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PORTSMOUTH — The city of Portsmouth will drop its court case against the sheriff over the future of the city jail, ending a legal battle that has dragged on for 18 months.
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to end a lawsuit asking a judge to force the sheriff to send inmates to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail.
Councilman Mark Whitaker raised the issue — which hadn’t been on the agenda — near the end of a lengthy council meeting. He said the legal battle was “totally unnecessary” and had “dragged the city through a process that we never should have gone through.”
“I think that our sheriff, Sheriff Michael Moore, has served the city well and deserves the respect of us being able to sit down and to discuss, negotiate and to move forward in a light that’s going to reflect what’s best for the city,” Whitaker said.
Mayor Shannon Glover said the city and sheriff would work together to eventually move the jail off the waterfront, an area the city has long sought to redevelop. Moore previously has advocated for building a new jail on land near the courthouse. A pair of outside financial advisors told City Council members last year that borrowing $41 million to build a new jail could breach the amount of debt the city can take on for projects.
Tuesday’s vote came during the City Council’s second meeting this year, two months after voters elected a new mayor and filled three open seats. The vote was markedly different from the stance a majority of the previous council members took on the city jail. In court, the city had been trying to close the jail and transfer all of its inmates to the regional facility.
It wasn’t immediately clear what will happen next, whether the city will pursue building a new jail somewhere else or whether it may try to alter its contract with the regional jail.
Jon Babineau, one of the sheriff’s lawyers, said he was “elated” with the City Council’s decision, saying the election had brought in a “new group of minds” that listened and took decisive action.
“I’m very pleased with the Portsmouth City Council taking a responsible position,” Babineau said Wednesday.
Acting City Attorney Burle Stromberg said the decision could present an opportunity for all sides to come together: “Hopefully an adverse situation will turn into a positive one.”
Councilwoman Lisa Lucas-Burke, who was just appointed to serve on the Hampton Roads Regional Jail’s board, said the city will need to work with the sheriff to come up with a plan of action and figure out how long the city jail can continue to house inmates at its current location.
“It will be my hope that we can put them in the most safe and secure place,” said Lucas-Burke, who was not in favor of the city pursuing legal action against the sheriff. “… I do believe we’re moving in the right direction.”
Lucas-Burke said there were many moving parts — the City Council still needs to hire a city manager and city attorney — but having an “open dialogue” with the sheriff was a good first step.
[ Previous coverage: Portsmouth Civic Center condemned, deemed "unfit for habitation" ]
Roots of the fight
The legal sparring match between the city and sheriff began in July 2019, when city building officials abruptly and without warning condemned the jail and four other buildings in the Civic Center Complex. The city pointed to three reports done by outside firms that found deficiencies there as its reason for the closure.
Moore opposed the condemnation and asked a judge to block the closure and force the city to either repair or replace the facility. In early 2020, Circuit Judge Johnny Morrison ruled in favor of the sheriff, saying the city couldn’t condemn the facility and had to fix it. The judge allowed the city to condemn the other buildings in the complex. Babineau said the city has since made repairs to the jail, including putting in a new fire pump.
The case involves a number of separate legal matters, though, and the remaining issue was whether the sheriff would be required to send inmates to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail.
Portsmouth and four other cities have a contract to house inmates at the regional facility, where Portsmouth pays for 250 beds whether or not it fills them. Moore stopped sending inmates there two years ago, citing a Department of Justice investigation that found conditions there likely violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Portsmouth has only a few inmates remaining at the regional jail today, Babineau said.
In May, Morrison initially ruled that Moore had to honor the city’s contract and send inmates to the regional facility, but he put his decision on hold until the city and sheriff could present more evidence at a hearing in June.
That final decision was still pending, and the two sides haven’t been back to court in seven months.
Unused beds
While the council’s vote will end legal action with the sheriff, it doesn’t address Portsmouth’s contract with the regional jail. The city continues to pay for unused beds there.
A Virginian-Pilot analysis in late 2019 found Portsmouth spent $5.9 million on unfilled beds from July 2012 through June 2019, at least 62 times more than what any other city has lost.
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Currently, the regional jail is under oversight from the DOJ and agreed last year to one of the few — if not the only — consent decrees under the Trump administration.
The regional jail also is facing a severe officer shortage, with more than a third of the jobs vacant as of December. As a result, the jail’s board recently voted to move more than 250 inmates back to their original cities’ jails.
Babineau said he thinks the regional jail has violated its contract with the city because of the DOJ’s finding and staffing problems, and he said he’d like to see the city try to pull out of the agreement.
When the city and sheriff’s legal fight began, Moore said the city should try to renegotiate its contract with the regional jail for fewer beds. Such an effort would require the approval of the regional jail’s board, which is composed of sheriffs, city managers and a council member from each of the member cities — all of whom have their own city’s interests in mind.
In June, then-Portsmouth Councilman Nathan Clark raised the issue at the board’s meeting. At the time, board members representing Norfolk, Chesapeake and Hampton said they were not interested in a renegotiation, meeting minutes show.
Much has happened since, though, and Lucas-Burke said Portsmouth could ask again about renegotiating.
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com