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The board responsible for the Hampton Roads Regional Jail met Wednesday, days after two sheriffs announced they’re pulling all of their inmates out of the institution. But if board members talked about that or many of the jail’s other problems — which include continuing inmate deaths — they did it in secret.
At the start of the meeting, a board member read aloud the justifications for a closed session, citing a need to consult with the board’s lawyer on specific legal issues and litigation.
But when they returned to open session more than two hours later, it was business as usual. No one mentioned the string of four deaths there last month or how an outside group recently pulled its accreditation of the facility. Nor was there any public discussion of the Norfolk and Chesapeake sheriffs’ decision last week to pull all of their inmates from the regional jail because of a severe staffing shortage.
The jail’s inability to retain its staff members was blamed, in part, on media reports. There were a few jokes about “negative press” — some of which garnered laughs from board members — but no mention of the 53 people who have died at the jail since 2008.
The regional facility remains under a federal consent decree, the only jail placed under this type of federal oversight by the Department of Justice during the Trump administration. The decree comes after a 2018 report found conditions there violated the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The jail is required to make changes under the decree, including hiring more medical, mental healthcare and security staff and reducing its use of solitary confinement for inmates with serious mental illness.
But the jail currently has over 100 vacant jail officer positions, leaving it without more than a third of its guards. That’s up from about 90 vacancies in mid-December.
The board took the extraordinary step in November of voting to move 255 inmates from the regional facility — about 30% of the population — back to the city jails from which they came in order to alleviate the shortage, a move that was intended to be temporary.
In interviews last week, Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron and Chesapeake Sheriff Jim O’Sullivan told The Virginian-Pilot they planned to pull their inmates from the regional jail because conditions there — specifically staffing levels — weren’t improving.
O’Sullivan said that if there wasn’t an “immediate change” in sight after Wednesday’s board meeting, he was prepared to remove all of his inmates over the next 60 days.
Both O’Sullivan and Baron have confirmed they’ll pull their inmates, roughly 270 people in all. If staffing increases, O’Sullivan said he’d consider sending inmates back.
That means the jail will soon house inmates from only Hampton and Newport News, two of the five cities that pay to keep people there, along with some people who have been convicted of a crime and are waiting to be taken by the state Department of Corrections to a prison. Portsmouth stopped sending inmates to the regional facility in early 2019, citing the DOJ report.
‘Making forward movement’
During the public portion of Wednesday’s meeting, board members listened to routine updates on healthcare, security, maintenance and human resources. They approved the minutes from last month’s meeting and the treasurer’s report.
They didn’t discuss an issue raised last month by Norfolk Councilman Martin Thomas, who said cities that pulled their inmates out of the jail at the end of last year to ease the staffing shortage should get some money back.
The acting superintendent, Col. Jeff Vergakis, and his second in command, Lt. Col. William Anderson, noted several steps the jail was taking to try to meet the consent decree, including moving inmates to the department of corrections, catching up on inmates’ chronic care visits and decreasing the number of people with serious mental illness housed in solitary confinement.
“We are making forward movement within the facility as it pertains to the DOJ and all of the requirements,” Anderson said.
Sources have told The Virginian-Pilot that one of the deaths at the regional jail last month is being investigated as a homicide, although the jail and Portsmouth police won’t confirm that.
Breaking News
The death wasn’t discussed at Wednesday’s public meeting. But it was noted that the jail hasn’t seen any suicides in 27 months.
Board members approved a tenure bonus for jail staff, and praised the jail officers and medical staff for their work.
Newport News Councilwoman Sharon Scott said the board had been discussing the bonuses for a while. She said she was sure jail staffers read the newspaper, but they didn’t get to see the actions the board takes and would appreciate the board approving the bonuses.
“I would agree that that’s a testimony to the appreciation we as board members have for the staff that have been doing a lion’s share of the work and are committed to this organization,” said Chesapeake Deputy City Manager Bob Geis, “with or without reading the newspaper.”
And board members laughed.
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com
Gary Harki, 757-446-2370, gary.harki@pilotonline.com