REVIVING SLAVE HOUNDS AND CANINE CRIMES IN VIRGINIA’S PRISONS (2025) by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was right. Anyone who wants to determine a society’s level of progress only needs to look inside its prisons. This is because prisons are a condensed version of the society that produces them.

Indeed, as the U.S. Supreme Court has stated, the U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment, is supposed to reflect “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” (1)

So, how far has Amerika evolved?

AMERIKA IS STILL A BACKWARD RACIST SOCIETY

Though it is forgotten in history, slave hounds or “negro packs of dogs,” were THE primary weapon of terror and brute violence used to repress Black slaves and compel their submission to a life of permanent humiliation, dehumanization and servitude. The use of these animals to maul and often kill slaves and hunt down those who fled captivity, was deemed barbaric and outmoded over 200 years ago and was deemed so outrageous that it led multitudes of people to unite in the struggle and ultimately a war that abolished slavery. (2)

A look inside Amerika’s prisons, in Virginia in particular, reveals that Amerika is still a very backward and racist society. Where the practice continues of use of attack dogs to maul prisoners, particularly prisoners of color and often for the entertainment of guards.

During July 2023, the Insider published a report on the use and abuse of attack dogs inside U.S. prisons. (3) The Virginia prison system was the main focus of the report, based upon the disproportionate use of attack dogs in its prisons, and the fact that no other prison system in the world uses dogs to attack prisoners inside cells. The report found that just between the years 2017 and 2022, Va prisoners had been attacked with dogs no less than 217 times, compared to only 15 times within the same period in the next highest recorded state of Arizona. The 217 identified dog attacks in Va prisons was NOT a complete listing, but simply what the Insider discovered from reviewing court and medical files. There were MANY more.

In fact when I was confined at Va’s notoriously abusive and racist Red Onion State Prison in 2023, I heard guards and medical staff frequently admit, that for years prisoners in Red Onion and its nearby sister supermax, Wallens Ridge State Prison, were taken to local hospitals for emergency treatment for dog bites more than all other medical conditions and injuries combined.

In Va, the violence that prisoners live in danger of suffering serious often crippling injury from is dogs not other prisoners.

ABUSES OF ATTACK DOGS IN DEFIANCE OF STATE LAWS

For decades, the abuses of these animals in Va prisons was kept secret from the public. I recall, back in 2006, questioning how the constant uses of these animals in Va was overlooked by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its critical report issued that year on the use of canines in U.S. prisons. (4) That report came on the heels of the 2004 international scandal that erupted when photographs were leaked to the media of Amerikan soldiers torturing and using military dogs to terrorize detainees in Iraq.

The HRW report looked at several U.S. prison systems that used canines to intimidate prisoners. But it didn’t once mention Va’s prisons, where dogs were frequently used even then to ACTUALLY ATTACK prisoners.

It took decades of abuses of these animals in Va for the public to become aware and for the state to enact laws intended to limit the uses of attack dogs in its prisons.

The Insider report, came over 15 years after the HRW report, and was the first broad coverage of the abuse of dogs in Va prisons.

Ironically, the push for laws to limit the uses of these dogs didn’t come in response to the frequent maulings of prisoners. Instead, it happened after one of these animals was allegedly killed by a Va prisoner fending off an attack in Apr 2024. I wrote about this incident and the sympathetic media response to the animal’s death, compared to the total indifference to the frequent mutilations of prisoners by these dogs, demonstrating that prisoners in Va, like the slaves of the old South, are literally “treated worse than dogs.” (5)

In any case, during 2024 this law was enacted limiting the “use” of prison attack dogs in Va to incidents where officials believe they are immediately needed to protect someone against threat of serious bodily injury or death, or where approved by a ranking official to intervene in an altercation involving three or more prisoners. (6) Never mind that these animals themselves present the danger of serious injury and death.

At no point has this law been obeyed.

Not only are these animals used to physically attack prisoners in situations where no such dangers exist, but they are “used” to violently threaten prisoners on a continuous basis, which constitutes assault.

I have been housed at numerous Va prisons where these animals are present and used, both before and since this new law was enacted, including Greensville, Sussex 1, Red Onion and, now, Keen Mountain prisons.

At Keen Mountain, where I’m presently confined, multiple attack dogs are used to threaten and intimidate prisoners all day every day, particularly as we go about our daily activities, such as going to and from meals, outside recreation, work and so on.

No matter where we go, these animals are used to menace us. Their handlers incite (giving the animals commands) and cause them to rabidly bark, snap, and rear up on their hind legs and lunge at us with such force they often drag and jerk the trainers along behind them, often coming within a foot or less of our bodies. As Va prison officials have conceded in the media, the act of having these dogs intimidate prisoners by ‘presence’ constitutes their “use.” Prisoners who dare to protest or complain of this abuse are taunted by officials as timid or subject to retaliation in efforts to silence our protests.

One such prisoner was Antwan Whitten. Antwan was one of the victims of a malicious dog attack detailed in the July 2023 Insider report. On Oct 31, 2015 after an altercation with another prisoner, he followed guards’ orders to lay facedown on his cell floor.

After he laid down, an attack dog was brought into the cell and made to brutally maul him. His wounds made evident that he had been attacked while lying prone.

The dog bit and tore the flesh from the back of his head and shoulder and his back. To cover up the fact that the animal was brought to his cell and deployed on him after the altercation was over and the other prisoner had been taken away from the scene of the altercation, officials erased surveillance camera footage of the cell area that showed these activities and conformed reports lying about what transpired. Understandably, Whitten was traumatized and suffers PTSD and other psychological effects from the malicious assault and lying cover-up.

Here at Keen Mountain Whitten complained about the dogs being allowed to menace him and all of us wherever he went in the prison.

A week after he filed a complaint he was targeted with an infraction and thrown in solitary confinement, where he found much of his personal property had been stolen or destroyed. He was then transferred to River North where attack dogs are abused even more.

DAILY ASSAULTS WITH CANINES

At Keen Mountain these animals and their handlers sit inside the entryway to our housing units. We must pass them whenever we enter or exit the unit, at which times we are subjected to having them attempt to attack us, barking and lunging at us as described above.

They can be heard inside our cellblocks barking loudly, especially when the front door to the block is opened to allow prisoners or staff to enter or exit. The barking is often so loud we cannot hear our conversations on the telephones inside the block, and prisoners who must sleep during daylight hours such as kitchen workers are kept awake. Also, those workers who frequently come in and out of the unit such as Keith Fitzgerald and Tiqua Ubuntu, who push carts of food, laundry and other items through the prison, suffer having these animals lunging at and attempting to attack them throughout the day.

At River North, Askari Lumumba suffered and filed suit against the constant use of dogs to menace prisoners in the same way, but often with greater malice. At River North, prisoners moving throughout the prison are made to walk gauntlets with dogs on either side of walkways that they must walk down. The animals are made to lunge and attempt to attack the prisoners, coming within inches of biting them.

Lumumba complained of suffering panic attacks, fear for his safety, and often refused to leave his cell. He suffered taunts and repression by River North officials in response to complaints of these uses of dogs to terrorize him and others.

But, as in Antwan Whitten’s case, the physical abuses of these animals on prisoners, predominantly Blacks and Browns, is downright evil.

DOGS USED TO MAUL THE MENTALLY ILL

“On July 15, 2024 I had a psychotic episode. Other inmates tried to help but correctional officers thought it was a fight and I was OC’ed [tear gassed] and then the K-9 was deployed when I clearly posed no threat to myself, no officer, nor the orderly operation of the facility. This was just a racist attack and wantonly sadistic ploy to use old Jim Crow, proud boy tactics on me and cause me irreparable harm and violate my rights.” – Keen Mountain complaint #KMCC-24-WRI-01508

This statement is from the summary of a complaint filed on July 16, 2024 by Tremain Williams, a Black man imprisoned here at Keen Mountain.

As it states, on July 15th Tremain had a mental breakdown. His worst offense was to crawl beneath a table in his cellblock and, in a display of obvious paranoid fear, cling to the leg of the table. In response, a mob of white guards repeatedly tear gassed and openly beat him. He was handcuffed and taken out of the block, after which the guards sicced an attack dog on him. The dog mauled his leg including ripping his Achilles tendon.

The entire attack on Tremain was recorded on surveillance and guard body cameras, which he requested be preserved for litigation.

Tremain had to be rushed to the hospital where he received emergency treatment and now suffers a permanent crippling injury, for which he was prescribed rehabilitative care, which Va prison officials refuse to provide.

Tremain’s experience is common in Va’s prisons. The malicious use of attack dogs to maul Black prisoners. The infliction of severe, often crippling injury. And the denial of needed medical treatment for those injuries. These incidents occur with especial frequency in Va’s remote high security prisons, like Red Onion, Wallens Ridge, River North and Keen Mountain, that are located in rural segregated white communities where the staff are almost totally white, while the prisoners are near totally Black and Brown. In any case, inherent in the very presence of the dogs is the fact that they will be and are abused, and on an extreme level.

DOGS USED TO MALICIOUSLY MAUL PRISONERS

On Dec 31, 2023, at Wallens Ridge, Ekong Eshiet, a Black man, was involved in a minor fist fight with a white prisoner. Both prisoners followed guards’ directions to stop fighting and lie face down on the floor.

Moments after both were lying down as ordered and restrained, a dog was brought into the unit and the handler pulled the animal on top of Ekong and had it tear into his leg.

On July 23, 2023, at Red Onion, Jaeon Chavis, another Black man, was also mauled by an attack dog while he was lying restrained on the floor.

The attack on Jaeon came in response to his having a heated personal telephone conversation in his block. Guards entered the unit and ordered him to place his hands against a wall. He raised his hands. Instead of restraining him, a guard rushed up and punched him. Others swarmed, tackled and piled on top of him. Despite that Jaeon never resisted, a dog was brought in and thrown on top of his exposed legs and caused to rip out the back of his calf. He suffered numerous puncture wounds and nerve damage.

As also commonly occurs in dog attack cases, Jaeon didn’t receive necessary medical treatment for his bite wounds. An open hole was left in his leg that should have been sutured closed. The hole became septic and led to nerve damage.

Worse still was the case of Walter Kissee, yet another Black man, who was attacked and permanently crippled by a dog at River North on Apr 13, 2024.

Walter was attacked, tear gassed and beaten by guards. After he was left lying blind and handcuffed and leg shackled, a dog was brought into the cellblock and caused to rip a softball-sized chunk of muscle out of his right calf. The bite force he suffered nearly shattered his leg bone which was left exposed.

In an effort to hide him and the assault he suffered, Va officials had him transferred to remote Red Onion, where he was denied hospital ordered treatment which caused his wound to become infected, and his leg to almost require amputation. He underwent several surgeries, one to clean the wound of the infection. Walter has since the assault been confined to a wheelchair, being permanently crippled, and held at Red Onion, which is not a wheelchair accessible prison. Despite skin grafts and multiple surgeries, Walter has a huge scar on his leg measuring 3″ × 4″.

To add insult to injury, while at Red Onion he was again beaten by guards on Oct 16, 2024, because he couldn’t kneel due to his injuries, when he was taken to solitary confinement because of protesting a cell move. He actually had a medically issued “no-kneel” pass because of his injuries.

Then there was Jamaal Shivers. On Feb 1, 2025 at Keen Mountain, he was involved in an altercation with another prisoner. By guards’ own admissions, he was the target of an attack caused by their leaving the area where the altercation took place unattended and several security gates unlocked. He was struck several times with a heavy object, yet the dog was used on him.

Jamaal nearly suffered castration as the handler allowed the dog to bite him between the legs. He still endured serious injuries from the dog bites.

In another case, a dog was maliciously trained on a prisoner’s groin, who wasn’t even involved in a fight. This prisoner, Carl Hughes, was targeted in this manner at Sussex 1 prison because of being transgender.

Carl had been punched by another prisoner and never fought back. Two dogs were sicced on Carl by two guards, McCray and Gonzalez. McCray taunted Carl as he directed the dog to attack Carl’s groin, stating that Carl didn’t need male genitals anyway since they were transgendered.

Carl was bitten seven times suffering numerous deep tear and puncture wounds requiring dozens of sutures, including to their penis, ear, forearm, bicep, wrist, calf and inner thigh.

Then there was Curtis Garrett, a Black man who also had two dogs sicced on him. On Christmas day in 2018 he was involved in a minor fight with another prisoner. After which he retreated into his cell where guards secured him locking the door.

Two canine handlers brought their dogs to his cell, and, instead of cuffing him when he turned his back to the door to allow them to do so, they had the cell door opened and sicced their dogs on him as they beat him. At times Curtis had the two animals hanging on his upper body by their teeth tearing into his flesh as the guards assaulted him.

As a result he suffered severe nerve damage and deep wounds causing paralysis in his leg and hand.

As was done to Walter Kissee, Curtis was transferred to remote Wallens Ridge where he was denied hospital ordered treatment causing greater suffering and injury and his wounds to become infected. He was only taken to a hospital to receive care including for the infected wounds because he laid down and played dead in his cell.

Not long after his dog attack Curtis was released from prison. He ended up being committed to a mental health facility because of suffering a mental breakdown from the abuse he suffered.

LEGAL PROTECTION OF ABUSE OF DOGS

Attacks like those described above are the daily norm in Va’s high security prisons, where these animals are used. As I’ve pointed out in several articles, Va’s high security prisons are concentrated in rural segregated white communities and staffed almost totally by whites, while the vast majority of prisoners confined in them are Black and Brown. This alone creates a culturally and racially hostile environment that has always fostered violent and racist abuse. (7)

This culture of abuse is further encouraged by the general indifference of federal courts to the dog attacks despite that the constitution is supposed to embody and enforce principles of an evolving and maturing society; making clear that racist abuse is still the norm in Amerika, hundreds of years after canine attacks on people were widely deemed inhumane and barbaric.

Numerous Va prisoners have tried to sue officials for these abusive attacks, but have been told by Va federal judges that these dog attacks are not against the 8th Amendment.

Yet the use of canines was criminalized during the Civil War, when Confederates used their slave hounds on Union Army soldiers. This standard came into being only when the dogs were used on whites.

Confederate leaders like Henry Wirz were even sentenced to execution for the practice. (8) But, this standard came into being only when the dogs were used on whites. Hence, today mauling Black and Brown prisoners in Virginia is accepted practice.

ABUSING THE DOGS

As the Insider report revealed, these dogs are not only abused against prisoners, the animals are often the victims of abuse by their handlers. This is often the case because many of the animals resist being taught to attack people or become rabid and unstable in response to this training. In one case reported by the Insider, a Va prison dog handler choked his dog to death at a veterinarian’s office when he could not control the animal.

Here at Keen Mountain, I and other prisoners witness handlers manually choke and literally hang their dogs (snatching them off the ground and suspending them in the air by their leashes for extended periods) on a near daily basis, in response to the dogs resisting them.

On Mar 16, 2015 Keen Mountain prisoner workers Tiqua Ubuntu and Keith Fitzgerald witnessed one of the dogs turn on and bite his handler in response to such abuse. The handler in turn slammed the dog to the ground and manually choked him while screaming into the animal’s face.

But the abuses of Va attack dogs have also been the victims of sexual abuses by handlers.

In 2009 a media scandal erupted when five canine guards at several Va prisons were arrested for animal cruelty for sexually abusing their attack dogs. (9)

NO GOOD USE OF ATTACK DOGS

In no context or situation is the presence of dogs in prisons justifiable nor humane. As demonstrated in sampling just the few cases given here, officials will always abuse and create pretexts to falsely justify the misuse of these animals. And they will often abuse the animals as well.

The use of these carnivores in Va prisons is explicitly racially targeted. They are deployed only in the state’s high security prisons, which are strategically located in remote white segregated communities and peopled almost exclusively by Black and Brown prisoners. This racial and cultural contradiction of arming rural whites to police absolutely voiceless and powerless people of color creates the basis for racist abuse and impunity. Officials know what they have created. It is a dynamic that replicates the racial and power disparity of the slavery and Jim Crow eras that fueled and now fuels racist abuse. Adding attack dogs to the equation only ensures that the abuse take on the most barbaric forms.

As was recognised over 200 years ago, only animals consider it an acceptable practice to have carnivorous animals rip and crush the flesh and bones of humans.

These animals must be removed from these prisons – those that walk on four legs and two.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

_____________________
Endnotes:

1. Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337, 346 (1981)

2. T.D. Parry, “Slave Hounds and Abolition in the Americas,” PAST AND PRESENT, number 246 (2020) http://academic.oup.com/past/article/246/1/69/57722095

3. Hannah Beckler, “Patrol Dogs are Terrorizing and Mauling Prisoners Inside the United States,” THE INSIDER, Jul 23, 2023

4. Jamie Fellner, “Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons,” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, Oct 2006. www.hrw.org

5. Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, “Prisoners Treated Worse Than Dogs” (2024) http://rashidmod.com/?p=3644

6. See, Code of Virginia section 53.1-39.3 (Use of canines in state correctional facilities; prohibited acts; policies and regulations made public; incidents of use of canines reported; exception.)

7. Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, “Parallels Between Slavery and Jim Crow and the Operations of Virginia’s Prisons Today” (2025) http://rashidmod.com/?p=3676

8. Larry H. Spruill, “Slave Patrols, ‘Packs off Negro Dogs’ and Policing Black Communities” PHYLON, Vol 53, No. 1, pp. 42-66 (Summer 2016) http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/phylon1960.53.1.42

9. Matthew Stabley, “Corrections Officers Take ‘K-9 Handling’ Too Far: Five Face Animal Cruelty Charges After One Was Filmed Masturbating a Dog,” Oct 29, 2009 www.nbcwashington.com

David Reutter, “Virginia DOC K-9 ‘Training’ Results in Animal Cruelty Charges,” PRISON LEGAL NEWS, Apr 15, 2010