Virginia prison officials weighed whether they should charge inmates for the healthcare they received after they burned themselves to protest what they say are "intolerable" conditions within the prison.
Six inmates partially burned themselves last year at Red Onion State Prison. The prison's chief of security suggested that the inmates could be charged criminally for setting fires in their cells and then the prison could financially charge them for the medical treatment they received, NBC News reported.
Ultimately, prison officials did not deem restitution to be appropriate.
"It should be noted that restitution, including the payment of medical expenses, is an authorized penalty allowed by VADOC policy. In these cases, hearing officers did not deem restitution as an appropriate penalty, and such a penalty has never been considered as a possible response by VADOC senior leadership," stated Kyle Gibson, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections, in an email to NBC News.
The six prisoners harmed themselves with electrical burns, NBC reported. They were protesting solitary confinement and what they say is physical abuse, NBC reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed a federal class-action lawsuit in 2019 against VADOC over its solitary confinement policy, but the case has yet to go to trial.
In 2016, HBO did a documentary focused on the prison and solitary confinement.
