United States · VA · Pound
Red Onion State Prison
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Red Onion State Prison
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Red Onion State Prison is a state prison located in Wise County, Virginia. Rated capacity: 987. Reported population: 851. Security level: Maximum. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.
Capacity
800
Current population
851
Occupancy
106%
Year opened
1998
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 16 Jun 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Population held
male
Opened
1998
Region
VA
Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
A documentary provided rare access to the Virginia supermax facility, highlighting the use of recreational cages for inmates in solitary confinement.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 5/30
- Oversight reports
- 0/30
- Structural flags
- 5/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · Operating at 106% of design capacity
- · Substantial documented known-issues record
This facility scores 10. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 8 points above national average.
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Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
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- ASPC - FlorenceFlorenceMaximumMaximum Security78% occupancy
- Sussex I State PrisonWaverlyMaximumMaximum Security87% occupancy
- Wisconsin Secure Program FacilityBoscobelMaximumMaximum Security94% occupancy
- Wallens Ridge State PrisonBig Stone GapMaximumMaximum Security89% occupancy
Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersReports
- marshall-project2 Feb 2017
s Contact Us Investigate This! Newsletters Events Donate Feedback? [email protected] An inmate is led to recreational cages in Kristi Jacobson's "Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison." Courtesy of HBO Filed 10:00 p.m. EST 02.02.2017 News Watch: A New Documentary’s Rare Access Inside Solitary A filmmaker spends a year inside a Virginia supermax facility. Scenes from the HBO docum
Data completeness
74%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- VADOC — Facilities
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries — US Department of Homeland Security â HIFLD Open Data
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- VADOC — Facilities — Virginia Department of Corrections
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q7304689)
- Wikipedia
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Red Onion State Prison. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/red-onion-state-prison
"Red Onion State Prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 23, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/red-onion-state-prison.
@misc{worldprisons-red-onion-state-prison,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Red Onion State Prison},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/red-onion-state-prison},
urldate = {2026-10-23}
}