The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: “unbearable” conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.

“How do you get hypothermia in a prison?” the investigator asked. “You shouldn’t.”

The exchange, captured on video obtained by The Associated Press, took place during an investigation into the death of Charles Givens, a developmentally disabled inmate at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center, who records show was among those repeatedly hospitalized for hypothermia.

After a special grand jury considered the case but opted not to bring criminal charges, Givens’ sister sued in federal court, alleging her brother was subjected to routine mistreatment, including “cold-water torture,” before he was fatally beaten in 2022.

The lawsuit has raised broader questions about conditions at the southwest Virginia prison, which the grand jury described as “inhumane and deplorable.”

  • @Coreidan
    link
    English
    02 months ago

    Well you’re already doing nothing so good job on that one

    • Flying Squid
      link
      12 months ago

      Please prove I am doing nothing about prison reform.

      Unless that was a lie. Was it a lie?

      • @Coreidan
        link
        English
        02 months ago

        Shit posting doesn’t count

        • Flying Squid
          link
          12 months ago

          In other words, you have no proof and you lied. Thanks for that tacit admission.

          • @Coreidan
            link
            English
            02 months ago

            Or maybe you lied. Do you have proof you didn’t lie?

            Naner naner! I got you!

            Sick retort kiddo!

            • Flying Squid
              link
              12 months ago

              That’s an interesting way to avoid backing up your claim.

              • @Coreidan
                link
                English
                02 months ago

                What claim is that? That you sound mentally ill right now?

                • Flying Squid
                  link
                  02 months ago

                  I sound mentally ill because I’m asking you for evidence of your claim about someone you’ve never met and know next to nothing about?

                  I think you may want to go back over that…