Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of the Attorney General
|
Mark Herring |
202 North Ninth Street |
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Michael Kelly, Director of Communications
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STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL MARK R. HERRING
~ On DOJ report alleging unlawful and unconstitutional conditions and practices at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail ~
RICHMOND (December 19, 2018)—Attorney General Mark R. Herring issued the following statement on the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation into the Hampton Roads Regional Jail that found conditions that give DOJ “reasonable cause to believe violate the Constitution and federal law.” Attorney General Herring requested a DOJ investigation in 2016 after the deaths of Jamycheal Mitchell and Henry Clay Stewart, Jr., and after his attempts to encourage transparency and accountability were rebuffed by the jail.
“The conditions detailed in this report should not exist in this facility or anywhere in Virginia. I requested this investigation because it was clear the Hampton Roads community needed and deserved answers about what was going on in this facility, especially in light of the deaths of Jamycheal Mitchell and Henry Clay Stewart, Jr. and the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding those deaths. The Department of Justice’s findings should be a serious wake-up call, and a catalyst for even more work at HRRJ and around the Commonwealth to ensure the safety and health of inmates, especially those with mental illness.”
BACKGROUND
On September 2, 2016, Attorney General Herring wrote to then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and requested “that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division initiate a pattern and practice investigation into whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law occurring at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail (HRRJ) in Portsmouth, Virginia, specifically, whether inmates at the HRRJ are receiving the proper medical care, sufficient in nature, timeliness, and extent, to satisfy the minimum standards mandated by the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
The DOJ Civil Rights Division’s report found “reasonable cause to believe that conditions at the Jail violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution,” “reasonable cause to believe that the Jail fails to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care to prisoners,” and “reasonable cause to believe that the Jail violates the ADA by denying prisoners with mental health disabilities access to services, programs, and activities because of their disabilities.”
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