77 F
Cruz Bay
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesGrassroots Group Seeks Solutions to Prison Shortcomings

Grassroots Group Seeks Solutions to Prison Shortcomings

Nov. 27, 2008 — Parents, brothers, sisters, friends, children and loved ones of prisoners doing time in isolated supermax prisons in Virginia and elsewhere are gathering strength, thanks to the efforts of the V.I. Prison Project to fight for the rights of the incarcerated and to seek solutions to what some see as cruel and unusual punishment.
"People need to be accountable," says Project co-founder Kim Lyons, "but in many instances the punishment is causing greater harm."
For example, she says, there are prisoners at Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix who have been there for 40 years. National statistics indicate that prisoners over age 55 have only a two percent chance of committing another crime, Lyons says.
"There are people in there in their 70s," according to Lyons. "We don't want to discount what they did, but do we still need to keep them there?"
Lyons and her cohort in the grassroots project, Keith "Mawuli" Benjamin, are clear about their intention to seek solutions.
In a seminal event Sunday night, before a standing-room-only crowd at Arian's Restaurant in Sub Base on St. Thomas, they showed a documentary about the newest of the supermax prisons, Wallens Ridge, where dozens of prisoners from the Virgin Islands have been sent — several of them just two months ago. (See "Ninety-Eight V.I. Prisoners Transferred to Virginia.")
"On the Ridge" exposes what the filmmakers see as the abuses and the motivations surrounding the prison that sits high atop a mountain in southwest Virginia. It shows townspeople welcoming the prison with open arms 10 years ago after their coal-mining company shut down, leaving 5,000 people out of work.
The film, which was begun in 1999 shortly after the prison opened and took six years to complete, also chronicles the deaths of two inmates, one a suicide and one that family members believe was caused by repeated attacks with a stun gun. The suicide victim was in Wallens Ridge on a one-year sentence for drug possession, having been transferred from Connecticut's overcrowded penal system. Connecticut has since removed all its transfer prisoners after a flurry of lawsuits from families of those incarcerated there were filed and media coverage exposed the abuses.
The film was coincidentally shown two days after Virgin Islander Roy Sylvester Parrott was brought home for burial from the prison. Parrott died at Wallens Ridge Nov. 12 under what family members feel were suspicious circumstances. He was 51. Parrott was transferred to Wallens Ridge from a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., in August 2001. He was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. Shortly after arriving at the penitentiary near Big Stone Gap, Va., Parrott sued the V.I. government. (See "Prisoner Sent to Wallens Ridge Sues V.I.")
Parrott's sister, Rosalia E. Parrott Huyghue, had the same complaint that many relatives of prisoners have — lack of communication. She said Monday night that Parrott had been sent to the hospital suffering from symptoms of Hepatitis C Oct. 15.
"We were not notified," she said,"until the 27th."
Another complaint voiced Sunday night was the difficulty families face in being able to visit their family members. Huyghue said she was told not to bother to come to Wallens Ridge — no easy feat in itself — after her brother took ill, because she wouldn't be allowed to see him.
Several people attending the Sunday night meeting complained bitterly about not being notified that their family members had even been moved to the Virginia prisons.
Desiree Caines said when she found out more than a week after the 98 prisoners — one of whom was her brother — had been "shipped out," she called Gov. John deJongh Jr. Caines said he called her back about a week later and told her the situation was temporary while improvements were made to Golden Grove — which has been under a consent decree for years after losing a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. A criminal defense lawyer who had clients at Golden Grove and Wallens Ridge cautioned prisoners' families to be careful about what they wished for, reminding them of the deplorable conditions at Golden Grove.
But Caines wants the governor to keep his word about bringing the prisoners home.
"I am going to hold him to his promise," Caines said, adding, "I feel sorry for prisoners who don't have anyone. I don't know how they are going to manage."
And that is the concern Lyons and Benjamin have. They hope to provide support to prisoners through letters, cards and a radio call-in show during the holidays that prisoners at Wallens Ridge and Keen Mountain will be able to hear.
Dozens, perhaps more than 100 V.I. prisoners, including women, are housed in Virginia's supermax prisons. The men are at Red Onion, Kean and Wallens Ridge, while the women are incarcerated at Fluvanna Correctional Institute for Women.
The first group was sent to Wallens Ridge in 2001, and then-Attorney General Iver Stridiron called conditions at the maximum-security facility "hellacious" after a visit to the isolated prison high atop a mountain flattened for the purpose of building the facility that can accommodate 1,200 prisoners. (See "Stridrion: 'supermax' Security Is 'Hellacious.'") Rehabilitation is not at the top of the priority list at Wallens Ridge, Stridiron said back then. And the warden echoed that statement in "On the Ridge."
Rehabilitation is something the Prison Project, however, hopes to facilitate. Lyons said in a news release issued a few days before the movie screening that since many prisoners will eventually rejoin the community, they should be rehabilitated during their incarceration.
"What we are getting instead are people isolated from their families and made into harder criminals as a result of how they are being treated at Wallens Ridge and other prisons," she said. "It is really cruel and unusual punishment to transfer a prisoner to a place where he has almost no hope of ever receiving a visitor or seeing his children."
DeJongh, caught in a moment on Thanksgiving, said he intends to keep his promise to bring the prisoners home just as soon as the necessary improvements that will make Golden Grove a safe environment for everyone concerned — that is prisoners, guards and personnel — can be implemented.
If you wish to participate in the holiday radio call-in, which will be co-produced by the V.I. Prison Project and Strength to Strength at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve on WSTA, the call-in number is 774-1340. Folks can call in and relay messages to their loved ones at Keen Mountain and Wallens Ridge.
Anyone wishing to send a card to a prisoner at one of the facilities can send them to:
Keen Mountain Correctional Center
P.O. Box 860
Oakwood, VA 24631
Wallens Ridge State Prison
P.O. Box 759
Big Stone Gap, VA 24619
Fluvanna Correctional Center For Women
Route 250 West
P.O. Box 1000
Troy, VA 22974
For more information about the V.I. Prison Project, email viprisonproject@gmail.com or call 340-514-1422.
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
Editor’s note: The Source originally noted that "On the Ridge" was made in 1999. It was started in 1999 and took six years to complete, according to Lyons. It was released in 2006.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.