Six Set Themselves on Fire at Virginia Prison in 2024
Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoners Ekong Eshiet, 28, and Trevaun Brown, 23, lit themselves on fire at Red Onion State Prison on September 15, 2024, demanding an end to deprivations including lengthy solitary confinement. Both were transferred to the University of Virginia hospital and treated for extensive third-degree burns.
Another prisoner, Demetrius Wallace, 27, set fire to his leg on August 23, 2024. He required a 14-day hospitalization and a skin graft. Two more unnamed prisoners were hospitalized following attempted self-immolation after that. A sixth, who was also unidentified, made a similar attempt in January 2024.
Guards withheld medications from Eshiet and Brown, confiscated their tablets and religious texts and even spit in their food, according to fellow prisoner and incarcerated journalist Kevin Rashid Johnson, 52. Eshiet’s mother said that guards hurled epithets, too, calling him “monkey” or “n****r” and “twist[ing] his name, ‘Eshiet,’ into ‘eat sh–t.’”
“I don’t mind setting myself on fire again,” Eshiet said. “This time, I would set my whole body on fire before I have to stay [in solitary confinement] and do the rest of my time up here.”
“To be clear, these inmates did not set themselves on fire or self-immolate,” the DOC countered in a statement. “They were treated for electrical burns at the Department’s secure medical facility at the [Virginia Commonwealth University] Medical Center and cleared to return to the facility.” Including the Red Onion prisoner who attempted self-immolation in January 2024, the DOC said that “[a]ll six inmates have been referred to mental health staff for treatment.”
At Buckingham Correctional Center, prisoner Michael Jerman, 44, swallowed a Sharpie pen in early November 2024 to force a transfer to a hospital, where “they report to DOC in Richmond, and they usually come and see you.” He said anything less would be ignored by guards, who have spread lies to incite other prisoners to attack him.
Sources: The Appeal, Solitary Watch, Virginia Defender, WVTF
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