STATEMENT OF DEMETRIUS WALLACE ON EXPERIENCES WITH RACISM, NEGLECT, RETALIATION AND ABUSE AT RED ONION STATE PRISON (2024)

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither person nor property will be safe.” – Frederick Douglass, 1868

This quote was written in 1868, but in 2024 I feel as though this is what us prisoners at Red Onion State Prison are experiencing.

This is a statement to the public and everyone who has family, friends or significant others in prison.

My name is Demetrius Wallace. I’m currently incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison which is located in a rural town in Virginia – Pound, Va – where the population is majority white and only 0.5% Black. The staff at Red Onion is almost totally white. But I am Black and the vast majority of prisoners at Red Onion are Black.

I’m writing to expose to the public the abuse, racism, neglect and retaliation us prisoners here have been enduring for years, and the fact that it keeps going unnoticed. Also I want to explain how I myself have been directly impacted by all of the above.

It first started on Nov 25, 2023. I was placed in solitary confinement while I was shackled at the ankles and handcuffed to the back, with two guards holding me. I had a female sergeant named Terri Smith spray me in the eyes and face with tear gas because she stated to me, “Don’t fucking look at me like that!”

I was in no way a threat to her but somehow I was sprayed and assaulted by several prison guards, and high ranking ones at that. I was called racist names by a lieutenant named Joshua Massingill. This also happened twice within 90 seconds, consisting of being repeatedly kicked, stomped and beaten while fully restrained and defenseless. The problem with this is it was all recorded on their body cameras and unit surveillance cameras. And not one of them was punished for this, so this should show to the public how impetuous they are when it comes to their being diabolical, impulsive and racist. All while feeling as though there will never be any consequences.

So this all will continue to be incessant. I was then placed in a medical strip cell in restraints for 4 hours and denied proper medical attention. When my family and support system finally found out what happened they were lied to by the prison’s Chief of Security/Major Johnny Hall. He tried to justify my assault by the female sergeant and other prison officials saying that the female sergeant Terri Smith didn’t know if I was going to spit on her so I was sprayed and assaulted twice.

After this I was constantly harassed and retaliated against by several prison officials. This included having my TV broken and several personal property items destroyed, only to have them replaced after my family and support system called and had other people from Senator Jackie Glass’s office call the prison.

The retaliation did stop for a few weeks up until I went on a hunger strike on or about Dec 31, 2023 with several other prisoners, where I didn’t eat for 12 days just try and get someone from the DOC to do some type of internal investigation into what we are all going through.

You even had one prisoner Kevin “Rashid” Johnson miss 71 days of eating and still nothing happened. I was lied to and left alone up until around Apr 2024, when the same Lt Massingill and Sgt Terri Smith denied a white friend of mine access to the prison visitation for no reason but out of hatred. Then Lt Massingill went as far as to find this same female friend on Facebook the very same night he denied her entry to visit me off of his family member’s account and tried to fraternize with her.

This continued the point now where I have several screen shots of him and several other guards including Jordan Mikgrim, J.C. Mays, Hamilton and Sgt Carr trying to reach out to her, then coming to work telling me that they see how good she looks when she comes to see me. And outright saying they are going to find her. My family and she have sent screen shots of their messages to the warden of the prison and other higher ups in the DOC and nothing has been done.

Lastly on Aug 23, 2024 while being housed in solitary confinement being harassed and threatened by several prison officials, being denied showers and given trays with no food on them to the point that I felt as though my back was against the wall, I set the top of my foot on fire in desperation to get off the compound and have something done about what I was going through.

This caused me to receive third degree burns and undergo two surgeries and receive a skin graft. I spent 14 days at Virginia Commonwealth University hospital. Where I was then sent back to Red Onion where the same things are still happening. But now I’m being denied my phone and email access while still housed in solitary confinement. Also since I set myself on fire at least 9 other prisoners have done the same or worse all in desperation to get help.

I wasn’t sent to the hospital for my burns until 2 days after I set myself on fire, because Major Johnny Hall told his staff not to send me immediately. At the hospital the doctor questioned why I wasn’t brought in when the burns first happened. He was upset because I had developed a serious infection as a result of the delay which had to be treated before the needed surgery could be done for the burns.