Why is this important?

Right now, dozens of incarcerated people—many of them Black, Latino, disabled, and mentally ill—are being tortured in Virginia prisons with no meaningful oversight. They are being burned, beaten, starved, denied medical and psychiatric care, and held in retaliation for filing grievances or exposing abuse. At least two people have set themselves on fire in desperate attempts to escape this violence.

One whistleblower, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, was forced into an out-of-state transfer under threat of indefinite solitary, and now faces total isolation and censorship in South Carolina. Another, Ekong Eshiet, was transferred to Indiana, where he’s being held in solitary without mental health care, phone access, or legal mail. Many others—like Usamah Woodley, Justin Harrell, Bilal Coleman, and Randy Lassiter—are being beaten, denied medications, mocked during suicide watch, and held in cells with no water, food, or clothing.

These are not isolated incidents—they are patterns of systemic abuse designed to suppress dissent and evade accountability. Officers have falsified logs, destroyed evidence, blocked ombudsman intervention, and retaliated through “safety” designations and false charges.

We cannot allow Virginia’s prison system to operate as a secret site of torture and racist retaliation. We must demand transparency, legal compliance, and real consequences—before more lives are lost.