Regional jail reaches tipping point
The facility remains woefully understaffed; question of proper funding left unresolved
For a brief moment. it looked like the Hampton Roads Regional Jail was finally and mercifully on a path to winning back the public trust.
Then-Superintendent Ronaldo Myers and his staff were working with federal authorities as part of a civil rights investigation into the facility’s treatment of inmates. And a budget amendment in the legislature was expected to provide funding to address a dangerous understaffing problem.
Today we know that hope was false, and the future of the HRRJ is perilous. Deservedly so.
Jail officials have reverted to their clandestine ways, refusing to answer questions about inmate deaths. The facility remains woefully understaffed, the question of proper funding left unresolved. The HRRJ is subject to a Department of Justice consent decree — agreed to last year — because of its inability to protect inmates’ constitutional rights.
The jail is now led by interim Superintendent Col. Jeff Vergakis, who took the reins in December following the retirement of Superintendent Col. Christopher Walz.
Walz moved into that role when Superintendent
Jail officials have reverted to their clandestine ways, refusing to answer questions about inmate deaths.
David Hackworth resigned in January 2020. Hackworth took over for Myers — remember him? — when Myers resigned in 2018 after only a year in the post.
That revolving door is one of the many problems that continue to plague a facility which has the ignoble title as being the deadliest jail in Virginia and one of the deadliest in the nation. At least 53 people have died there since 2008, per Virginian-Pilot reporting.
The jail came to the attention of federal authorities following the 2015 death of Jamycheal Mitchell, a 24-year-old from Portsmouth with a history of mental illness. Held there for 100 days, Mitchell lost 46 pounds during his incarceration, before what Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales termed a “tragic and likely avoidable” death in a 2019 report.
Mitchell’s death was arguably the most horrifying, but there have been numerous others in recent years that invited legal scrutiny and inspired public outrage. Five Hampton Roads cities pay for the HRRJ and populate its cells with inmates — Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Hampton — and share the blame for deteriorating conditions there.
Not that it seems to have moved officials to act. Myers was effectively ousted after making his emergency budget request, and city officials who serve on the jail’s administrative board have not done enough to alleviate the, frankly, deadly conditions there.
Last week, another shoe dropped. The jail lost its accreditation through the American Correctional Association, with that group citing the DOJ agreement and continued inmate deaths for revoking its endorsement.
A day later, Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron and Chesapeake Sheriff Jim O’Sullivan announced plans to remove their inmates from the facility. Portsmouth Sheriff Michael Moore stopped sending inmates there in early 2019.
Regional jails were envisioned as a way for communities to share the costs and responsibility for incarcerations but, in the case of the HRRJ, became a place where cities often sent their sickest inmates — those with chronic illness and who may require expensive care.
Importantly, the HRRJ houses hundreds of people with serious mental illness and must shoulder the cost of their treatment. While the jail has tried to improve mental health services there — and the state has emphasized better mental health treatment for inmates — that progress remains insufficient.
No elected official wants to tell taxpayers they need to ante up to pay for better health care in a jail, but the responsibility of leadership demands this region do better in the facility that bears its name — or abandon the jail as an option for offenders.
This is the moment to choose. If the five cities are determined to preserve the regional jail, they must take dramatic steps to improve — from providing the funding needed to fill vacant positions and provide adequate care to inmates, to being transparent with the public about conditions, to meeting the demands of federal authorities to protect inmate health and safety.
Without such action, there is no hope the HRRJ can be salvaged as a viable resource for the region.