FILE - In this photo taken sometime in the early 2000s provided by Kymberly Hobbs, Hobbs poses next to her brother, Charles Givens. The Virginia Department of Corrections, under scrutiny over the death of inmate Givens in a case that has raised wider concerns about conditions at a southwest Virginia prison, is refusing Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, to release public records documenting inmate complaints about the facility.
The Associated Press had asked the department for two years’ worth of any inmate complaints related to topics such as uncomfortably cold temperatures at the prison, nonfunctioning or poorly functioning heating systems, and windows being left open during cold months. Those and other claims were made in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Givens’ sister, Kym Hobbs.
The lawsuit filed against five correctional officers alleges that Givens, who was intellectually disabled, was “sadistically tortured” and beaten in an off-camera shower area of the facility before being found unresponsive in his cell on Feb. 5, 2022. In the year before his death, Givens was taken to a hospital emergency room multiple times for hypothermia treatment, according to the lawsuit and medical records reviewed by AP.
In response to the grand jury’s findings, he said that department facilities are regularly inspected by a range of groups and agencies. According to the lawsuit, Givens had been incarcerated at Marion since shortly after he pleaded guilty to two felonies in connection with the fatal 2010 shooting of Misty Leann Garrett. She was employed as a home health nurse for Givens’ mother, according to local news accounts.