During October 2024, while I was confined at Virginia’s notorious supermax, Red Onion State Prison, I broke the story that numerous men had set themselves on fire at the prison in desperate response to intolerable conditions there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This exposure brought international media attention to Red Onion and investigations by Va legislators who publicly criticized conditions there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also put out a call to create a prisoner support organization composed mainly of prisoners’ loved ones, to challenge and stop abuses in Va’s prisons, from which UPROAR was born in January 2025. (1)This new group went immediately to work rallying against these abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was then abruptly interstate transferred to the corrupt South Carolina prison system on May 1, 2025, where I was met with abusive measures aimed to stop me from publicizing and organizing against prison abuses. The most sinister of these measures was my exposure for months to a deadly neurotoxin under direction of SC prison administrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 15, 2025 an article I wrote describing my abusive transfer and conditions in SC titled, “Virginia Officials Break A Leg to Transfer Me to South Carolina” was published and circulated, generating public protest and media inquiries. (2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five days later, on May 20th, I was thrown into solitary confinement at SC’s Perry Correctional (sic!) Institution, where I was only minutes later confronted by an irate ‘agent’ front the state’s Inspector General’s office, who identified himself as Jamie Fergeli. He began a vulgar tirade telling me that he’d driven over an hour to deliver a message to me from the prisons system’s headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The message was a series of threats that if I continued writing about the system and didn’t tell my supporters and the media to stop contacting them about its conditions, I would remain in solitary, “get hurt”, and have my communication lines to the outside cut off. When I declined to do as he demanded, Fergeli stormed off promising to deliver on his threatened message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two day later I was moved to a different solitary cellblock where all occupants were banned from using the telephone or tablets to communicate with the outside. I observed that a thick white powder had been spread all around the base of the walls, toilet and window, and in and around the sink, in the new cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I didn’t know what the powder was nor suspect that it was harmful, I did try several times to clean it away. These efforts failed because applying water made it stick to surfaces and fill into cracks and crevices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the new cell I immediately became severely ill, developing acute chest congestion with rattling fluid in my lungs and deadly infections, including an abscessed tooth which the prison’s dental staff refused to treat. With the help of outside supporters and a lawyer, I had to arrange to pay to a private dentist for treatment, which officials delayed for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I signed up for and was seen on sick call on May 28th and was prescribed antibiotics and a decongestant for my symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the time that I remained in that cell, UPROAR and the attorney compiled numerous email reports of my illnesses and the treatments that I received and was denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 3, 2025 the prison’s warden, Curtis Earley, admitted to me that my solitary confinement and communications restrictions were in response to my article about my confinement and conditions in SC’s prisons and the public and media response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This retaliatory confinement was confirmed by supporters like Jay Rene of Prison Riot Radio, who reported responses from HQ officials to the public protests, that if the complaints stopped, I’d be released from solitary. When the complaints persisted, I was served with a trumped up disciplinary report and sentenced to 2 months in disciplinary solitary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon my release to general population on July 14, 2025, my respiratory illness promptly cleared up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On July 18, 2025 warden Early had me thrown back into solitary in the exact same cell, where the powder remained. My illness immediately returned. I remained in solitary for another month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Months later I learned from an inmate grounds worker that the white powder in the solitary cell was a commercial insecticide called Bengal UltraDust 2x FireAnt Killer, that officials had it put in the cell, and that it was the cause of my illnesses. I informed members of UPROAR, who researched and compiled a detailed report on this substance. (3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report revealed that the substance is a deadly synthetic neurotoxin that attacks the immune and central nervous systems of mammals. It is also a high grade carcinogen that causes silicosis and lung cancer and enters the body through skin contact and inhalation. It has the highest of all toxic classifications and no safe levels of exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could not clean it from the cell because it is hydrophobic (water repellant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Water causes the powder to stick to surfaces. In fact, its manufacturers boast that upon application to outside fire ant nests, it kills them for eight months, which means it’s not washed away and its toxic effects persist even after nearly a year of exposure to outside elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report also showed that my illnesses matched the safety data sheet exactly: namely respiratory infection causing rattling fluid in the lungs and compromised immune system. Also, the placement of the powder inside a cell directly violated the label warnings which forbid indoors use. The safety protocols recommend that an inhalation victim be immediately removed to fresh air, and immediate washing of skin and clothing upon contact with the substance. I was however trapped in a closed-in cell for months constantly breathing and touching the toxin, and as my articles revealed, here at Perry and in violation of SC prison policies, prisoners in solitary are almost never allowed to go outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based upon the report’s testing recommendations for prolonged exposure to the toxin, I signed up for sick call several times, on March 18 and April 8 and 9, 2026, and was seen by the prison’s providers, an RN Burgess and Nurse Practitioner Enloe. I requested the recommended spirometry (lung functioning test), CT chest scan to test for early silicosis, and lymphocyte count to document immune suppression. Both nurses refused the requested tests the moment I told them about the toxin exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of providing the recommended tests, the nurses prescribed me a sinus medication, although I have never suffered sinal problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During mid-March 2026, members of UPROAR met in person with Va HQ officials, including deputy directors Jeremiah Fitz and Carl Beckett and operations administrator Rose Durban. During this meeting these officials were specifically notified of my chemical poisoning and injuries at the hands of SC officials, and were appealed to to take action. They did nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My exposure to the neurotoxin constituted chemical assault, torture in violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture, unconstitutional deliberate indifference to serious medical and dental needs, and retaliation based upon the media threats made by Fergeli in conspiracy with SC HQ prios officials and Perry’s prison staff. Not to mention the blatant attempt to take my life by prolonged toxic poisoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While UPROAR and others have demanded my return to Va, I remain in SC custody subject to further abuses aimed to stop my involvement in exposing and challenging prison abuses. Nonetheless, I remain committed to this work and serving the oppressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All Power to the People!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Endnotes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CDC ATSDR Pyrethroid Toxicology California OEHHA Deltamethrin Profile IACR Silica Monograph: Bengal Product Page: Bengal SDS (Safety Data Sheet): American Cancer Society Silica Information: Solutions Pest Lawn (Active Ingredient Verification): Amazon Product Specs (Water Repellent):
https:\/\/www.atsdr.cdc.gov\/toxprofiles\/tp155.PDF<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/oehha.ca.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/media\/downloads\/crnr\/101212hiddeltamethrin.PDF<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/publications.iarc.who.int\/download\/mono68.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
http:\/\/www.bengal.com\/products\/ultradust-2x-fire-ant-killer-1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0327\/4768\/3980\/files\/Bengal_Ultradust_SDS_20191118.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.cancer.org\/cancer\/risk-prevention\/understanding-cancer-risk\/known-and-probable-human-carcinogens.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.solutionsstores.com\/bengal-ultradust-2x-fire-ant-killer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bengal-Products-93650-Ultra-Killer\/dp\/B0009EM3HU\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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