Life and limb: Legal Aid says Fluvanna women’s prison isn’t changing what led to medical emergencies, deaths

"Some things, once taken, can never be returned. A life. Oftentimes, a limb.

Three inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women had to contend with this reality in the past year. Only one is still alive to tell her story.

Sitting in the living room of her Lynchburg home in early September, Sherry Richburg is sipping an Orange Crush and taking sparse drags from a cigarette. She’s quit for the most part, opting instead for a vaporizer, but likes to make the occasional return to the real thing. It had been more than six months since the 63-year-old left the Fluvanna prison, and she’s happy to be free of the place.

It had only been about a month since the Virginia Department of Corrections announced that two inmates of the prison, 70-year-old Carolyn Liberto and 38-year-old Deanna Niece, had died in custody..."

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