RALLY IN RICHMOND AGAINST PRISON ABUSE (2025) By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

On May 24, 2025 a second rally will be held in downtown Richmond, Virginia against abuses in the state’s remote prisons.

We are calling to shut down the state’s two supermax prisons Red Onion and Wallens Ridge, notorious for racism and abuse since they first opened in 1998 and 1999. We’re also demanding the firing of Chadwick Dotson, director of the state’s prison system and A. David Robinson, the system’s operations chief. Also that an independent oversight body be created with enforcement powers as against the prisons and that all retaliation and harassment of whistleblowers and witnesses to abuses stop.

These demands are a critical response to intolerable and outmoded abuses committed by officials against powerless people that go unanswered and without accountability. Under the direction of fearful advocates and profit-seeking not-for-profits, these officials have been able to reverse the function of a democratic government. They’ve rendered the electorate afraid to challenge and demand the recall of those they elected and instead live in fear of them.

These demands place the power of the people back into the hands of the electorate, as citizens of a democratic republic rather than subjects rendered afraid of retaliation from feudal dictators. Citizens have the right to make demands of their elected officials and should in no wise cringe of fear.

The May 24th rally follows up on the first rally to shut Red Onion and Wallens Ridge down that took place on Jan 8, 2025 in downtown Richmond, which was well-attended despite freezing temperatures and a water crisis in the city. The group discussion that followed that rally gave broader attention to the protested conditions and the plight of their victims.

That first rally came on the heels of the media exposure of numerous men at Red Onion setting themselves on fire and suffering severe injuries, in desperate efforts to be transferred away from conditions in the prison that Virginia delegates like Holly Seibold and Michael Jones described as “inhumane,” racist as against their predominantly Black and Brown prisoner populations, and otherwise intolerable, based on their own tours of the prison. In response to these exposures the warden of Red Onion and Dotson blatantly lied to the public and in the media, denying the prisoner burnings and the foul conditions in these prisons, hence the demand for their firing. On top of this they have created an anti-democratic political climate where prisoner advocates are afraid to expose and challenge their abuses.

Join us in Richmond on May 24 in our fight against abuses in Virginia’s prisons.

Rally RSVP: bit.ly/redonion-may24-rsvp
Join UPROAR: bit.ly/join-uproar
Contact: uproar1966@proton.me
Phone/Text: (646) 470-5190

Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!
All Power to the People!