The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: “unbearable” conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
“How do you get hypothermia in a prison?” the investigator asked. “You shouldn’t.”
The exchange, captured on video obtained by The Associated Press, took place during an investigation into the death of Charles Givens, a developmentally disabled inmate at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center, who records show was among those repeatedly hospitalized for hypothermia.
After a special grand jury considered the case but opted not to bring criminal charges, Givens’ sister sued in federal court, alleging her brother was subjected to routine mistreatment, including “cold-water torture,” before he was fatally beaten in 2022.
The lawsuit has raised broader questions about conditions at the southwest Virginia prison, which the grand jury described as “inhumane and deplorable.”
Will there ever be a way to convince the American public that prisons are not supposed to be cruel and the justice system shouldn’t be about vengeance?
But justice is about taking an eye for an eye right? /s
Even that biblical context was about making someone whole. You stole their cow and sold it, they get one of yours. The current American prison system is simply about cruelty and profit.
That makes a little more sense. (the historic pov) but yeah the current system is just about creating a new class of slave labor its got nothing going on for it in terms of rehabilitation. Its increasingly frustrating when other countries have kinda mapped out a model and you just have to transpose it. But we can’t have nice things.
also i was being sarcastic in the previous message hence the /s. Sorry.
Nothing to be sorry about! I was also venting; hope I didn’t come across as too contrary.
Oh youre good. I just wanted to make sure there was no misunderstanding. And please vent away. Its depressing.
You guys are so adorable * . *
I’m hearing we should take a dealer’s drugs and drug money, or a car thief’s car, and call it square.
Why stop there… Take their life as well. Lol /s
And then what? What is the American public supposed to do about it?
Vote accordingly.
Good luck with that
Should we do nothing and hope it gets better?
I don’t see the difference
The difference between doing nothing and doing something?
Pretty much. “Doing something” in terms of voting has the same outcome as doing nothing.
The only way we’ll have any real change is if we roll out the guillotines. Are you willing to go there?
Vote. Write Congress. Petition. Protest. Repeat.
The Department of Corrections and attorney general’s office previously withheld documents the AP sought under the state’s open-records law related to Givens’ death and inmate complaints about cold temperatures.
I wonder just how many serial killers are employed by the Dept of Corrections?
It would be easier to list the employees that aren’t.
The AP obtained records showing inmates at Marion, which houses predominantly mentally ill offenders, were hospitalized for hypothermia at least 13 times in three years during cold-weather months
Nothing to see here folks, just people who were too stupid to be a cop torturing mentally ill people under the auspice of state care. Don’t worry! nothing will happen to them.
Cruel and unusual punishment.
Concrete floors are usually cooler than the rest of the room. Knock someone out, throw a bucket of water on them, and just let them lay there.
Easy answer: neglect.
