With inmates ‘acting out,’ jail called Norfolk sheriff for backup
PORTSMOUTH — Hampton Roads Regional Jail officials called in Norfolk sheriff ’s deputies on Friday to help with an incident involving inmates who were “acting out and damaging property,” according to the jail’s superintendent.
No one was injured and the Norfolk deputies ultimately weren’t needed, Col. Christopher Walz said Monday. He said he’d called them “out of an abundance of caution.”
He added that he reached out to the Norfolk Sheriff ’s Office — and not the closer one in Portsmouth — due to his connections as a former employee of Norfolk.
The incident occurred Friday afternoon through the evening and involved two inmates in a housing unit, Walz said. It lasted about four hours.
The unit was short on trays that day. When an officer left to get more, the pair started damaging several tables, he said.
The inmates then refused to leave the room, Walz said. Jail staff spoke with them until they came out willingly.
It’s unclear what led the two to act up.
Norfolk sheriff spokeswoman Deanna LeBlanc confirmed the office sent
members of the Sheriff Emergency Response Team on Friday. She declined to say how many deputies were sent, citing “security reasons.”
Portsmouth pays millions of dollars every year to house people at the regional jail, but the Portsmouth
Sheriff ’s Office stopped sending new inmates there early last year amid concerns over their safety. Over the objections of Portsmouth Sheriff Michael A. Moore, the city is now trying to close his jail and send all of its inmates to the regional facility.