower suffered facial swelling and bruising, impaired vision and a large blood clot on his eyeball.

On July 25, 2005 in the C- 300 superseg unit E. Ford (number unknown), a newly arrived intake at ROSP from Nottoway Correctional Center, was brutally beaten by prison guards D. McCowan, R. Boyd, and Sergeant J. Fannin while fully restrained and kneeling inside his newly assigned cell. Ford was repeatedly slammed onto the concrete floor for some ten minutes resulting in a gold capped and prosthetic teeth being knocked out and broken. The beating and his suffering pleas could be loudly heard throughout the unit. While the beating was occurring captains David Taylor and Kelly Chris entered the unit, went to the cell and stood watching the attack without intervening.

On account of constant staff harassment coupled with prevailing conditions of sensory deprivation endured in ROSP segregation, and especially in its superseg units, mental deterioration, self- mutilation and attempted (sometimes successful) suicides are rampant. Mental health staff typically ignore mental deterioration until it results in self mutilation and suicide attempts, and then they only respond by placing prisoners on strip cell statuses (removal of all property, clothing, and bedding) for about a week- thus heightening sensory deprivations.

On September 9, 2005, only days after I attempted to complain about this situation leading to yet another prisoners attempted suicide by self- hanging (viz, C. Ford #315550), two prisoners in the C- 300 superseg unit hung themselves just minutes apart (viz, Jonathan Stuart, # 323894 and Gifford Johnson (number unknown). Both had to be cut down by guards from hanging ropes by the necks inside their cells and rushed to the medical department. Within a six month time- frame, I have witnessed four prisoners in my assigned unit alone hang themselves- two having to be rushed to the hospital for emergency care.

On November 9, 2005 I spoke with the prison psychiatrist at my cell about these deliberately inflicted conditions of reduced environmental stimulation (RES) and its known causes of mental breakdown and psychosis. He admitted that ROSP was inflicting such conditions on segregation prisoners and that it causes its victims in a majority of cases to suffer mental breakdown and psychosis. He could not deny such when I referred him to various expert studies that had repeatedly proven and reconfirmed this since the late 1800s and the fact that these conditions constitute torture. I asked why he didnt speak out against this, to which he replied there is nothing he can do except treat prisoners after the fact. This treatment consists of tranquilizing the damaged prisoners with brain chemistry and mind- altering psychotropic medications that have a multitude of dangerous and disabling side- effects. Federal courts have long- established that such mental torture is unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Guards harassment and abuse of ROSP prisoners is routine, and many prisoners have endured this day in and day out to the point of frustrated exhaustion. On November 1, 2005 in D- 400 segregation unit, guards deliberately broke a prisoners personal earphones, leading to his allegedly kicking his cell door to get a supervisors attention. The response was to confront him for a cell- extraction for kicking the door and a complete disregard and disinterest concerning his complaints about the guards breaking his property. This action and response inflamed several others in the unit whod grown weary of the daily harassment and abuses at the hands of the guards and they also began kicking their cell doors. No more than five prisoners were actually kicking doors, however, guards went cell to cell compiling a list of at least eleven prisoners, claiming theyd all been kicking doors, to be cell- extracted also, Sergeant O Quinn who participated in supervising this situation stated so other prisoners could hear, that all the guards needed to do was beat the shit out of a couple of these niggers and the rest will lie down like a bunch of bitches. These remarks and actions further inflamed the determination of the prisoners net to back down and all ended in refusing to be handcuffed and were cell- extracted. Several were beaten and kicked repeatedly upon being restrained on their cell floors. In the aftermath of this situation the prison investigator T. Adams, an ardent fabricator of claims of problems with organized gang violence at ROSP, concocted false claims that this extraction of numerous prisoners was an unprovoked and frustrated reaction of human beings tired of daily arbitrary abuse and humiliation by an exclusively white staff body (who often are over in their racist attitudes and motives for abuses), the racist and provocative statements of O Quinn, the inclusion of bystanders in a situation in which they were not involved, and the beating of the first several extracted prisoners.

On October 27, 2005 plg Cox and Nathaniel Wright #297745 had an exchange of words concerning his incorrect breakfast meal. Later that morning Wright was restrained and brought out of his cell to be taken to the shower, whereupon, Cox refused him his shower and told Wright to turn around to return to his cell, so to provoke a reaction. Wright refused to move and stated he wanted to see the unit sergeant about the harassment. Sergeant R. Austin was then called to the unit and upon hearing Wright out promised hed receive his shower, but that at that moment he should return to his cell. Wright complied.

Upon removing one handcuff, Cox snatched Wrights arm out of the food access hatch using the nylon leash and handcuff still attached to one wrist. Cox along with other guards, including Hess, Rusnick, and Bartee pulled and bent his arm outside of and around the cell door attempting to break it, while making it appear that he was struggling with them. One guard repeatedly stabbed him in the hand and wrist with an ink pen causing numerous small puncture wounds. They also broke his left middle finger, completely severing the bone in half. He was then repeatedly informed that his finger was broken, however, the nurse was called in to check him- P. Mullins- refused him referral for immediate x- rays despite his complaints and the obvious deformity of his finger- bent unmovable at a sharp angle. Mullins simply told him to wash his finger with soap and warm water [!!]. Wright made repeated written and verbal complaints of needing medical care for his broken finger.

It was not until over two weeks later that he was finally taken to a hospital and his finger confirmed broken requiring surgery and inserted metal screws to rejoin the severed bone. This denied and delayed care occurred despite that federal courts have long held that delaying appropriate care for merely hours to days for prisoners broken bones amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

For several months ROSP chief warden Tracy Ray has given formal authorization to guards to deny prisoners meals if they withhold and refuse to return them meal trays. Guards have been using this measure to deny meals for days upon claims- often false- that prisoners have refused to return meal trays. See attached complaint of one prisoner who was a victim of this. This is held that denying prisoners meal for withholding eating utensils and items amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Despite and in spite of blatant and illegality the above described event demonstrate a continued and unending cycle of abuses prevailing at ROSP.

Jan. 2 2006

Kevin Rashid Johnson