It’s hard for me to talk about the state of prisons and jails in Virginia. The injustices that serve as the foundation for our carceral practices are so overwhelming and tangled that they can feel impenetrable. As the legal intake assistant for the ACLU of Virginia, I read firsthand accounts of the abuses of the carceral system. These accounts are documented in the numerous pleas for help my organization receives from people who are incarcerated every day.

The issues aren’t new. Time and time again, seasoned advocates for criminal legal reforms have brought the human rights abuses of incarceration to light only to be met with indifference and ire. Everything I have to say here has almost certainly been said before by these advocates who have been doing the work long before I found myself at the ACLU of Virginia. I hope to add my voice to the many and through my advocacy, inspire others so we all can learn together. I want to take my share of responsibility and act to push our criminal legal system to fundamentally change its skewed view of safety, human rights, and justice.

The Virginia Department of Corrections touts its "progressive agenda" and claims to be a very different institution than its previous inceptions. 

The truth is that Virginia's prison system still approaches incarceration the way it always has: with cruelty.

The truth is that Virginia's prison system still approaches incarceration the way it always has: with cruelty. Most people aren’t surprised by this - our culture often plays up the cruel and unforgiving nature of incarceration. We see it on our television and movie screens. We know that jails and prisons are horrible places, but perhaps only superficially.

The popular portrayals of incarceration - jokes about dropping soap and making wine in toilets - seem to represent, and are also products of, our collective dissociation with incarceration as a concept. As with race, the realities of incarceration make us squeamish, so we have adapted our conversations around jails and prisons into a more digestible format by making light of the suffering, normalizing it, or simply not addressing it at all.

Additionally, much like with race, these strategies for making incarceration conceptually “palatable” represent privilege and are almost exclusively the tools used by those of us for whom incarceration is not a daily reality. When it comes to incarceration, the burden of knowing lies with its victims – people who we have carefully dismantled, erased, and replaced with villainous caricatures that “deserve” whatever atrocities they face at the hands of our correctional system.

Since I started working as an intake assistant, I’ve been exposed to the realities of incarceration and cannot help but face the horrifying truth of our “justice” system. Racism, violence, torture, retaliation, and general apathy for the lives of incarcerated individuals represent the approaches that jails and prisons use to victimize their populations. If you’re incarcerated and you don’t speak fluent English, have a severe medical condition, have any grievances, or are just minding your business, chances are you’re going to be on the receiving end of abuse on a regular basis. While these actions are normalized, the truth is that they are reprehensible but sadly exactly what our society’s version of criminal “justice” is designed to do.

The stories of incarcerated individuals make it clear that jails and prisons are incapable of acknowledging the civil and human rights of their populations because they are systematically designed not to see people.

And that’s the fatal flaw in our criminal legal system, the hard truth that cannot be rectified through policy changes and more funding – our prison system was built to dehumanize and punish people, not rehabilitate them. It was purposefully constructed to deny the humanity and dignity of people who are incarcerated. And it was designed to punish and entrap Black and Brown people.

We need to put people before prisons. Our justice system cannot truly be about justice until we do.

Our criminal legal system demands radical reform, and it demands it now. We must reevaluate: Who is put in prison and why? How can money that goes to prisons be better spent? What does a truly rehabilitative prison experience look like? How can we ensure accountability from the people responsible for people who are incarcerated? How can we guarantee that people who are incarcerated are treated like people?

These are all big questions, but we must ask them and ask them now – and then find solutions. But first, we must acknowledge that people in prison are not statistics and that they are deserving of respect and dignity. We need to put people before prisons. Our justice system cannot truly be about justice until we do.

The last 18 months have brought enormous challenges—and some real opportunities for change—for all of us. We have lived through a pandemic that has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and many more worldwide. We lived through a contentious election season that culminated in a violent attack on our Capitol and on our very democracy. We also saw uprisings where people of all races, all ages, all backgrounds and abilities took to the streets to say “enough is enough” to old systems of white supremacy. Just recently, in Charlottesville, my home, we saw the removal of the Confederate statues that had stood for a century in the center of the city, sending their message about who belonged there and who did not. Earlier this year, we saw some real and important changes in our laws, with the abolition of the death penalty and the legalization of marijuana. Each of these events push us to consider what is important in our lives, in our communities, and in the Commonwealth. 

On the anniversary of the Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, which resulted in the death of Heather Heyer and two police officers and serious injuries to many others, we reaffirm our commitment to the fight for racial justice. 

We believe that the best way to honor the people hurt that day is to continue to deepen our dedication to eliminating systemic racism.  

It is our strong belief that a commitment to the principles of free speech and racial justice can coexist. While we continue to center free speech and acknowledge that our analysis of our work moving forward must consider the likelihood of violence. After the Unite the Right march and the January 6 insurrection, we must be clear-eyed about the potential for violence by organizers of such events, and we must be sure that we are not facilitating violence. While we stand committed to the principle of free speech for all that principle does not include real-world harm.  

And so, on this solemn day, we re-dedicate ourselves to the mission of eliminating systemic racism. While that is a tall order, we have identified several priorities that we believe will have the greatest impact in eliminating systemic racism: 

Reimagining Policing  

For too long, Black and Brown communities have been over-policed and over-criminalized. Building safe communities starts with serving people, not criminalizing, harming, and killing them. It’s time to move away from the punitive public safety model that relies heavily on police and prisons and move toward a system that brings in the right people at the right time to save lives, address systemic inequities, and rebuild communities. 

People Not Prisons  

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, Virginia has an incarceration rate of 779 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than many states. Incarceration should be used only as a last resort and a means of rehabilitation, not punishment. The ACLU of Virginia is committed to ending racial disparities in prisons and drastically reducing the prison population. 

Right to Vote Amendment  

In 2020, Virginia took the first step toward passing an amendment that guarantees in the Constitution the right to vote to every citizen 18 years of age or older. But there are more steps to take. We believe the most important equalizer is access to the ballot. If passed, the amendment will automatically restore the right to vote to more than 400,000 people with felony convictions who are not currently incarcerated, the majority of whom are Black. This amendment will remove Jim Crow-era laws from our Constitution while protecting recent laws that have already expanded access to the ballot box. 

We’ve also made a commitment to hire a group of community organizers who will go out and work alongside long-time community advocates. People with lived experiences in these issues know best what’s needed in our communities to correct past wrongs. We're eager to build more authentic relationships with communities across the Commonwealth and continue bringing our passion, expertise, and resources to the fight against systemic racism. 

This moment is an opportunity for the ACLU of Virginia to be bold and to work to create a truly fair and equitable state. We stand behind our commitment that “we the people” means everyone. 

We grieve along with my hometown of Charlottesville. Our hope is that our collective work to root out systemic racism will ensure that the horrors we saw on August 12, 2017, will never happen again in Virginia.