Senate Bill 581 and House Bill 1053 directed the Board of Local and Regional Jails to organize a work group to make recommendations regarding the reduction or elimination of fees charged to inmates in local or regional correctional facilities.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. The State Board of Local and Regional Jails (the Board) shall convene a work group to review and make recommendations regarding the reduction or elimination of costs and fees charged to inmates in local or regional correctional facilities to defray the costs of an inmate's keep, work release, or participation in educational or rehabilitative programs; to use telephone services; to purchase items or services from stores or commissaries; to utilize electronic visitation systems; and otherwise deemed relevant by the Board. The work group shall be composed of two members of the House Committee on Public Safety who are not members of the same political party and two members of the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services who are not members of the same political party. Such legislative members shall appoint as members of the work group one formerly incarcerated person, one family member of a currently incarcerated person, and at least one representative of the following organizations or companies: the Virginia Sheriffs' Association, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Association of Regional Jails, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Worth Rises, Social Action Linking Together, Justice Forward Virginia, the Sistas in Prison Reform, Americans for Prosperity, a vendor that provides telephone services to local correctional facilities within the Commonwealth, and a vendor that provides commissary services to local correctional facilities within the Commonwealth. The work group shall report its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Public Safety and the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services by December 1, 2022.

Pursuant to that requirement, this report is the product of engagement and collaboration among work group members who had varying expertise and perspectives on the recommendations. The members included representatives from the Virginia General Assembly, State Board of Local and Regional Jails, formerly incarcerated individuals, family members of incarcerated individuals, and advocacy groups.

The workgroup membership was as follows:

Board of Local and Regional Jails Staff: Ryan McCord, Board of Local and Regional Jails; Colleen Maxwell, Board of Local and Regional Jails

Law Enforcement Agencies and Associations: Ted Hull, Northern Neck Regional Jail; Joseph Baron, Norfolk Sheriff; Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police

Legislative Members: Co-Chair Senator Joe Morrissey; Co-Chair Delegate Amanda Batten; Senator John Cosgrove; Delegate Patrick Hope

Other Stakeholders: Shawn Weneta, ACLU of Virginia; Chuck Meire, Social Action Linking Together; Santia Nance, family of incarcerated person; e Paulettra James, Sistas in Prison Reform; Sincere Allah, formerly incarcerated person; Andy Elders, Justice Forward Virginia; Bianca Tylek, Worth Rises; Jeremiah Mosteller, Americans for Prosperity; Pelicia Hall, ViaPath; Mike Evancho, Oasis Commissary

The work group convened a quorum three times during the study period, on August 30, November 7, and November 29, 2022. The group also met without a quorum on June 22, 2022.

During these meetings, the group discussed the existing business model for communications, commissary, financial services, and other services within local and regional correctional facilities. At the request of the sheriffs and jail superintendents, the group agreed to ask the local and regional correctional facilities for more data to inform the discussion. This data request consisted of a survey (designed with input from all members of the workgroup, including representatives of local and regional correctional facilities), relevant contracts for all services and goods sold in facilities, and five years of financial data supporting those contracts.

On August 30, 2022, the sheriffs and regional jails, after amending the survey to their specifications, were asked to have their colleagues complete and submit this survey and accompanying contracts and financials by October 6, 2022. This request was again communicated on September 22, 2022 via email by the Board of Local and Regional Jails.

The sheriffs and regional jails subsequently asked Senator Morrissey and Delegate Batten for an extension to October 24, 2022. On October 27, 2022 (three days after the extended due date), the Virginia Association of Regional Jails submitted a position letter disputing the “form and function of the Data Survey" as a “complete misunderstanding of the correctional space and its operational processes.