Bill to bar out-of-state transfers to Red Onion vetoed, lawsuit on living conditions set for trial

Red Onion State Prison, a Southwest Virginia correctional facility, has come under scrutiny in recent years for inmates’ allegations of racism, retaliation and abuse, claims partially supported by a state probe earlier this year. Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed on Tuesday a bill that aimed to solve some of these issues.

Report doesn’t rule out racism or retaliation at Red Onion, finds other complaints ‘unsubstantiated’

Senate Bill 218, sponsored by Sen. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, would have blocked placement of out-of-state inmates at the prison unless the state legislature later reauthorized the option. 

A compact allows people from other states to be transferred to Red Onion. This can allow prisoners to be closer to their families and also separate rival inmates or gang members. For facilities that are unable to provide solitary housing to inmates — what Virginia dubs “restorative housing” — a transfer to Red Onion can make that possible. The compact works in reverse as well, allowing residents of Red Onion to be transferred to out-of-state prisons. 

The latter was one of the reasons Spanberger vetoed Jones’ bill. 

“Since taking office, my administration has worked diligently on reforms within the Department of Corrections, and I look forward to working with the patrons of Senate Bill 218 and other members of the General Assembly to further address the serious challenges in Virginia’s maximum-security prisons,” Spanberger said in her veto statement. 

“But restricting the placement of high-security inmates transferring to Virginia from out-of-state prisons does not further reform or improve conditions, and could in fact risk heightening unsafe conditions in Virginia’s correctional system,” the governor added.  

Jones’ bill was meant to push pause on aspects of the compact sooner amid years of complaints from incarcerated people and their families, he emphasized Wednesday, allegations he heard firsthand during an unannounced site visit he made last year. 

“We weren’t dismantling the compact. We weren’t making sweeping changes to the corrections system,” he said in a release. “We were saying this one facility, with its documented problems and its documented history of retaliating against people who spoke up, should not also be the destination for out-of-state transfers.”

Spanberger had first sought to amend Jones’ bill after it cleared the legislature with a reenactment clause for next year, effectively delaying its potential to take effect. Lawmakers rejected her tweaks last month, which gave her the option to sign the bill as it originally came to her desk or to veto it. 

Red Onion’s history of abuse allegations

Several current and former inmates have described their fear of abuse and retaliation and the violence they’ve seen behind the prison’s walls to The Mercury.

A handful of inmates burned themselves in 2024, with one prisoner explaining he did it in protest of Red Onion’s conditions and because he was seeking a transfer after alleged retaliation and religious discrimination.

The former Red Onion resident, Ekong Eshiet, has since been transferred out of state and expressed renewed hope for his life after his prison sentence. 

“The plan is to make a change for the better & hopefully I can help others change for the better,” he wrote in an email ahead of his transfer. “It’s not necessarily about how (you) start life but more importantly about how (you) finish it. I must leave a good trace in this realm.”

A 2024 investigation revealed staffing issues at prisons statewide and without naming Red Onion specifically, alluded to a facility for which most of the population was placed in restrictive housing. 

After separate visits to Red Onion, Jones and Del. Holly Seibold, D-Fairfax, described seeing people in restorative housing without meaningful, and state-mandated, hours of quality time spent outside of the isolated cells. 

The Corrections Ombudsman report refuted that restorative housing has been abused and explained that people who weren’t granted the required out-of-cell time had either refused to leave or refused to comply with search procedures.

“It is a safety concern when an inmate refuses to participate in search procedures and inmates are not allowed to leave their cell until they participate in search procedures,” the report stated.

However, a federal district judge has greenlit a class action lawsuit to move to trial later this year. A central tenet of the case is the prison’s alleged abuse of restorative housing.

The case, lodged by Virignia’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, claims that the Virginia Department of Corrections has arbitrarily kept people in restorative housing for long periods of time and violated its “Step-Down” program that is meant to help people re-enter general population living conditions. 

Keeping people in such conditions longer than needed, the plaintiffs as well as lawmakers like Jones and Seibold have argued, damages their mental health and prevents them from accessing rehabilitative programs that can set them up for successful re-entry when their sentences end. 

“Solitary confinement will damage even the most resilient of minds,” Seibold told The Mercury last year. “I can’t even imagine myself being in there for more than a few days and being able to remain stable.” 

In the meantime, Jones plans to keep working towards solutions.

“I look forward to sitting down with the relevant Department heads to talk about Red Onion — its conditions, its oversight failures, and what real reform

Requires,” he said.

“I look forward to a series of real conversations with the Department of Corrections. We need reform, not a study. I’ll be back to visit Red Onion. I’ll keep pushing until the conditions there reflect the basic dignity that every person in Virginia’s custody is owed.”