In a partnership with the local medical college, researchers at the prison in Richmond, Virginia, who are led by Dr. W. J. H. Butterfield, conduct experiments that include blood tests using radioactive materials and simulated "flash burns," which may occur from atomic bomb attacks, using narrow beams of light to inflict half-inch square burns.

The experiments take place in the penitentiary's burn unit. African-Americans and women who are supposed volunteers, are purposely selected so that the research team can study the: "factors of skin pigmentation and gender in burns" (Trani, 1999).