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: January 2, 2006
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 Mitchell’s wrists these three guards together yanked his arm out of the cell door’s 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 Mitchell’s 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 Mitchell’s 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 O’Quinn, 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 (plg’s) 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 Nelligar’s head and face onto the concrete floor of his cell during this attack. Nelligar was threatened by Strouth that he’d better voluntarily confess when the audio/ video portable carmera was brought in during the process of putting him into ambulatory restraints, that he’d spit on Strouth, which Nelligar had in fact not done, and that he’d better not file any complaints to medical staff nor about being attacked, or he’d be beaten again, Nelligar did as he was told.
Another prisoner, Kelvin Canada #218813 appalled by the attack on Nelligar and Nelligar’s fear to complain, himself wrote complaints on Nelligar’s 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 prisoner’s 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 didn’t 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 prisoner’s personal earphones, leading to his allegedly kicking his cell door to get a supervisor’s 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 who’d 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 they’d 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 he’d receive his shower, but that at that moment he should return to his cell. Wright complied.
Upon removing one handcuff, Cox snatched Wright’s 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