Feds demand sweeping change at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in rare court action

Board president and Chesapeake Deputy City Manager Robert Geis did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

In a press release, jail Superintendent Christopher Walz said that the changes will make the jail “a model for treatment of inmates with mental disabilities” in Virginia. He noted that the jail has increased its medical and mental health staff, going from the equivalent of 38 full-time positions in 2015 to about 71 today.

Attorney General Mark Herring said the conditions in the regional jail should not be allowed there or in any other Virginia facility.

“This proposed consent decree is a step in the right direction as HRRJ works to ensure the safety and health of their inmates, especially those with mental illness,” he said in an emailed statement. “I hope that HRRJ and other facilities around the Commonwealth will reevaluate the ways that they treat inmates and make any needed improvements.”

The filing in federal court was nearly five years in the making.

In August 2015 Jamycheal Mitchell, who suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, died in the regional jail after stealing $5 worth of snacks, his cell covered in feces and urine. A year later, in August 2016, the Pilot reported on the death of Henry Stewart, who begged for help in an emergency grievance two days before he died.

Herring quickly requested the Justice Department investigate the jail. In December 2016, the DOJ opened a patterns-and-practice investigation, the last one under the Obama administration, which is designed to address systemic abuses in policing.

That investigation concluded in December 2018 when the department sent notice to the regional jail that it was violating the eighth and 14th amendments to the Constitution by failing to provide adequate medical and mental healthcare. It also cited the jail’s practice of placing people with severe mental illness in restrictive housing. Another year-and-a-half passed before the consent decree was filed Wednesday.

Since 2015, at least 22 people have died while in the jail’s custody, including deaths that mirrored those of Mitchell and Stewart.

During that time, the jail’s board has resisted attempts to dramatically increase staffing there and hired a succession of superintendents to manage the jail’s daily operations.

Regional jails in Virginia get funding from the state and local city governments who use them to house inmates. That puts them in competition for state funds from sheriffs who sit on their boards and with other local agencies.

In 2017, then-Superintendent Ronaldo Myers worked to get legislative support for a measure that would have given the jail $5 million in state money for 80 new correctional and support staff. The bill died in a legislative committee after some sheriffs on the board did not support it. Board members also fought to keep their cities’ contributions to the jail’s budget as low as possible.

If the decree is approved, the jail would have to pay for an outside monitor for at least three years to oversee its practices. It would also need to increase staffing levels and the quality of medical and mental healthcare.

One chronic problem is having enough staff to transport sick detainees to and from medical appointments. Three staffing studies, none of which were implemented, have pointed out the problem. The consent decree notes that staff will need to be increased to address it.

Another long-time problem is a lack of communication between the regional jail and the five jails that send inmates there, which often don’t provide medical records for the inmates. The agreement would require that the regional jail get those records.

Jail officials would also have to make sure they are not using restrictive housing as an alternative to medical treatment, provide additional training to jail staff and revise the process for getting people their medications.

The complaint notes that the jail has thus far not taken sufficient action to correct these and many other staffing and healthcare problems. That’s led to ongoing conduct that deprives people held there of their rights under the constitution.

Since the investigation concluded in 2018, the jail has increased staffing, adding 10 positions in July 2019 and another 10 last month.

“Funding has been included in future budgets to add 10 positions in January and July each year, until there is sufficient staffing as suggested by DOJ,” Walz wrote in his press release.

The agreement would require the jail to hire additional doctors and nurses and to increase their medical staffing on weekends as well.

“Unless restrained by this Court, Defendant will continue to engage in the acts and omissions … that discriminate against prisoners with mental health disabilities in violation of the ADA,” the complaint reads.

How much the improvements will cost is unknown, but it’s likely the majority of the funding will have to come from local cities.