PORTSMOUTH, Va (WAVY)- Dwon Mitchell and his wife Portsia Smith cherish visitation time behind bars at the St. Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake.
During a 90-minute visit Jan. 15, Mitchell and his wife of five years mapped out a post-prison plan that would include launching a YouTube channel or TikTok page to help steer teens toward success and away from crime.
After 90 minutes together, it was time to say goodbye.
“So at the end our visit he gave me a hug, you know it is my husband, he kinda like just gave me a little tap,” said Smith in a Zoom interview from her Hanover home.
That tap on the tush, Smith said, landed her husband in trouble with a female guard who reportedly wrote him up because of the contact. Smith said her husband openly objected to the punishment.
“‘It’s kind of like this is B.S. (he said),’ and she gave him another charge for vulgar language,” said Smith, who is a former journalist.
The following afternoon, Smith said, three male guards showed up at Mitchell’s bottom bunk bed while he was asleep. Smith said just before the alleged assault, her husband was asleep with a towel over his face to block sunlight.
“They kinda walked up to him and smacked him in his face,” Smith said. “They searched around his belongings for 40 minutes and didn’t find anything.”
Smith told 10 On Your Side she believes the guards then planted evidence.
“All of a sudden these razor blades came out of nowhere, and then one of the corrections officers came out of nowhere (and) slammed him to the ground,” Smith said, “punched him in his face, kneed him in his face, just really beating him. They handcuffed him still while punching him.
Smith told 10 On Your Side her husband, who is 44 years old, did not fight back.
“The inmates told me he could not fight back,” Smith said. “One officer had his left arm twisted in his back, like having his fingertips touching his spine, and another guard, when they took him to the ground, had his knee on his back and he was on the ground on his chest and eventually, they handcuffed him.
Smith said her husband, who she said is a model prisoner, faces disciplinary charges, as he has two years remaining in a seven-year sentence.
Smith said after the alleged attack, her husband had three knots on his forehead, blood was on his face and she said prison officials took pictures of the injuries.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections would only say the matter is under review by the Special Investigation Unit.
