How prison officials manufactured gangs and gang wars in Virginia’s prisons

This is the drawing Rashid created to illustrate his 2010 story “Kill Yourself or Liberate Yourself.”  by Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson No Virginia prison gangs before 2004 With the prevalence of youth lumpen organizations (so called street gangs) in Virginia today, it’s hard to believe that there were actually no gangs (especially no Black ones) in Virginia’s prisons prior to 2004. The culture never took root because Virginia’s own culture of prisoner bonding based upon the cities they were from prevented it. The few gang members who did surface were mocked as bringing alien cultures into Virginia’s own local culture. Virginia had always had a highly territorial culture against those from other states.& I witnessed the birth and clash of gangs in Virginia prisons and how officials at Virginia’s remote Red Onion State Prison (ROSP) and Wallens Ridge (WRSP) manufactured the entire situation almost overnight beginning in 2005. This all happened for a reason. Inventing justifications for two unneeded Supermaxes The gangs were created and played against each other by these officials because they needed to create justifications for ROSP and WRSP to remain open in light of both being repeatedly exposed as unneeded – and previous justifications proving to be...