Viral video shows family of Jan 6 prisoner blocked from seeing him in Arkansas jail

The family of a January 6 prisoner has reportedly been turned away from an Arkansas prison, where the Iowa father is being held on an over seven-year sentence for his actions during the January 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol building.

Kyle J. Young is being held at FCI Forrest Medium, a medium security federal prison in Forrest City, Arkansas, after being sentenced to 86 months in prison. According to the Associated Press, Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave Young credit for the 17 months he was held in custody since his arrest, bringing his sentence down to five years and nine months in prison.

The wife of Young, Andrea, posted a video to Twitter on Sunday from her car as her younger child cried, "I want to see daddy." 

"They didn’t let us go today," Andrea Young said, telling her child, "I know you do, buddy."

"We went to visit our political prisoner, Kyle young today. We got turned away. They just canceled visits. We drove 12 and a half hours to come. This is devastating for our children who are missing out on their father," Andrea Young wrote in the post.

In a follow-up tweet responding to another Twitter user, she said that she and her family weren’t told why they couldn’t visit.

"My husband thinks it is because they are understaffed. We have to travel more than 12 hours to see him. It is so difficult to find time from work and to make such a long and costly trip with our kids," she wrote.

On FCI Forrest City Medium’s website, it states that "all visiting at this facility has been suspended until further notice," with no reason given why. Notably, FCI Forrest Low, housed in the same building, does not have the same suspension on visitations.

Emery Nelson of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Office of Public Affairs revealed to The Post Millennial that visitation was suspended on Sunday, the day that the Young family attempted to visit the Iowa father, and that the suspension was reversed the next day. FCI Forrest Low was not affected by the temporary suspension in visitations.

"The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) recognizes the importance for inmates to maintain family and community ties and continually encourages inmates to participate in visitation as one means of achieving this. However, the safety of staff, inmates, and the public is one of our highest priorities, and sometimes the modification or temporary suspension of visitation is necessary," Nelson said.

Due to security reasons, the exact reasoning behind suspending visitation was not revealed, but Nelson added, "given the complex nature of prison operations, the warden has the authority to modify programs or operations as deemed necessary and occasionally with minimal advance warning."

"Given the importance placed on social visiting, the decision to suspend it is not taken lightly," Nelson added.

A GiveSendGo page set up by Andrea Young revealed that the family was set to leave on March 10 to visit in Arkansas, and appeared to have last visited Kyle Young in January.

In response to the video, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote, "These poor children and their mother! 

This is only one example of many of the heartbreaking circumstances these families are going through because of the two-tiered justice system and the political persecution of their loved ones. [GOP Oversight Committee] has sent a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser to go to the DC Jail. They better not turn us away."

Kyle J. Young was arrested on April 14, 2021 and issued a dozen charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer, identified as Officer Michael Fanone of the Metropolitan Police Department, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

Young was given a plea deal for the single charge of assaulting an officer, and pleaded guilty to the charge in May of 2022. In September of that year, he was sentenced to 86 months in prison with three years of supervised release and a $2,000 restitution payment. 

The blocking of the family from visiting the father comes as House Oversight Committee Republicans sent a letter to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser requesting a tour of the district’s Department of Correctional facilities where the Jan. 6 detainees are being imprisoned amid allegations of abuse against the detainees.

According to the letter which was sent Thursday, "Eyewitness accounts of conditions at the DC Jail Facilities — particularly regarding the treatment of January 6 detainees — paint a picture of despair, hopelessness, and a severe abuse of justice. No prisoner in the United States should be treated in this fashion."

One inmate, according to the letter, reported being beaten by other inmates and being denied care. Another said that he had to use the same pair of contact lenses for at least six months, while another had evidence of a fractured bone that was left untreated.

Jan. 6 detainees also claim to have been denied counsel, religious material, communion and access to their families, food served with chemicals or other substances, and of food allergies not being accommodated.

The Post Millennial has reached out to FCI Forrest Medium for comment.