July 9, 2023, Sunday

Pocahontas State Corruption Center has been the pariah of Virginia’s Dept. of Corrections for 12+ years. Previously a well known recruitment center for white supremacist groups local to these mountains where it’s located, it is also well known as the most complained about prison, out of 41 state prisons. A google search of PSCC will turn up hundreds of pages of complaints, as well as the often noted lack of response from Richmond. Recently, a change of administration has led to some of the issues being recognized, though resolution is as far from occurring as it has ever been. The problem, as it has always been, is the staff, a majority of whom are pulled from a generally local pool of area failures. Many of these dangerous people have been named in prior articles, some will be newly named.

We’ve been on a “modified lock-down” for 10 days now. This was instituted for one reason and one reason alone: staff are afraid. PSCC is not a very dangerous prison as far as prisoners go. It has always been the dangerously–and occasionally deadly–abusive staff who have represented the greatest threat. They have no skills to speak of, a sense of self-worth that is delusional at best, and most of them are not very educated. Many of them are related to each other by blood or marriage–and sometimes both–creating a nepotism infused work environment that provides zero accountability and 100% collusion.

Some of these, many of them, include openly racist people, such as C.O. ‘s Craig & Humbel, unit manager Smith, the “Farmer” Family, Chief of Housing Teague, The “Sargent” Family, The “LaFont” Family, etc. etc. All “card carrying felon members” by their very own admission. Every one of them a well known–and often documented–compulsive liar, especially where it involves keeping prisoners locked up longer. In a backwoods area of Virginia’s mountains, where there is absolutely no real economy, schools, etc. Keeping the prison full is the key to money and resources flowing in. It should be noted that PSCC has been founded to be a huge site for profit, hemorrhaging enormous amounts of money and resources. Most of those “disappearing” into the hands of staff. Again, Richmond is aware of this but, given the criminal nature of the entire VA DOC, expecting them to police themselves is an exercise in folly and naivety at best.

Recently, PSCC has begun to see its share of harder prisoners. These are prisoners from other states, or other prisons in the VA DOC where a basic understanding exists: these prisoners are generally left alone to do their time unless someone ends up seriously wounded or dead, and the guards are ALLOWED to go home at the end of their shift. This is not the prison environment PSCC staff are even remotely prepared for. They are, combined, a bag of marshmallows. They are tough when it’s 10-to-1 and the one is cuffed, hanging in a shower stall where no camera sees. Otherwise, these staff, especially the guards, are marshmallows that are a liability more than anything else.

It isn’t just that they are big, soft, and stupid, that would allow for a certain mitigation of the problem. The real issue is that too many of these fools are dangerously arrogant, foolishly disrespectful and far too stupid to realize they themselves are the problem. They live with the handed down illusion that they are, somehow, in control of PSCC. They are not, and as time goes on with no real change in attitude, they stand a growing chance of finding that out the hard way. Several guards already have, being promptly knocked on their asses and in the process discovering two key things: one, they are not any kind of tough or badass; and two, their coworkers are NOT going to get knocked out with them. So far they have been lucky to only be embarrassed and receive a black eye.

This problem, of unsupported arrogance and a self worth based on zero verified success in life, is a problem that tends to be created by the very real filth that has managed to ride a trail of sleaze into positions of “authority.” Now, to be clear, we are not talking about real ranks and authority here. Any state trooper, and the lowest National guard private, fresh out of basic trooper, would immediately supersede all rank on the compound. Essentially, prison staff are playing a more elaborate game of “cops and robbers,” but no one has yet to inform them that it is not real, at all.

A prime example of PSCC staff with “rank” being a serious perpetrator of all problems at this camp, is Lt. Miller. Picture, if you will, every raw description you’ve ever read about Harpies, Medusa, and the Stygian Witches. Now add that horror of vile evil, the worst sense of entitlement that could ever be invented, at a magnified factor of 10. Then, give that beast from the 9 layers of hell, a false sense of authority and allow it to wantonly lord itself over other humans. A sort of rotten pear with a whip and bad attitude. In other words, Lt. Miller is EXACTLY the reason that the U.S. is a terrible place to be and live.

Lt. Miller is a danger. Regularly orders subordinates to engage in petty actions against prisoners, often in total disregard–and contradiction too–operating procedures. This “officer,” an insult to the title, does whatever which comes to mind and in the process often puts the peons at risk when one of them is forced to confront a prisoner and follow some obvious bad order. Lt Miller, along with many of the previously named guards, has a history of horrific and dangerous behaviors, which includes false disciplinary charges, threats of violence and instigating violence against prisoners and more. Every time Lt. Miller issues and orders, poison flows and the entire compound is put at risk. Once again, Richmond is aware and yet this dangerous, corrupt, filthy person still has a job.

This is not much of a surprise on a compound where two deaths and a stroke have occurred–all in the same pod–in only 4 months, in the disabled, elderly, mental health pod. A prison where teeth are being allowed to rot out of prisoners’ mouths due to negligence and a deliberate lack of care. Where medical care is so deficient, that a prisoner might be “scheduled” to see a doctor for 6 months, after spending 18 months writing a request to see one; or worse yet is that prisoner with known and documented medical conditions.

Aside from setting the absolute worst possible example, the issuing of orders that contradict OP sets a dangerous precedent, and PSCC is built on a pick-up-sticks house of dangerous precedent. Essentially, every person who is housed at PSCC, as well as those employed, are told the same thing: the rules do not matter no one cares about anyone else–not staff, not prisoners; you can do whatever you want so long as you don’t get caught or someone will lie to help you cover up what you’ve done wrong. That is what the majority of staff are telling and showing the prisoners every hour of every day. People like these named in here, people like Lt. Miller, who not only provide no serviced to the prisoner and prisoners, but by extension are squarely to blame for societal problem at large. People like Lt. Miller, who claim to work in “law enforcement and corrections” but who instead make an obvious and shameless showing of gross abuse of “authority” and a filthy misallocation of resources.

As I have said before, and will say again, there is no legislating real change. You, the citizen, must act to rebel and resist. Rounding up these bad people, these parasites on civilized people who do nothing but take under false pretense, and dispatch them in ways known to be fair and honorable. There really is no other option left to you and that everything is getting worse, everywhere, is a testament to that fact.

Davidannarelli.wordpress.com
@ daveznothereyo

prisonjournalismproject.org/our-writers
prisonjournalismproject.org/2022/07/06/hopes-dreams-torment-incarcerated-virginia-man
prisonwriters.com/gang-taste-force
prisonwriters.com/the-truth-about-cell-searches-in-a-virginia-prison
scalawagmagazine.org/2023/06/musician-in-prison
minutesbeforesix.com/wp/category/david-annarelli-via
wvtf.org/news/2023-01-19/richmond-weighs-a-review-of-questionable-prison-sentences

David Annarelli’s music can be accessed at:

wheelchairfullofoldmen1.bandcamp.com/album/discordian-society-primordial-soup