Va. DOC said inmates didn't "self-immolate" but did burn themselves

[underpants]

Virginia Mercury News is a good source. Good investigative journalism that follows up on stories.

Virginia Department of Corrections confirm inmates burned themselves; lawmakers want investigation

https://virginiamercury.com/briefs/virginia-department-of-corrections-confirm-inmates-burned-themselves-lawmakers-want-investigation/

A Wednesday statement from DOC director Chadwick Dotson confirmed that six people had burned themselves by “using improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets.”

Adding
“ The recent round of stories about Red Onion are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to try to score cheap political points by advocacy groups who pursue prison abolition and policies that would make Virginians less safe,” he said.

Alison Chaffin, who has a loved one in Red Onion, said that she was frustrated by Dotson’s response.

“(VBLC) asked him to investigate, and then this is his response,” she said. “He says ‘It’s not self-immolating.” But they burned themselves — I thought that was the definition.”

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Red Onion sounds like a hellhole

From the article:

Lawmakers in Virginia’s Legislative Black Caucus say a dozen prisoners have harmed themselves since mid-September and want an investigation into inmates’ claims of poor living conditions and treatment in the high-security prison. Earlier this year prisoners there held hunger strikes to protest conditions.

“People who have been incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison describe being regularly subjected to racial and physical abuse from correctional officers, medical neglect including the withholding of medicine, excessive stays in solitary confinement with one report of 600 consecutive days, inedible food having been covered in maggots and officers’ spit, and violent dog attacks,” according to the release from the Black Caucus. “These repeated and tragic self-immolation attempts, and accompanying hunger strikes, reflect the psychological and physical toll that gruesome prison conditions can have on incarcerated individuals.”

[underpants]

3. And remember, it's not solitary confinement

Rather than labeling it solitary confinement, Virginia has what it calls “restorative housing. This is defined as “special purpose bed assignments operated under maximum security regulations and procedures and utilized for the personal protection or custodial management of an incarcerated person.”

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. oh, well then

[Igel]

4. Immolation means they tried to kill themselves through burning.

Perhaps they burned themselves by electrocuting themselves. Or just wanted to trip breakers. Or thought that the electric current would provide a nice, pleasant tingling sensation or replicate electroshock therapy. (In the absence of facts, make up hypotheses--one might be true.)

Investigate.