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RICHMOND
State prison officials say an inmate at Red Onion State Prison has died after being attacked by another prisoner.
The Virginia Department of Corrections says in a news release that the incident occurred in a cell at the Wise County prison early Tuesday afternoon. Kawaski Bass died early the next morning at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
The 31-year-old Bass was serving a 65-year, 9-month sentence for 1998 and 1999 convictions in Newport News and Spotsylvania, Hanover and Henrico counties. The convictions included robbery, use of a firearm, carjacking, assault and battery and conspiracy.
No information was released about the suspected assailant. Nobody else was injured, and the prison is operating under normal conditions.
State police are investigating.
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Response to our beloved loved one
To the powers that be, this is a letter of urgency and reply. On the behalf of our mother Bertha Bass and family, we are seeking some assistance and justice of a crisis that occurred with the murder of our brother Kawaski L. Bass on Sept 7th, 2011. The incident occurred on Sept. 6th, 2011 in the Red Onion State Correctional Prison located in Pounds, Va. We believe that Kawaski was brutally murdered due to blunt force of bodily harm and feel that the state neglected his safety from harm. We are seeking justice against the persons responsible for this act of violence.
On Tuesday, September 6th, 2011, at approximately 4:30pm, our mother Bertha Bass received a phone call from Red Onion Correctional Facility, stating that her son Kawaski was found in h
Bass Family
I am so sorry for your loss. I can not imagine the pain you must be feeling at this time. My prayers are with you all.
I am currently working on a documentary concerning the state of prisons & parole in VA. From reading the article it seems that Kawasaki was in prison for a crime committed when he was only 18. That is a very young age for an act to determine the rest of one's life.
If & when you feel up to discussing what happened to your beloved family member contact me @ eveyhammond2010@gmail.com. It's time for the abuses of the VA prison system to become known to the public & telling his story is important. It's the only way we can change the entrenched system for the next generation. Hope to hear from you. Blessings to your family.
Oh no
Sad to say but he would have gotten less time for a murder. That's just the way our legal system works. I've worked in the correctional system as a CO (then as a Law Enforcement Officer on the streets) and believe me, it's not a nice place. You have a lot of societies people who don't play well with others even with each other in there. That's why their in prison. Red Onion is for the really hardened criminals. It's really bad when an inmate can murder another and get the death sentence, but if they murder someone innocent in the outside world they may get a 20 year sentence.
Comment deleted
Comment removed for rules violation. Reason: Cheering or advocating violence
Don't dig one ditch - dig two
For the people who dug a ditch and threw this murdered 31 year old in it, you might want to dig another one. I'm sure the death of this inmate has affected someone who loved him. You might need empathy one day if you find yourself on the visiting list of someone you love. Whatever his crimes, he was doing his time for them. To some people out of sight is not out of mind. I pray for his family, the inmates who witnessed it, the ones who allowed it and the families he hurt that led to his incarceration.
Wow
Such comments from folks who will never taste the stench these incarcerated criminals smell everyday. Don't get me wrong. They're rightly there because of what they've done. They need to be removed long enough to gain an appreciation of what life means to the rest of us, and what it will take for them to get there. But they haven't been sentenced to death. For a large number of them, there's hope for a better life after they've served their time. One thing I've never understood about prison. In a society so ordered as prison, how is it possible to rape or murder someone? As a police officer who's sent lots of folks there, I'd like to think that they had a chance to learn and improve themselves. If not, I'm ashamed of what I've done.
You sir
are the type of officer who keeps me from completely giving up on people. In my volunteer work I visit many correctional institutions & have spent time with incarcerated youth in VA. Those who think they have it easy have never been inside. If people do not believe some people can change and be redeemed then we have lost one of the best parts of ourselves: Hope & Faith.
Those who wonder if inmates can really change should read the story of poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison. The rest of you can just go back to being amused at murder of some inmate.
Thank you
Towards the end of my career, I was humbled by meeting folks I had sent to jail. I barely remembered our encounters, but they remembered me. I thank God to this day that I treated them right while they were behaving badly. It's what motivated them to come forth and show me the great children of God that they'd become. The most precious memories of my career are when folks that I'd written off as lost showed themselves to me as redeemed and useful in the Kingdom of God. There is no greater reward on this earth as that of living long enough to see the lost being saved. Yeah, it really happens!
Killed in prison
While it may seem like poetic justice to some. I prefer the term.. As ye sow so shall ye reap. Live by the sword die by the sword. As for the prisoner who killed him I have mixed feelings. One part of me says he deserves Steak and lobster for dinner. The other half says execute him afterward. He saved the taxpayer a lot of money but he has commited a murder.
That split
feeling you say you are experiencing may well be cognitive dissonance. You know the discomfort that's caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously.
I just don't think by bringing him a nice meal first (even steak & lobster) to celebrate the murder he just committed & then killing him after for the murder will likely heal the split. Looks like you'll actually have to think your way out of this dilemma.