Red Onion Prison

In 2016 there was a documentary on HBO. Home Box Office, Inc is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Discovery. It is a premium service that allows for the raw unedited ugliness of the world to shine through. Profanity, sexual depictions, drug use, and of course violence is allowed to be on the airwaves since it started for a price. I often subscribed to the service. In 2017 the Department of Justice sued Time Warner and Judge Richard Leon ruled in favor of AT&T to allow the merger to go through and a Reverse Morris Trust was reached when AT&T and Discovery, Inc reached an agreement. After all the subscription services could get your monthly premium on an app with this new deal. If you would like to watch the documentary Solitary it shows the prison system.

There have been three prisoners who have self immolated in the super max prison since the documentary has aired. I would dare to say with the ultimate act of protest the treatment of the prison that opened in August of 1998 in unincorporated Wise County, Virginia that houses some of the allegedly most violent offenders has not gotten any better. Solitary confinement does decrease the hippocampus. That part of your brain processes many things and being in a room with nothing by a light will make you forget what a person’s face looks like to give you an idea of what a prisoner goes through when they are taken away from the rest of the population. Depth prescription is something I still struggle with since getting four traumatic brain injuries in the span of 9 months. I cannot even imagine what a prisoner goes through sitting in a cell with no visual references to look at to train your eyes. The cruelty of the prison system is one I did have an experience in.

What one person will do to another when they are locked inside a cell is unbelievable. The current for profit prison system does absolutely nothing to help the violent offenders be productive members of society. On May 24, 2023 DeAndre Gordon set himself on fire in the Red Onion Prison in Wise County. He was followed in protest in 2024 by Demetruis Wallace in August of that year. Then in September of 2024 on the 15th Ekong Eshiet and Trayon Brown also self immolated. I discovered the men who committed the ultimate form of self protest after I was looking for the date Aaron Bushnell self immolated. It was on February 25, 2024 outside the United States Israeli embassy.

I do not know what makes a person want to commit this act of protest. I cannot even imagine the pain of the skin catching on fire as I have burned myself multiple times in my culinary experiences. I have a few scares on my hands to show. I hope people are aware of the prison system and the subhuman conditions that a person experiences when they are locked away from others. We are social animals and while I choose not to expose myself to most these days and hide behind a screen it turns out there are many lies I was taught in school to become a good worker in society. I have the creative brain and was always meant to be an artist, I see the items in society that can be recycled for my art. I hope I get a studio to produce some of the ideas I have floating around in my head. I think it is hilarious that people think I am violent. No, Karen, that is the system around me.

After all, the history of the stock market is one that certainly has been ignored when there is a profit to score.