(New York, July 29, 1999)—Human Rights Watch today denounced the Virginia Department of Corrections for sending a nonviolent inmate to a super-maximum security facility as punishment for insolence to Ronald Angelone, the department's director. The New York-based international human rights monitoring organization—which has repeatedly criticized the department's practice of sending inmates to Red Onion who have no history of serious violence while incarcerated—called for a comprehensive public inquiry into the department's use of its two super-maximum security facilities.
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"Sending this inmate to Red Onion was outrageous, a purely vindictive abuse of power. Unfortunately he is one of hundreds who should never have been sent to Red Onion. The department has consistently ignored its own rules as it tries to fill super-maximum security beds it never needed."
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Jamie Fellner
Associate Counsel of Human Rights Watch
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"Sending this inmate to Red Onion was outrageous, a purely vindictive abuse of power," said Jamie Fellner, associate counsel of Human Rights Watch. "Unfortunately he is one of hundreds who should never have been sent to Red Onion. The department has consistently ignored its own rules as it tries to fill super-maximum security beds it never needed."
The inmate, John Wood, sent a letter to Human Rights Watch describing his encounter with Mr. Angelone on March 17 during a Board of Corrections tour of Coffeewood Correctional Center where Mr. Wood was serving a two-year sentence for drug possession. Mr. Wood complained to Mr.Angelone about the placement of heat registers high on the walls because the heat rose, leaving the dormitories cold, and he challenged Mr. Angelone's response that cold air rises. A few minutes later, Mr. Angelone told the inmate to pack his bags because he was going to be sent to Red Onion, one of two super-maximum security prisons in Virginia.
Mr. Wood had no history of disciplinary infractions, violence or escape-related conduct during his incarceration. According to a story in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch, a department spokesman has confirmed that Mr. Angelone was upset by the inmate's "mouthing off" in front of other inmates and Board members and saw it as a challenge to his authority.
Mr. Wood spent two weeks in segregation at Red Onion, confined to his cell 23 hours a day. He was then released to general population at Red Onion. On April 22, Mr. Wood received a reclassification score that would have placed him at the lowest security level in the DoC system—level 1. However, the DoC used a "discretionary override" to raise his level to security level 3. Mr. Wood was then transferred from Red Onion to the Augusta Correctional Center.
"Mr. Wood's case exemplifies the misuse of power that can occur when correctional authorities operate with insufficient commitment to sound correctional principles and inadequate public oversight and accountability,"according to Ms. Fellner, author of the Human Rights Watch report, "Red Onion State Prison: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in Virginia." That report and a follow-up briefing paper presented to the Virginia Crime Commission at its June 30 meeting documented the Department of Corrections' practice of arbitrarily sending men to Red Onion who could be safely confined in less restrictive facilities. The department was overriding the results of its own security scoring system to send men to Red Onion who had no records of serious institutional violence or disruption. It had also adopted, without justification, a policy of sending to Red Onion any inmate with a life sentence or who had committed murder, regardless of their conduct after incarceration.
At its June 30th meeting, members of the Crime Commission sharply questioned Mr. Angelone about the practice of assigning men who have low security scores to Red Onion. Instead of abandoning that practice, the department in July instituted a new scoring system that increases the points inmates receive for specified risk factors. It has not publicly explained the reasons for the higher scoring system.
"We are concerned that the department has instituted the new higher scoring system simply to make it easier for inmates to accumulate the points needed for assignment to super-maximum security facilities," said Ms. Fellner. "The department is playing with the security scoring numbers to cover its willingness to send to Red Onion and Wallens Ridge men who are not the incorrigibly violent and predatory for whom such facilities were designed."
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