Virginia to close four prisons, reassume control of sole private prison
The Virginia Department of Corrections will close four prisons and take control of the state’s only privately operated prison this summer, officials said Friday.
Augusta Correctional Center, Sussex II State Prison, Haynesville Correctional Unit #17 and Stafford Community Corrections Alternative Program will close July 1, 2024. The department said the closures are intended “to enhance employee, inmate, and probationer safety, to address longstanding staffing challenges, and in consideration of significant ongoing maintenance costs.”
The announcement from the department did not note how many inmates will be affected by the closures or where they will be transferred. The agency said it has begun identifying job placement opportunities for employees at the affected facilities “to ensure that all employees who wish to remain employed with the VADOC will be able to stay with the agency.”
Virginia will also end its contract with Florida-based GEO Group to operate the Lawrenceville Correctional Center in Brunswick County on Aug. 1, 2024. The medium-security prison has been operated privately since 1998 and under GEO management since 2003.
Prison reform advocates have pushed for control of Lawrenceville to be turned back over to the state for many years, arguing that private companies’ need to produce profits leads them to cut corners in staffing and other resources that endanger inmate safety. In 2021, Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, proposed legislation that would have prohibited the state government from contracting with private prison operators, but it was defeated in committee.
Reporting by the Mercury found that persistent staffing shortages at the facility have led the Virginia Department of Corrections to repeatedly dock its payments to GEO for operation of Lawrenceville due to the company’s failure to meet minimum staffing levels required by contract. Between August 2018 and October 2022, those deductions totaled $4.3 million. Roughly three-quarters of the costs were linked to shortages between October 2021 and October 2022.