Summary

Incarcerated individuals at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison have reportedly burned themselves in protest of alleged inhumane conditions, including racial abuse, excessive solitary confinement, and neglect.

The Virginia Department of Corrections confirmed six incidents but denied reports of self-immolation, while others claim 12 men were injured.

Protesters and advocacy groups, including the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, demand an independent investigation, citing reports of maggot-infested food, physical abuse, and poor medical care.

Incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, who exposed the protests, was placed in solitary confinement, allegedly as retaliation.

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    “No, no, you see, when I said “anyone’s”, I meant the physical edition of national papers and also my local one. State’s biggest newspaper and a shitload of local stations published it? Doesn’t count. Needs to be outside the state. Augusta Free Press? Too small. NBC? Not a physical paper. This is totally what I meant when I said ‘any US-based source promoting this story’. Checkmate, libshits!”

    .ml is a plague of intellectual dishonesty.

    Edit: of fucking course they’re pro-Assad, lmfao. “A dictatorship indiscriminately attacking civilian areas with sarin gas and then trying to cover it up I can handle, but clearly there’s a cover-up (that I don’t approve of) afoot when not more than one massive national news outlet puts a spotlight on bad conditions in this prison.”

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          A strawman is when you attack arguments nobody made.

          I said “the story received no promotion”. I didn’t see it in the national news section of my local paper, and the national online news didn’t cover it for a month and aren’t even putting it on the front page a month later.

          That’s borderline a blackout for something that should be a national shame.