Prisons

If the state of Virginia were a country, critics say we‘d be locking up more people per capita than any other nation. The Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit that does research and advocates for criminal justice reform, reports the Commonwealth is one of 24 states that also exceeds the national average.

Virginia’s Department of Corrections is the state’s largest agency with over 10,000 employees and a budget that exceeds a billion dollars a year. Now, its director is asking for another $70 million to raise pay for prison guards and improve the safety of correctional centers.

Nearly 7,800 inmates in state prisons have come down with COVID-19. Fifty of them and two staff members have died, and advocates are demanding the…

More than 700 inmates in state prisons have now tested positive for COVID-19, and five have died. Meanwhile, the ACLU of Virginia is investigating the…

Virginia prisons release about a thousand people each month, and with the arrival of COVID-19 the state is hoping to free even more, but some who have won…

The number of COVID cases in Virginia prisons has been rising steadily, with 200 inmates and guards now infected and a 49-year-old prisoner dead. Public…

At least 300 people in Virginia have died from complications related to COVID-19, according to data updated Monday morning by the Virginia Department of…

Three inmates at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women have tested positive for the novel coronavirus along with a contractor at the prison in…

Governor Northam has suspended a policy that allowed strip searches of minors visiting state prisons after a disturbing incident at the Buckingham…

In Virginia, about 4,000 inmates are vets. Providing medical care for them is expensive, but the state refuses to take prisoners to VA hospitals where…