Location of Red Onion state prison
Del. Patrick Hope (D-47), champion of Virginia prison reform
“A little sunshine can’t hurt.”
— Del. Patrick Hope
Del. Patrick Hope (D-47) spearheaded legislation this session that creates a state ombudsman over the Department of Corrections. “I hope this will allow us to go in and inform us of what is going on so we can independently discover violations on best practices. They will go to every facility and file a report. We know a lot is going on so we need a neutral, objective party to go in. We’ll make sure it is funded.”
Hope says civil rights violations could be things like not allowing a prisoner to use a Bible, not allowing a prisoner to get a haircut, or inadequate food, denying weekly mental health checks or out-of-cell-time activity. “A little sunshine can’t hurt.”
This is one step in the long road to change the conditions at state prisons including solitary confinement practices, now referred to as restricted housing. Hope says he first got involved in 2010 when the Legal Aid Justice Center came to him. He led a group of legislators to visit Red Onion, a supermax prison located in Pound, a remote part of southwestern Virginia. “I decided to go visit and talk to inmates.” They told him it wasn’t easy but he was welcome to talk to people. Hope talked to anyone in solitary confinement who would speak to him.
“When we talked through a cell, it was a difficult conversation. The prisoners would often say, ‘I don’t know why I’m here.’ It was a hard conversation to have through glass and bars.” Hope says some people go in for a short time with the average stay 11 days but he is much more concerned about people who are in solitary confinement long term.
The impact of the effects of isolation, which studies indicate exacerbates a prisoner’s bad behavior and mental illness, has caused a number of states to scale back its use and to look into reforming the system.
Hope says the culture at the Department of Corrections is to use isolation as punishment. But he added that some prisoners want to be in solitary confinement because they are afraid. “I went to Red Onion which is a maximum security facility where a prisoner could have name recognition and want to be in solitary confinement until the threat of harm from other prisoners goes away.”
Virginia is one of 44 states that use solitary confinement. According to the Virginia Department of Corrections, more than 7,000 people incarcerated in Virginia prisons were placed in solitary confinement units (about the size of a parking space) at some point between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019. About one in 20 of the prisoners in Virginia is held in solitary. Most of these prisoners are located at the supermax prison Red Onion located in a remote pocket of southwest Virginia where over two-thirds of its 800 prisoners are held in solitary confinement.
Poor and incomplete data collection has made it difficult to accurately assess the number of prisoners held in solitary confinement nationwide. A report released by a non-profit watchdog, Solitary Watch, and an advocacy group, Unlock the Box, found about 122,840 people in federal and state prisons were placed in solitary confinement in mid-2019. This report is a first of its kind analysis with the objective to serve as a benchmark moving forward.
Current procedures which went into effect in 2020 in Virginia were codified in 2023 allowing prisoners at least four hours outside of their cells each day and requiring regular mental health checks. Examples of out-of-cell activities are reading, recreational activities and small process groups. Hope says, “Some say it isn’t happening. It was important to codify the practice because now if DOC doesn’t comply they can be sued and held liable. This means now it is open to litigation if the law is not followed.” He says the Department of Corrections opposed codification because “it meant we were taking away their power.”
In 2022 the Virginia Senate passed legislation that would limit how long prisoners could be held in solitary confinement to 15 days in any 60-day period. But the Virginia House of Delegates rejected this language and instead added an amendment directing prison officials to study the issue. Many legislators thought the issue had been studied enough and were impatient for action.
In 2023, in addition to codifying the required four-hour out of cell time, debate continued over whether to eliminate solitary confinement or to include the 15-day limitation that had been rejected in 2022. This time the bill passed both Houses with the 15-day limitation but Governor Youngkin vetoed it.
As Hope looks ahead he says, “If we want to get this enacted we’ll need a new Governor. The landscape hasn’t changed, and the same thing will happen again. He’s supposed to be a Christian. He’s not listening to what they say, is he?”