The following action alert was published by the Indianapolis Liberation Center on 01 October 2025.
Introduction
In August 2025, Shaka A. Shakur was abruptly transferred from Buckingham Correctional Facility, which is just over 70 miles from Richmond, to River North Correctional Facility, which is located in the southwestern mountains 283 miles away from Virginia’s capital. This isn’t Shaka’s first time at River North; he was transferred there from Green Rock Correctional Center on December 21, 2021. When he arrived at River North Correctional Center, he was handcuffed from wrist to feat and wearing transport gear. Around seven prison guards took him into an off-camera area where they beat him while yelling racist slurs. Over four years later, his body still bears the marks of that hate crime.
Shaka should not have been transferred to River North. He currently has pending civil and criminal cases against the River North guards who attacked him. Michael Ryan Brinegar is the main defendant in the case. Not only does Brinegar still work at River North but he is the head of the Delta Building in which Shaka’s cell is located.
An Obvious Attempt to Disrupt Our Movement
Since Friday, September 26, Shaka has been at the River North Medical Ward awaiting surgery for his knee. Throughout the entire time, he has been denied adequate food and basic provisions, video contact with his family, and his possessions, including legal paperwork in the case against Brinegar. Shaka’s transfer, current conditions, and the most recent violation of VADOC policies and the law detailed below are clearly attempts to disrupt Shaka’s life and interrupt the momentum growing around Shaka’s case as well as the broader political prisoner movement of which he is a part.
It is no coincidence that Shaka was transferred to a mountainous region and placed in a cell overseen by a guard who attacked him just before the worldwide release of a new documentary about Shaka’s case and an edited selection of Shaka’s writings, Manifestations of Thought: When the Dragon Comes (1804 Books).
Brinegar Taunting Shaka and Violating Procedures & Laws
On Tuesday, September 30, Brinegar “visited” Shaka around 2:30 pm. He said he was there to deliver Shaka’s possessions, which Brinegar stated Shaka’s cellmate packed up. Shaka asked Brinegar, who was holding a sack, trash back, and a stack of papers, to see his items. At that point Brinegar circled back away from Shaka. Claiming he couldn’t find a guard on post to deliver Shaka his items, he then told Shaka he would bring his items to the main property room. When Shaka requested an inventory list, Brinegar said Shaka would have to obtain one from the property room. Since his transfer months ago, Shaka still has not received an inventory list.
In other words, Brinegar was alone with Shaka’s possessions—which, again, include confidential, legal paperwork in his cases against Brinegar—for up to five days.
Act now to ensure Brinegar is reprimanded and all that all violations Shaka endured are thoroughly investigated and appropriately and immediately remedied.
Shaka is a great grandfather with Kidney disease and other medical conditions who has been in domestic exile hundreds of miles away from his family and community since 2018. He is a committed human-rights advocate. If this happened to anyone of us, I know that Shaka would be the first one to stand up and set things right. We owe it to him to do everything we can to get Shaka out of River North and ultimately back home!
Take Action Now!
Call and email the following people and offices until these reasonable demands are met:
Joel A. Gruber
Deputy Compact Administrator
JGruber@idoc.IN.gov
317-232-5972
Steve Herrick
Deputy Director of Health Services VADOC
steve.herrick@vadoc.virginia.gov
804-887-8118
Chadwick Dotson
Director of VADOC
chadwick.dotson@vadoc.virginia.gov
(804) 674-3000
Alexander Gerdes
Interstate Corrections Compact Liaison VADOC
alexander.gerdes@vadoc.virginia.gov
(804) 887-8404