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| Its mission is to "grant parole to those whose release is compatible with public safety." |
Kemba Smith Pradia, whose 26 year sentence for being implicated in her boy friend's drug dealing was commuted in 2006 (after her serving 6 years of her time) was appointed to the Virginia Parole Board by Governor Northam in September. Pradia, a domestic violence survivor and a national advocate and consultant in the criminal justice arena for over 20 years, is seen as a welcome addition to the Board by most justice advocates.
Parole grants remain exceptionally low so far through September of this year, as follows:
118 regular grants
21 geriatric releases
5 board reviews
36 continued back to parole (violations)
14 discharged (violations)
Overall Total Releases = 194 statewide.
One recent dramatic development was the Board's release of Jens Soering to his native Germany. He had been incarcerated for over 30 years for a crime he insists he did not commit, but one he says he confessed to in an effort to save his girl friend from the death sentence, believing that as a German citizen he would be extradited to his home country for trial and acquittal.
Another Suicide at a Virginia Correctional Center
Sometime on September 23, 2019, Donald Edward Worrell, age 76, hanged himself in his cell at the Buckingham Correctional Center. According to a friend of his, Worrell, was a "tall, gentle, humble, soft spoken man" who had been denied parole for the 21st time for a crime he committed forty years ago. "He was just a humble, easy going guy,” he said.
According to inside reports, Mr. Worrell had begun attending Sunday night church services several months ago, but failed to show up on Sunday, September 22, undoubtedly a sign that he had given up hope of ever being free.
Suicides are an all too familiar tragedy in Virginia prisons, where even model prisoners are denied release time after time on the basis of "the seriousness of the crime," no matter how transformed they have become since their crime or crimes have been committed.
The current chair of the Virginia Parole Board, is known to have said that the remaining prisoners legally eligible for parole under the "old law" (incarcerated before parole was abolished in 1995) are the "worst of the worst" in terms of the crimes for which they have been sentenced. But what if, due to an offender's personal penitence and thorough change of life, he or she may have joined the ranks of the "best of the best," having demonstrated the ability to be infraction free in the worst environment imaginable, a state prison?
Dental Care in a State of Decay in the DOC
Virginia's prisoners used to be able to see a dental hygienist at least once a year to have their teeth cleaned and checked, but it's become increasingly difficult to get an appointment for dental work of any kind, according to reports from those behind bars.
"All the dentists want to do is extract our teeth," one long time prisoner lamented, "For the ones who have gone so long without dental services, they have had to get the majority of their teeth pulled so they won't have constant pain and suffering."
DOC dentists do not automatically put such people on a soft or liquid diet unless they specifically request it, so many eat what they can until their gums get hard enough to eat most foods, according to reports.
"I personally know men who have been waiting over a year to receive dentures, and many times once they receive them, they still don't fit," is a familiar complaint. In Virginia, dentures are made by prisoners.
Please share this information with the Governor of Virginia who can be reached at:
> governor.virginia.gov/constituent-services/communicating-with-the-governors-office
VOICE MAIL: (804) 786-2211
And contact the Virginia Department of Correction's Chief of Medical Services, Mark Amonette at:
P. O. Box 26963
Richmond, Virginia 23261-6963
As Prisoners Continue to Die, Virginia Appeals Federal Court Order Mandating Better Health Care
Virginia Mercury, August 14, 2019
Inmates at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women weren’t particularly surprised when Margie Ryder died last month. Sad, yes. But sick inmates at Fluvanna die with frequency. In 2016, a judge approved a settlement of a lawsuit brought by inmates alleging medical care at the facility was so poor it violated inmates’ constitutional rights. The Department of Corrections promised to make improvements while denying any wrongdoing.Twelve deaths later, a federal judge ruled the prison wasn’t keeping up its end of the bargain and ordered the state to hire more staff and take inmate health complaints more seriously.“Some women have died along the way,” Judge Norman K. Moon acknowledged in a January decision.
This year: at least three more deaths that raise concerns about medical care, according to the Legal Aid Justice Center, which is representing the women.Among them, Ryder, a 39-year-old who was serving a two-year sentence for embezzlement and was due to be released in October. Her friends at the prison say she was terrified her chronic medical condition was being managed so poorly that she’d die. After she was hospitalized three times following lapses in the delivery of her medication, she asked Judge Moon to intervene in her care. His ruling was still pending when she passed.
“When she did die, it didn’t surprise anybody here,” said inmate Shebri Dillon, who says prisoners at the facility resort to performing medical procedures on themselves when they can’t get prison staff to take them seriously. Dillon has her own horror stories, including cleaning out an infection in her gums with Q-tips before packing the socket with table salt smuggled from the mess hall. “So many people have died. It’s like, at this point, we almost practice Civil War medicine ourselves.”
State says nothing’s wrong
Officially, the state concedes no deficiencies in the quality of the care it provides to inmates at Fluvanna or any other state prison. Department of Corrections Director Herald Clark told lawmakers earlier this year that the legal setbacks were a result of court-room technicalities rather than a reflection of the care inmates receive. As for all those deaths, they argue that prison inmates are typically less healthy than the general population as a result of poor life decisions leading up to their incarceration. And prisons are difficult environments in which to provide health care. The state is in the process of appealing Moon’s January ruling, which, among other things, required the facility to provide “meaningful responses” to medical grievance requests and boost its medical staff to a minimum of 78 employees...
Here's a link to the rest of Oliver's piece:
HARD TIME Editor Faces Health Challenges (updated)
"My recovery from heart bypass surgery in July has been remarkable, but the tumor recently removed from my parotid gland (on the left side of my jaw) revealed a form of cancer known as mucoepidermoidcarcinoma (not adenocarcinoma as earlier thought). The surgeon believes it was all safely removed, but four of the seven lymph nodes he took out at the same time were also found to contain cancer cells, but thankfully those are no longer in my body. I will have a series of radiation treatments beginning in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, if I can fully recover the normal use of my tongue, the muscles of which have been somewhat affected by some nerve damage in surgery, I should be OK.
Thanks for your love and prayers." - Harvey Yoder 11/29/19
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