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.”

    • Empricorn
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      6 months ago

      Even that biblical context was about making someone whole. You stole their cow and sold it, they get one of yours. The current American prison system is simply about cruelty and profit.

      • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        That makes a little more sense. (the historic pov) but yeah the current system is just about creating a new class of slave labor its got nothing going on for it in terms of rehabilitation. Its increasingly frustrating when other countries have kinda mapped out a model and you just have to transpose it. But we can’t have nice things.

        also i was being sarcastic in the previous message hence the /s. Sorry.

        • Empricorn
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          6 months ago

          Nothing to be sorry about! I was also venting; hope I didn’t come across as too contrary.