Virginia governor highlights prison safety reforms

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Governor Abigail Spanberger announced the creation of a community advisory council on Tuesday aimed at increasing the safety and well-being of Virginia’s prison staff and inmate population.

Launching the Governor’s Community Partnership Council on Corrections, Spanberger said “Forming this group is exactly how we will ensure that these reforms that we’ve undertaken so far take root and build a foundation for Virginia long after I am no longer in office.”

“When we lead with accountability, transparency and professionalism, we create safer facilities, stronger communities and ultimately better outcomes,” the Democrat added.

Spanberger — joined by state Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Stanley Meador and Virginia Department of Corrections Director Joseph Walters — described the council as a group of stakeholders engaging in dialogue concerning confinement conditions, reentry and reintegration, family engagement, staffing and public accountability.

The group will comprise members of the Department of Corrections, formerly incarcerated individuals, community organizations, faith-based groups, healthcare providers and educators.

As part of the enacted reforms, the Department of Corrections established a new code of ethics, created an office of professional standards and mandated new refresher training on the use of force, less-than-lethal options and rendering aid.

The group hopes to build on the success of what Walters described as a newly implemented people-first culture.

Between January and May, the Department of Corrections reported a 56% decrease in inmate-on-staff assaults, a 39% decrease in the use of force and 27% decrease in full lockdowns across the state’s 25 major institutions compared to the same period in 2025.

“We’re stressing things like professionalism, integrity, accountability,” Walters said. “How you do your job matters, and together what we do matters."

The Department of Corrections has reduced the number of individuals in restorative housing units by 20%, including those held in segregation and solitary confinement. Walters credits improved use of force, de-escalation and crisis intervention training. The Department of Corrections also stopped using five-point restraints on those in crisis.

Walters claimed the Department of Corrections is increasing educational services, GED classes and job training for inmates despite having a 21% vacancy rate.

Staffing shortages are particularly prevalent in the southwestern portion of the state, including at River North Correctional Center in Independence, Virginia, where an inmate killed correctional officer Jeremy Hall in November.

“We want to fill those vacancies,” Walters said. “We’re working diligently to address that, to recruit new employees to come into our agency to bring those new ideas that will help to move us forward.”

The Department of Corrections also decreased the number of patrol canine attacks on inmates under Spanberger.

The department used patrol canines for deterrent purposes 221 times at its six highest-security-level facilities between January and May, with five instances of the canines forcibly engaging with inmates.

During the same period in 2025, under the leadership of Republican former Governor Glenn Youngkin, the Department of Corrections reported 270 canine deployments for deterrence and 11 instances of canines using force against inmates.

The number of confirmed overdoses has decreased by 47%, while the number of suspected overdoses is down 12%. Virginia holds the nation’s lowest recidivism rate at 18.8%.

Other efforts under Spanberger include extending visitation hours and meeting with advocacy groups that claim to have not had similar opportunities to voice their concerns to Spanberger’s predecessors. Spanberger claims her administration took immediate action to address 85% of concerns raised by advocacy groups.

“When I look at what you all have accomplished in just five months, the lives that are safer, the families that are being heard, the practices that have changed, they are frankly among the reforms, the changes, and the progress that I am most proud of during my time as governor, so far, because it exemplifies the notion that if you see a problem, it’s your obligation to fix it,” Spanberger said. “That is what we are doing.”