Plans were announced in 1992 to build a prison on Red Onion Mountain, with cost of construction estimated at $52 million. 375 acres of land were donated by the Pittston Coal Company, which reserved some rights to mineral extraction. Many residents of Wise County supported constructing the prison because of jobs it would provide and because it would remain relatively isolated. One official said: "It's off the beaten path. You won't even know it's there."[7] The prison was designed by Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, a subdivision of AECOM since 1984.[6]
The final cost of construction was over $70 million, with ground broken in 1995.[5] As of 1999, the prison employed almost 800 people. Many of the corrections officers arrived at Red Onion after being laid off from jobs in nearby coalfields.[8]
Red Onion is one of six new prisons built in Virginia between 1995 and 2000. It thus contributed an increase in capacity to the Virginia Corrections system that allowed the state to contractually accept inmates from outside the state.[9] In 1999, the District of Columbia Department of Corrections was paying the Virginia Department of Corrections to house 69 prisoners at the Red Onion State Prison.[5] These contracts were substantially reduced in 2004, when VADOC announced that it needed more supermax space for Virginians.[10] In 2011, VADOC reported only 15 out-of-state inmates at Red Onion: two from Pennsylvania and thirteen from the U.S. Virgin Islands.[2]
Population
Red Onion is a "supermax" prison, intended to incarcerate "the worst of the worst." Critics of the prison have alleged that many inmates are sent to Red Onion not because they have committed severe crimes but because they broke rules at other facilities.[11] Some 55% of Red Onion's prisoners have sentences longer than 15 years, and 12% have life sentences.[12]
More than two-thirds of prisoners at Red Onion are held in solitary confinement, or "segregation". They are confined to their cells 23 hours per day in 8’ x 10’ cells with 6” x 24” windows for light. Length of confinement ranges from two weeks to fourteen years.[15][16] Food and medicine are served through trays in the cell door.[17]
Opportunities for education and work are more limited than in most prisons due to the higher security level; however, Red Onion offers janitorial work, a GED program, and a literacy program.[16] The prison uses a video education system which allows the playing of prerecorded video files over 5" CCTV screens.[16][17][18]
The facility was designed to minimize contact between corrections officers and prisoners as well as among prisoners.
A 1999 report by Human Rights Watch raised concerns over conditions in Red Onion. The report states that "Virginia Department of Corrections has failed to embrace basic tenets of sound correctional practice and laws protecting inmates from abusive, degrading or cruel treatment"[19] and claims that "racism, excessive violence and inhumane conditions reign inside."[5] In 2001, Amnesty International released another report citing human rights violations at Red Onion.[20]
Critics note that Red Onion's solitary confinement rate is the highest in the Virginia prison system.[11] A reported 173 of the prisoners in solitary confinement have been diagnosed with mental illnesses, and some contend that isolation exacerbates their conditions and limits their ability to get treatment.[15][19]
"Control Unit Torture", art created by Red Onion inmate Kevin "Rashid" Johnson
The reports also cite the use of firearms with live ammunition by guards (an unusual practice in American prisons), which has led to inmate injuries. They also object to the use of electroshock weapons by guards. Critics also point to "five point restraints" as an instance of cruel punishment. These are devices that guards use to physically restrain inmates. They are officially used to limit movement of prisoners who threaten themselves or others, but critics such as Amnesty International have argued that guards use them for punishment and torture.[11][20]
Mac Gaskins, a prisoner at Red Onion for fourteen years, reported: "having your fingers broken inside of these places, being bitten by dogs, being strapped to beds for days, as we've talked about many times, being forced to defecate on yourself – I mean all of this has led to these men demanding to be treated as human beings. It's like if you are put inside prison, you forfeit that right to be treated as a human being." Gaskins also reported that prisoners were denied access to soap, toothpaste, and books.[22] Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, prison artist and organizer, has for years reported multiple instances of brutality and mistreatment from officers.[23][22]
Advocates for Red Onion prisoners also note that the majority of those incarcerated are African Americans from Richmond or Northern Virginia, whereas most of the corrections officers are whites from Appalachia. It is suggested that this racial disparity leads to active racism which exacerbates the human rights abuses.[11]
Human Rights Watch complained that much was still unknown about the prison, as a result of the difficulty of seeing inside or communicating with prisoners.[19]Mother Jones reported that inmates were required to wear electroshock "stun belts" while meeting with outside investigators.[24]
Inmate Kawaski Bass died after being attacked by another prisoner in his cell on September 9, 2011.[25] His family accuses the warden and guards on duty of ignoring screams for help, and has filed a lawsuit against them, Red Onion State Prison, and the state of Virginia.[26]
Response to criticisms
Prison officials confirm that isolation is normal at Red Onion, but argue that they do not engage in the cruel practice known as "solitary confinement". They also disagree with complaints about access and say that prisoners can receive visits from attorneys, and from family and friends for four hours a month.[12]
Former Governor Bob McDonnell stated: "People behind bars have civil rights. At the same time, we have a duty to promote public safety. If people show, even in prison, that they can't get along with other prisoners, then they are treated accordingly." Former VADOC director Ronald J. Angelone, during whose term (1994–2002) Red Onion was designed and opened, defended the supermax system as necessary to avoid violence, saying: "There is no Department of Corrections magic wand that makes them decent human beings while in prison. They have to be housed appropriately so that the employees and the other inmates aren't subjected to violent behavior."[27]
Former Virginia state senator Kenneth W. Stolle, who served as chairman of the Virginia State Crime Commission, has argued that rehabilitation at Red Onion is less important because so many prisoners serve life sentences, saying: "If they're getting out, obviously we have a responsibility to make sure they at least have an opportunity to be functioning members of society. Most people envisioned that Red Onion and Wallens Ridge were going to be dedicated to people with life sentences."[27] The state announced that it would restrict the use of restraints as punishment in response to the report from Human Rights Watch.[28]
Department of Justice investigation
Responding to the report from Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that in October 2000 that it would open an investigation.[29] The Virginia Department of Corrections announced plans in March 2012 to review solitary confinement policies at Red Onion. A Washington Post report suggested that this announcement would continue to postpone action by the Department of Justice.[12]
Hunger strike
On May 22, 2012, inmates in Red Onion began a hunger strike to bring "abusive prison conditions to light".[30] The prisoners said: "Regardless of sexual preference, gang affiliation, race and religion, there are only two classes at this prison: the oppressor and the oppressed. We the oppressed are coming together. We're considered rival gang members, but now we're coming together as revolutionaries. We're tired of being treated like animals."[22] Inmates issued 10 demands including "fully cooked food", "unrestricted access to complaint and grievance forms", "an adequate standard of living", and "adequate medical care".[31][32]
Red Onion officials stated that the hunger strike ended within a week.[33] Supporters of the strikers challenged these reports and contended that the prison has taken pains to isolate and silence strike leaders in order to discourage communication with the outside world.[11]
Self Immolations
On May 25, 2022, DeAndre Gordon self-immolated in order to be transferred to a different prison due to racism and other abuses he suffered. He sustained 3rd degree burns to his leg.[34][35]
On September 15, 2024, Ekong Eshiet and Trayvon Brown, two black inmates at Red Onion State Prison, set themselves on fire while in solitary confinement to demand an end to the unbearable isolation, racism, and brutality. Both survived. According to Eshiet's mother in an interview after the incident, “Officers have withheld [Eshiet’s] medication, spit in his food, taken his lifeline to the outside world, his tablet, violated his Quran, and used racial slurs,” Ekong, himself, appeared on a PrisonRadio show where he revealed his reasons why he self-immolated. [36]
Department of Corrections denial
After news reports of six inmates self-immolating, on November 27, 2024, the director of the Virginia Department of Corrections issued a statement claiming that the reports were "nothing more than bad-faith efforts to try to score cheap political points by advocacy groups". They then denied that any inmates self-immolated at all, saying "To be clear, these inmates did not set themselves on fire or self-immolate, as some reports have ludicrously suggested." The Department then affirmed that all prisoners who were burned during the alleged incidents had received proper care, saying, "Some of the inmates were treated for burns at the Department’s secure medical facility at the VCU Medical Center and cleared to return to the facility, while others did not require outside medical treatment"[37][38]
Notable inmates
Current
Inmate Name
Register Number
Status
Details
Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr.
1667409
Serving multiple life sentences for numerous crimes.
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to discipline or separate incarcerated individuals who are considered to be security risks to other incarcerated individuals or prison staff, as well as those who violate facility rules or are deemed disruptive. However, it can also be used as protective custody for incarcerated individuals whose safety is threatened by other prisoners. This is employed to separate them from the general prison population and prevent injury or death.
Lee Boyd Malvo, also known as John Lee Malvo, is a Jamaican convicted mass murderer who, along with John Allen Muhammad, committed a series of murders dubbed the D.C. sniper attacks over a three-week period in October 2002. Malvo was aged 17 during the span of the shootings. He is serving multiple life sentences at Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Virginia, a maximum security prison.
Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is a supermax prison in Crescent City, California. The 275-acre (111 ha) prison takes its name from a shallow bay on the Pacific coast, about 2 mi (3.2 km) to the west.
United States Penitentiary Florence Administrative Maximum Facility is a United States federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.
Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), also known as Oregon State Prison, is a maximum security prison in the northwest United States in Salem, Oregon. Originally opened in Portland 173 years ago in 1851, it relocated to Salem fifteen years later. The 2,242-capacity prison is the oldest in the state; the all-male facility is operated by the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC). OSP contains an intensive management wing, which is being transformed into a psychiatric facility for mentally ill prisoners throughout Oregon.
Thomas Edward Silverstein was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned for armed robbery, one of which was overturned. Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing corrections officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death. Correctional officers refused to talk to Silverstein out of respect for Clutts.
The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison located just outside Lucasville in Scioto County, Ohio. The prison was constructed in 1972. As of 2023, the warden is Cindy Davis.
The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) is the government agency responsible for community corrections and operating prisons and correctional facilities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The agency is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association and is one of the oldest functioning correctional agencies in the United States. Its headquarters is located in the state capital of Richmond.
Wallens Ridge State Prison is a level 5 state prison located in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, housing approximately 1,200 inmates. Since opening in April 1999, it has been a part of the Virginia Department of Corrections, and is identical to the Red Onion State Prison near Pound. The prison was built for over $70 million. As of 1999 the prison employs almost 800 people.
The Tamms Correctional Center is a closed Illinois Department of Corrections prison located in Tamms, Illinois. Prior to its 2013 closure, the prison housed people in two sections: (1) a 200-bed minimum security facility, opened in 1995, and (2) a 500-bed supermax facility known as the Closed Maximum Security Unit ("CMAX"), opened in 1998, that housed people defined by the prison leadership as most disruptive and dangerous.
The District of Columbia Department of Corrections (DCDC) is a law enforcement agency responsible for the adult jails and other adult correctional institutions and law enforcement buildings for the District of Columbia, in the United States. DCDC runs the D.C. Jail.
Colorado State Penitentiary is a Level V maximum security prison in the U.S. state of Colorado. The facility is part of the state's East Cañon Complex, together with six other state correctional facilities of various security levels.
The 2013 California prisoner hunger strike started on July 8, 2013, involving over 29,000 inmates in protest of the state's use of solitary confinement practices and ended on September 5, 2013. The hunger strike was organized by inmates in long term solitary in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison in protest of inmates housed there that were in solitary confinement indefinitely for having supposed gang ties. Another hunger strike that added to the movement started the week before in High Desert State Prison. The focus of the High Desert State Prison hunger strike was to demand cleaner facilities, better food and better access to the library.
In the United States penal system, upwards of 20 percent of state and federal prison inmates and 18 percent of local jail inmates are kept in solitary confinement or another form of restrictive housing at some point during their imprisonment. Solitary confinement (sometimes euphemistically called protective custody, punitive segregation (PSEG) or room restriction) generally comes in one of two forms: "disciplinary segregation," in which inmates are temporarily placed in solitary confinement as punishment for rule-breaking; and "administrative segregation," in which prisoners deemed to be a risk to the safety of other inmates, prison staff, or to themselves are placed in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, often months or years.
The Indian Creek Correctional Center (ICCC) is a Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) state prison for men. The prison is located in Chesapeake, Virginia, United States, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the North Carolina border.
The Deerfield Correctional Center is a state prison for men located in Capron, Southampton County, Virginia, owned and operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections. The facility was opened in 1994 and has a working capacity of 1,080 prisoners.
Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison is a documentary film by HBO about Red Onion State Prison, a supermax prison, in the U.S. state of Virginia, focusing on the use and effects of solitary confinement.
The Prisoner Human Rights Movement was launched in 2011 by Pelican Bay State Prison inmates in response to large numbers of inmates being moved from general prison populations to solitary-confinement units after allegations of gang affiliation or political organizing. Its goal is to improve living conditions for inmates in California.
Keen Mountain Correctional Center is a level 4, maximum security correctional facility in Oakwood, Virginia. It opened in 1990 and houses up to 1200 adult male offenders.
↑ "Miners' New Prospect Is Prison Guard Jobs", The Washington Post, 16 March 1998. Accessed via ProQuest. "The state employment office has received more than 3,000 applications for the 403 guard jobs, paying $20,000 a year, at Red Onion State Prison, which will open in July. Many of the applications come from laid-off miners."
↑ Maria Glod, "Va. to Send Out-of-State Inmates Packing; State Says It Needs Space Used by 1,000 Prisoners from Conn., D.C., Elsewhere", The Washington Post, 28 February 2004.
1 2 3 Peter Finn, "Two New Prisons Rise for Virginia's Toughest Convicts; Abolition of Parole Results In `Super-Maximum' Facilities", The Washington Post, 23 June 1997; accessed via ProQuest.
1 2 Craig Timberg, "Virginia Rethinking Hard-Core Prisons; Effect on Inmates Could Backfire", The Washington Post, 27 April 1999, accessed via ProQuest.
↑ Bill Miller, "Va. Alters Prison Policy to Cut Use of Restraints", The Washington Post, 9 February 2001; accessed via ProQuest.
↑ Maria Glod, "U.S. Investigates Virginia Prison; Red Onion Inmates' Allegations Involve Excessive Force", The Washington Post, 3 October 2000; accessed via ProQuest.
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