Why Is This Important (Updated June 5, 2025)

This is an urgent relaunch of our May 21 & 28 campaign in defense of Kevin “Rashid” Johnson—a prison journalist and revolutionary political educator now facing total isolation for exposing abuse inside Virginia and South Carolina prisons.

Rashid was transferred out of Virginia under coercion and fraud. After helping expose a fellow prisoner’s self-immolation at Red Onion State Prison in Fall 2024, he was forced—under threat of solitary confinement—to sign a settlement that VADOC used to exile him to South Carolina. Since then, retaliation has escalated beyond what anyone anticipated.

On June 4, Rashid was able to speak by legal call for the first time since May 21. He reported the following:

• He is being held in a “no communication” tier: no phone, no tablet, no mail, no visits.

• He is locked 24 hours a day in a bare cell with no mattress or bedding.

• He has no access to his legal documents from Virginia—30 boxes are still missing.

• He is suffering from an untreated leg injury (from hogtie-style transport) and an untreated respiratory illness while on full hunger strike.

• South Carolina staff are trying to force him to call off his supporters by threatening to hurt him. He named Inspector General Agent Fergeli as the official who issued this threat in person on May 20:

  “Tell your people to stop calling or I’ll charge you, keep you in the hole, and you’ll get hurt.”

Rashid is not alone. Another man in his block, Wayne Hollinshead, has been on hunger strike since June 2 and has attempted suicide twice due to the same conditions of enforced isolation.

Rashid and Wayne are being disappeared across state lines. Every right Rashid would retain if still in Virginia—media access, legal contact, out-of-cell time—has been stripped away. These are not security-based restrictions. They are explicit, coordinated acts of political retaliation against someone who dared to speak out.

All previous legal, medical, and constitutional violations remain unresolved. This is not just retaliation—it is repression. And we are not backing down.

If you sent emails last time, thank you. But they are counting on us to go silent after one wave. This is a new phase of the same struggle—and it demands new action, renewed pressure, and louder collective resistance.

We are not just defending one man. We are defending every whistleblower, every jailhouse lawyer, every person inside who has dared to resist. Rashid is a target because he’s organized. Let’s show them that we are too.