I am a perfect example of the rehabilitation programs offered by the Virginia department of corrections.... I was at Coffee Wood were I acquired my G.E.D & a certification as a Optician.... I was deported back to Jamaica in 2004 after completing my sentence.... I am now the Senior Optician for the company I work for these past 15 years... Crime Free!!!
@@Basilbird2012 I appreciate that bro!... Only if I could somehow be granted a pardon to re-enter the United States to be with my family again. I got caught in trouble with the law at 17 yrs old (possession of cocaine with intent to distribute/firearm) my only offence.... I am born Jamaican but my heart& mindset is American.
@@dorianshackleford2078 I agree there needs to be programs for those who the immigrants here who have been here pretty much their entire lives, some don’t even speak their native tongue any more and get sent back lost, not able to speak that language any longer and possibly not have any family in their hometowns, so they are alone. Sometimes things need to be looked at with some portion of a heart and not totally polar opposites being the answers to situations. Especially someone who would be less likely to be a repeat offender. The sick people that do the unspeakable things to children and adults definitely don’t need that as an option for them, and definitely for the people who live in the US.
@@dorianshackleford2078 I hope you can to. There are a lot of laws taking effect now. Your charge could come down. Or probation. Hope all goes well for you. Let me know how your doing..
I agree with the inmate who said that basically the program does not matter if he has to sacrifice his self-respect for it. I have a guy in Red Onion, and he said it's not really optional, there are occasions where there's just no choice but there's a nuance to that anywhere you go not just in prison. If you sacrifice your self-respect for most reasons, to avoid a fight, to keep a job or a relationship, it's almost never going to be worth it.
Okay @@TheRealJaded 👍, ole’ wise one ☝️. You must know all you need to know and need nothing more. We shouldn’t ever learn from those that are deemed to be *a lesser than*. Never could someone who lives in a whole different world, or worlds if looked at another way…oh wait that shouldn’t be done either… nothing of value could come from *a lesser than*. *A lesser than* could never be intelligent, and definitely not above intelligence. God forbid *a lesser than* would open our eyes and hearts to things SOME are OBVIOUSLY too BLIND see on their own, but to highly placed in this world to be told anything, from good to not so good (must be blocked by your high intelligence, and I bet your EQ could never be matched, or need to be developed, even just a tad bit more). How horrible it must be, to be stuck in a world where I couldn’t look beyond the mistakes of others and find a connection/common ground with, or even worse to be taught by *a lesser than*, or open me up to new perspectives. Which only leads to a new, more free and/or better understanding of the way life could/should be, or a view from someone else’s shoes. Because redemption is possible, and even if it was forgiveness is off the table, therefore one could never be heard, or live any sort of life, especially if the unforgivable found some enjoyment in their lives by sharing. That might prove people can change and redemption is a possibility, and we can never allow that to happen. Shhh 🤫, don’t let the not *a lesser than* hear that these *lesser* people could learn and grow past their undesirable behavior, even the unforgiving behaviors have redemption and that can’t be told/shown to others who may want change to occur... There isn’t even a possibility that *a lesser than* could plain and simply just be interesting, and/or entertaining to listen to.
I did the cognitive self-change also known as CSC in prison and I got to tell you it was the most rewarding program I ever did and it changed my life dramatically for the better I owe everything to the facilitators in the Vermont department of corrections of the CSC program they helped me,big time
Good on you brother, it takes some true grit to acknowledge the need within and accept the help, then follow through. I did the same thing and my life looks nothing like it did.
Prisons should give inmates a secret ballot to vote on offenders who create the most threat of violence. And separate those offenders. It’s a crime itself that the US Justice department forces non violent inmates into violent situations, where they have to choose between survival and obedience.
I did 3 years in Virginia and Maryland DOC. I was a heroin addict and thief for 14 years. Im now 8 years sober, and living in Florida. im 37 years old, and have my life back. I corrected myself while incarcerated, learned how to draw very well, took classes, got in great shape, and read literally hundreds of books. It changed my life for the better. The Lord Jesus disciplines those He Loves me.
$50 and a bus ticket is what I got when I left Powhatan in 93. This after a lengthy juvenile criminal history (5 Juvenile detention homes, 2 group homes, 14 foster homes, 3 boys schools, job corp.. Then as an adult 5 city jails, 6 prisons, 2 road camps. Then I got out after a 10 year bit with that whole $50. Woo Hoo! I was a time and battle hardened convict who one day I'm a convict in prison then the next I'm released upon society. Everyone expected me to go back! I made the choice that I would not let what circumstances society forces on me to be the reason I go back to prison. 26 Years later and I still make a conscience decision each day to keep the Convict inside me in check. Don't get me wrong. I have no desire to be a criminal in any way. I don't even drink or use drugs. But too often I have to let someone get away with speaking in a disrespectful manner that in prison, I would have peeled their wigs back (Tie a pad lock on a rope or belt that's wrapped around my wrist held in my hand that I would smash over some fools head a dozen times or so. That's what I had a rep for doing.) The way I describe it to people is that one day I was in a cage with many pissed off lions just like myself. Then the next day I was put out in society and told to play nice with a field full of cute little bunnies. I can not tell you how many times in the last 26 years I wanted to break some fools jaw for flapping their mouths off! Think about this - "I" have kept the Convict in me in check for 26 years. I'm just one man! Most don't make the same decisions I did! Most who have been in my shoes will kill again if they get out. It's not because they are bad people. It's about training and conditioning! When you go into the system, becoming a killer is just part of the training and conditioning you get in there. NOT being one is a choice "I" make though despite how society likes to push my buttons! There's millions out there who have been in my shoes, what choices do you leave them!?
God bless you bro I been home 9 years now and it still feels like I got out 2 months ago but I definitely told myself im not goin back that's enough and yea a lot of people thought I wasn't gonna stay out this long but here I am lol a happy and free man and bragging about it
I was the official supplier of weed to the warden at Red Onion and we would often take hits from the bong and frolick naked at night banging gongs and barking at the moon
What needs to change is giving these fools, opportunity after they are released. Because I befriended a guy who was released after being locked down for seven years . The biggest issue was the sense of intitlement . He was given certain things in prison so it was hard to convince him to save and do the right thing financially for long term success. Finally he stole my business phone and I lost contacts that took me years to make, so I had to cut the apron strings. To help him realize that nothing is free even a simple friendship
It’s crazy seeing this documentary after listening to @BankyPounds tell stories about this place and others. Strait Larceny, Tom foolery, skull duggary 😮
I mean, this is the most positive thing i've seen in a while. To be honest, as a european i would not even have imaged a change like that being possible in the U.S. I'm not talking about the change of offenders in the first place but change in thinking on the part of the U.S. jurisdiction. I hope this new way of looking at incarceration can be a role model for other prisons in the U.S. and elsewhere as it truly seems to be a worthy role model.
For a long time I was one of those people who thought that convicted people should be thrown away in prison and never to be heard from again. This video truly opened my eyes since there are prisoners who will one day be released back into our communities and we need to train them so they don’t repeat a crime that’ll hurt a victim. also I believe that it’s safer for those who work at the prisons. There is a saying and I will paraphrase train the mind and the body will follow. Thank you for making this video.
These prisoners committed crimes and then committed more crimes once they got to prison. They are not nice people. They are a danger to other prisoners and prison staff.
Wow that's some pretty incredible change compared to the situation that was shown in the HBO documentary. Thumbs up for that new director who initiated that apparently much needed change. It all makes much more sense now as at least it gives the inmates (and staff) some sort of goals and perspective.
That prison was made to solely house the "high threat" convicts. So these are the people who need to be in prison. I'm sick of woke "progressive" bullshit! Just look at what it is doing to our nation today! Look what "progressive" has gotten us! Leftists destroy everything! DEMONRATS/Leftists are the true disease and plague facing America today!
She is horrible and she said the jail was created and that is a good thing because it created jobs? Wow. If you had a job for the inmates, maybe they wouldn't do illegal shit. Then they said segregation, but it's okay because it created jobs.
Neil Anderson I know of one man for sure that is not guilty. I am Sure there are more. It was a corrupt detective that took O’Kerrie Wilkins down. The detective still walks the streets while O’Kerrie is being mistreated at red onion. This world is Filled with shame.
My best friend from high school is serving an 89 year sentence there. I send him money once a month, I try to visit a few times a year. He caught his wife with another man and it cost him 89. He snapped.
Aww. Ive always put on my bucket list a good lengthy stretch at Red Onion. With a warden like that, I have great faith indeed, that all my dismannerisms will be rehabilitated indeed. Yes, I said indeed twice.
Right......you definitely need armor to protect yourself from all those convicts locked behind those thick steel doors. Stop watching prison movies, they're fucking your head up.
Caitlyn Kirk 12:01. The part they are referencing. Yes. Those are cages. And yes. They aren’t model citizens. They are serious criminals. But as Americans, we must follow the constitution. The 8th amendment Forbids this. Funny how so many Americans ignore most of the amendments yet live and die by others. There are 27 of them. All just as important. (Other than the prohibition amendment for obvious reasons).
Lars Hanson (19:51) and Michael Kelly (25:03) were featured in “Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison (HBO Documentary Films),” when they were in the harsh segregation unit. Find this on RU-vid. This is good that the prison has made improvements.
19:43 thats exactly the showers they cook people in. They rig it so the water temperature is 70-80 degrees celsius, they throw the guy in, lock it, and they scrub them with exactly these brushes in the mean time. Thats if they smear shit on theyself. Thats the usual punishment for it by the goon squad. Lots of people have died from this.
This is a good change compared to the HBO Documentary Supermaxx based on this facility. At the time of the documentary being filmed this prison was a solitary confinement only institution and science has proven over and over and over again if you keep an inmate locked up in solitary confinement like that for long periods of time he is bound to literally go crazy and be worse off than he was... So seeing this makes me happy it’s a change in the right direction
I gotta family member that did over 10 in maximum security for B&E in VA. When he came home I was 14, he said to me; “boy, don’t go stealing nothing, Virginia don’t like thieves”. 😂
I wonder how many so-called law abiding citizens in this prison situation would be categorized as a high level criminal because of the conditions and the solidarity of prison life!! I think a man who has never committed a serious crime would become a criminal in certain situations in these facilities
Humanity will always exist as long as the process of how to think instead of what to think exists. Perhaps the staffs of correctional institutions should have always realized this.
Kudos to Virginia Department of Correction Director Harold Clarke in pushing for this sort of reform at Red Onion State Prison. When it was opened in 1998 during the reign of then VADOC director Ron Angelone, Red Onion was touted as the end of the line for violent and irredeemable offenders. It is good to see that inmates now are being given the opportunity to improve their own behavior through positive reinforcement and education as opposed to only being subject to segregation without any incentive for improvement.
Kudos? Are you a bootlicker? These guys running this place have ego trips, they want to be the "Daddy" in the sky. Truly amazing personalities. I also enjoy how fat and sloppy each guard is. Jowls like a pig. Grow up guys. I know your life is sad in rural nowhere with your overweight wives and feelings of insecurity. I would not be surprised if all these guards also had gun fetishes 😂 They need to require a Bachelors degree for guards along with a degree in Psychology because these guys will never understand that treating people like shit (no matter what the crime) is not going to improve anyone's survival
They need team building and programing for guards. Also some time in nature, grass, trees, sunlight. Have more natural lighting, and in lower levels some control over their surroundings like light switches. Maybe even a comfortable bed.
Just look what happened in Walkinshaw Brooks. He was in an out of prison 20 times in 12 years. Can you believe that 20 times in 12 years he was in an out of prison
There should be some agreement to companies that inmates work for inside prison should also have jobs for those same inmates once they get into the freeworld. The only reason they do not is simply because profits are 100x better paying that same person in prison to work for them at .30 per hour then say 15.00 an hr to the same people who are released into the freeworld after working and earning those same companies so many insane profits and tax deductions using prisoners as 100% of there employess. Don't hate the player,hate the game! Just as an addict chooses to use these companies choose to not improve or "rehabilitate" inmates.Why bother, so you can gain those same employees again for another 3to5years in just a few months later . System is completely broken and is chosen not to be fixed!
There's a spiritual sequel to this documentary at Red Onion and a lot of these same inmates interviewed are interviewed on that one as well and they're still in segregation years later.
Been here. 2004-2005 this place is a living hell. If your black they was warning your family’s not too stay at local motels if they came too visit. Knew a guy who family had rocks thrown thru their car and motel Windows.
If prison was the answer to crime, this would be the safest place on the planet. Same old tired ideas for the same problem. I thought that was the definition of insanity, to repeat the same action but expect a different result. One day we will stop thinking about punishment and start to think of solutions to locking up the most people on the planet. Prison and jail are about punishment, not rehabilitaion, whatever that means. It's ok if that is what you want it to be, but keep in mind that 98% of all inmates in this country will walk the street again, hope they don't deccide to take their anger out on you! If you consider yourself civilized, you should demand a better system than this expensive cash cow we have now.
Scott Brooks YOU ARE RIGHT ON! Half of the people who impose punishment instead of rehabilitation are stealing, lying, bringing drugs and phones in the prison or breaking the law themselves....and have some nerve to look down on others like they can't change.
What a surprise i got when i saw The Step down programme, offenders have waited a long time for this chance to progress, well done Red onion Staff from The United Kingdom👌
Well. Hmmm. Watching the video and reading the comments I am not encouraged by the VA DOC'S transparency or their ability to maintain even minimum standards óf care for inmates. My fiance is incarcerated at another facility in Virginia. There is a wall of silence from the DOC relative to heat mitigation measures during the recent heat wave or if they have a plan to address the recent epidemic of inmate deaths at many of the correctional facilities in our state, including the recent deaths at Greensville, Nottoway and Red Onion. ,
The lady running the garden guys was working in a New Jersey jail in 2003 she definitely didn't have a Southern accent then. She spoke like a Northern Yankee.
@@DirtyDan1 I'm from Georgia and Tennessee and nobody I know refers to southern folks as yanks or Yankees . The only folks we call Yankees are usually from up north . Ya know ! The states that are not apart of the south
If I ever went to prison, and I don't imagine I ever will, I would just be motivated to get through my time with as little drama as possible. I am not a violent person, but brother, if someone winked at me in public or if I was challenged even of no fault of my own, I would meet that challenge. This is the part that to me isn't fair about prison. You can go into it with the best of intentions. Yet, you are a caged animal. So, you are forced to control your environment best you can as such. If you get marked as a bitch your time is going to be excruciating. I won't be marked as a bitch or a punk but what is required to establish that in gen pop is likely to extend your sentence. That is the part is fckt up.
Clarke used to be the DOC Commissioner in Massachusetts before moving to Virginia. He turned MCI Cedar Junction f.k.a MCI Walpole into the intake facility, making SBCC the only maximum security prison in Massachusetts.
He was also previously the DOC Commissioner for Nebraska. Considering he has managed to stay on as director in Virginia through four different gubernatorial administrations (McDonnell, McAuliffe, Northam and Youngkin), he must be well liked for his efforts.
Well that sucked to hear but ty for your honesty. U would think rehabilitation would be top priority especially those possibly being back on the streets but I see that's wishful thinking...
What that kid meant, he has to fight to let others know, he's not going to be raped, or he's not going to let someone take his property if he shows weakness, then he'll be marked as an easy target then he's open target for all the. preditors, so basically they don't have a choice, you think they can talk to the guards... hell no, snitches get stabbed, the guards know all this goes on and they have no control over it and most turn a blind eye. You tell me.. how can so much criminal activity occur in a highly monitored, surveiled environment. You live in a petri dish under a microscope, yet there is more criminal activity than on the streets. That whole system fails because of them. CO'S aren't cops. The majority are power seekers and like to inflict more suffering to the inmate. They are so full of crap.
Hope you know that your only seeing part of this horrible truth. All wardens know a film crew is in their prisons. So months before this was filmed he/warden makes in depth preparation to make the ABSOLUTELY sure cameras will see certain things done certain ways so he ,his COs, his state look good. CAUSE THE TRUTH IS ONLY PARTIAL. GO IN UNANNOUNCED ON A TUESDAY MORNING. THEN I PROMISE! YOU WANT SEE A THIS WATERED DOWN,MANUFACTED hoarse shit.
Lmao whatever dude my brother is here and he can tell you that indeed it’s WAYYY worse I get your from England but I don’t want you thinking that place changed for the better because it hasn’t
Good people making a difference to otherwise lost individuals. It'd be wonderful to see these types of programs adapted to suit little one's in schools. A real education to change society early in life. None of us are responsible for the dialogue that is impressed into our minds before age 5. Everything goes into our subconscious up to then. Then we act out of that for the rest of our lives. Congratulations to these people in this program. Staff, inmates and higher officials making it possible.
Good people? Wow. So you have never been involved with the criminal justice system of America then. Because the only people who are under the impression that they are doing a good job are people who have never been involved with it. Make no mistake it is aptly named because what they do there is damn criminal as it has become an industry instead of a chance at real Rehabilitation. Regardless of what the propaganda video says.
Don’t be fooled, look online for all the civil cases filed throughout the years by different inmates citing the same complaints of abuse and many of the same staff names. My loved one has been there for 33 years for a non violent offense of robbery. Every time he’s up for parole he has a bogus charge pending which causes him to be denied. He has filed many civil suits and been forced to withdraw many after suffering retaliation. Even with video evidence his other cases go unfounded because the same judges are all rubbing elbows with corrections. My loved one was kept in seg for 8 years straight. He was still put in seg on and off after that without justification.
All these guys just needed desperately early in life,Love,Authority,Guidance,and Compassion. The U.S is simply devoid of this trait.Shame on America !!!!!
