The Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority Board voted unanimously to close the jail facility.

Operations will wind down and doors will shut on April 1, 2024.

The jail opened its doors in 1998 to serve jail overcrowding in four, and later five, Hampton Roads cities. After 25 years of operation, diminishing populations and highly publicized legal issues – including a state attorney general’s investigation – the jail is closing.

Robert Geis, chair of the jail’s board, cited the decreasing number of inmates as the main cause for the jail’s closure.

As of October 2023, the facility holds 198 inmates. It was built to hold around 1300.

“The regional jail’s mission is no longer sustainable,” Geis said in a press release.

Board vice chair Peter Buryk said inmates left at HRRJ will return to their original jurisdictions. Those are Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton and Chesapeake.

Hampton’s jail is undergoing repairs and is closed; the 51 prisoners who belong to the city’s jurisdiction are in limbo while officials try to hash out a deal for where they will go. Hampton has agreements with Western Tidewater Regional Jail and the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority, which are already holding some inmates from the city.

Hampton Vice Mayor Jimmy Gray is also a member of the jail’s authority board. He said he will work to make sure the city’s inmates end up in jails close to home.

Portsmouth Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke said her city is throwing its hat into the ring to take over the jail, which is within Portsmouth city limits. Portsmouth's city jail takes up prime downtown property.

“Portsmouth wants to be at the front, because this is our city,” she said. “And we do need a jail. We want to be able to develop our downtown waterfront.”

The regional jail faced a number of serious complaints in its 25-year lifespan. In 2018, the Justice Department closed a two-year investigation into the facility by concluding it violated prisoners’ constitutional rights as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

That inquiry began a year after 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell died inside the jail. He was waiting for a court-ordered transfer to a mental health facility.

Jail leadership changed and staffing numbers increased as part of an agreement with the Justice Department in 2020.

Sign up HERE to be one of the first people to get the most important local news every weekday.

• 
•