This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
A new council convened by Gov. Abigail Spanberger aims to help solve longstanding issues in Virginia’s prisons that residents and correctional officers have expressed concerns about for years.
The Governor’s Community Partnership Council On Corrections, which Spanberger announced Tuesday, will bring together representatives from advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, healthcare and public safety groups and former prisoners to share their experiences and work towards solutions.
Two years ago a handful of prisoners at Red Onion State Prison, the most embattled correctional institution in the state, burned themselves in protest of living conditions and in attempts to transfer elsewhere.
Allegations of racism and retaliation by correctional officers were not ruled out by a state watchdog investigation at the prison and a class action lawsuit on behalf of prisoners who say they were abused will head to trial later this year.
“The people living in Virginia’s prisons are not forgotten on our watch,” Spanberger said at a press conference announcing the new council held at the Virginia Department of Corrections headquarters in Richmond.
Virginia Public Safety and Homeland Security Secretary Stanley Meador emphasized that the council will empower participants to propose solutions to problems and help the administration “see things we can’t see.”
Shawn Weneta, a policy strategist who has helped shape some criminal justice law changes in recent years, commended the creation of the council. He noted that some VADOC changes first began under the previous director but is pleased with the progress that the new administration is building.
Speaking as a formerly incarcerated person, he emphasized that the council’s mission can best succeed by including “those most directly impacted by the system.”
Ahead of assembling the official council, Spanberger’s administration has already conducted engagement within prisons and implemented her Executive Order 12, which entailed enhanced training for correctional officers and building partnerships with communities.
From January to May of this year, Spanberger said use of force across all VADOC facilities has declined by 39%, serious inmate-on-staff assaults dropped 56%, lockdowns decreased by 27%, confirmed overdoses dropped 47%, while suspected overdoses dipped 12%.
Virginia prisons have stopped using five-point restraints, which can be harmful for people in mental health crises, she said.
The practice of isolating inmates in restorative housing, a persistent problem, has dropped by 20%.
Restorative housing is Virginia state code’s euphemism for solitary confinement. It removes inmates from general populations and houses them in solitary cells.
Restorative housing is used when there’s a threat of gang violence and as a disciplinary measure for inmates who violate prison rules.
When asked how the reduction in restorative housing was made possible, Spanberger shared that staff training refreshers since she took office have focused on deescalation, which doesn’t exacerbate situations where an inmate may be in crisis or agitated.
Spanberger also said her administration is considering how to fine tune the state’s Step Down program.
Step Down is supposed to offer people placed in restorative housing a pathway out by helping address root causes of why they were placed in solitary housing and giving them measures to transition out of it.
Several current and former inmates have relayed to The Mercury in recent years that restorative housing has been heavily utilized and people sometimes spend weeks or years, rather than days, in it.
A third-party report to state lawmakers in late 2024 confirmed that at least one facility had placed the majority of its residents under solitary housing.
Spanberger said her administration wants to be “making sure that every movement is documented on why someone is in restorative housing and their pathways out of it.”
Under her direction, VADOC has also started to solve visitor access issues.
After hearing tales of disparate visitation access, Spanberger identified COVID-era restrictions — like less seating and fewer visitor time slots — as a contributing factor.
In recent months, VADOC has worked to restore past seating capacities in prisons’ visitor centers and expand visitor time slots, the governor said. She also signed a law that creates more guidance and takes into account the needs of long-distance travelers who come to see their loved ones behind bars.
This “benefits, not just the family, but the person who is incarcerated,” she said.
With Joseph Walker now serving as director of VADOC, Spanberger’s administration established a new code of ethics for VADOC employees and mandated refreshed training.
Staffing issues have also plagued Virginia’s prisons. Walker and Meador shared that they’re very proud that their agencies’ work so far has been achieved even with a 21% staffing vacancy.
This means, they said, that current staffers are working longer hours and pledging deeper commitment to their tasks. But rebuilding employee teams will be critical to halt turnover and alleviate burnout.
Walker, Meador and Spanberger also hosted in-person engagement sessions with 13 advocacy groups that the governor said had gone unheard by the state’s top leaders for years.
She called it “stunning” how long some groups had tried to relay concerns to previous administrations and that she hopes her efforts to strengthen communication can “build a foundation for after I am no longer in office.”