Criminal Justice (Corrections)

Local correctional facilities; reimbursements for housing convicted state felons. Provides that, notwithstanding the quarterly installment payments the Compensation Board is required to provide for reimbursements to localities, the Compensation Board shall ensure that it provides reimbursement to localities for the entirety of the costs incurred by such locality arising from housing convicted state felons in any local or regional correctional facility.

Civilian deaths in custody; failure to comply with annual report; funding for local and regional adult correctional facilities. Requires the State Board of Local and Regional Jails to notify the Office of the Governor if any local or regional correctional facility fails to send reports with information required by law regarding civilian deaths in custody within 10 days. If such facility fails to comply within 10 days, the bill allows the Governor discretion to direct the Comptroller to withhold all further payment to such facility of all funds, or of any part of them, appropriated and payable by the Commonwealth to such facility, for any and all purposes, until such correctional facility complies.

State correctional facilities; participation of prisoners in employment and educational programs; reentry planning. Expands the program assignments in which the Director of the Department of Corrections may place a prisoner while such prisoner is confined in a state correctional facility. The bill requires the Director to place a prisoner in an appropriate program assignment within (i) 90 days of the arrival of a prisoner sentenced to a new term of confinement to a state correctional facility or (ii) 60 days of a prisoner already in custody being transferred to a new state correctional facility and provides that participation in such program assignments shall be for an average of 30 hours per week, calculated individually across the calendar year. Finally, the bill expands upon the requirements for a prisoner's reentry plan, including requiring an assessment, if necessary, of a prisoner's readiness to take a high school equivalency test and any modifications needed for the prisoner to take or improve upon such test, and making available peer and group educational programs developed and led by qualified prisoners.

Department of Corrections; functional literacy program for incarcerated individuals; Virginia Prison Education Task Force established; report. Requires the Superintendent employed by the Director of Corrections to (i) by January 1, 2027, develop a functional literacy program for inmates testing below at least an eighth grade level, instead of a twelfth grade level as required by current law, and include in such program evidence-based literacy instruction, as defined in accordance with applicable law; (iii) share data with (a) the state entity that oversees the management, direction, and governance of the Commonwealth's education and workforce data for the purpose of developing educational, health, social service, and employment outcome data and improving the efficacy of state services and (b) the Virginia Community College System necessary for comprehensive community colleges to apply for and maintain eligibility as Federal Pell Grant-eligible prison education programs; and (iv) track and publicly report at least annually the number of incarcerated individuals eligible for, enrolled in, and waitlisted for the literacy and education programs. The bill also establishes the Virginia Prison Education Task Force for the purpose of implementing a consistent education program across all state correctional facilities operated by the Department. The bill requires the Task Force to submit a report to the Governor and the General Assembly on its activities, findings, and recommendations by November 1, 2026. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Education to, by November 1, 2026, (a) review and update the salary schedules for teachers licensed by the Board of Education and employed by the Department of Corrections to provide instruction in the schools of the correctional centers to be competitive with those in effect for the school division in which the correctional facility is located and (b) make recommendations for the inclusion of such teacher salary increases in the appropriation act.

Credit for time spent in confinement while awaiting trial; extradition or fugitive warrant. Provides that if any person is extradited from another state pursuant to (i) an extradition warrant from the Commonwealth or (ii) a fugitive warrant issued from the state where such person is detained and such person is subsequently sentenced to a term of confinement in a correctional facility in the Commonwealth for an offense from the same act as the violation for which the extradition warrant or fugitive warrant was authorized, such person shall have deducted from any such term all time actually spent in confinement awaiting extradition from such other state, provided that he was solely held on the extradition warrant or fugitive warrant and not on any other offense that he allegedly committed in such other state. This bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Criminal Justice Conference.

Competency treatment in misdemeanor proceedings. Provides that in cases where the defendant has been charged with a misdemeanor offense, the court may (i) order outpatient treatment or (ii) dismiss the charges. Where a defendant is found to be incompetent, the bill permits a court to (a) order that such defendant receive treatment to restore his competency on an outpatient basis in a local correctional facility or at a location determined by the appropriate community services board or behavioral health authority, (b) order that such defendant be evaluated to determine whether he meets the criteria for temporary detention, or (c) dismiss the misdemeanor charge and release such defendant. The bill also requires a court to dismiss misdemeanor charges in a competency proceeding when a defendant is charged with both misdemeanor and felony offenses.

Deferred or installment payment agreements; outstanding court-assessed fines, fees, taxes, or costs. Provides that the attorney for the Commonwealth or the clerk of the circuit court shall not require any defendant sentenced to an active term of incarceration and ordered to pay any fine cost, forfeiture, or penalty related to the charge for which such defendant was incarcerated, or any other chare for which such defendant was sentenced on the same day, the court shall enter such  defendant into a deferred payment agreement with a due date set no earlier than 180 days after the defendant's scheduled release from incarceration on the charges for which such defendant was sentenced on the same day.

Reporting requirements of state, regional, and local correctional facilities; pregnant and postpartum inmates. Requires the warden or other official in charge of a state correctional facility that houses women prisoners to compile a monthly summary and the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary of all of the following and submit such summary to the Director of the Department of Corrections or State Board of Local and Regional Jails, as applicable: (i) the number of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility, (ii) the number of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility, (iii) the number of women prisoners in the facility, (iv) the total number of prisoners in the facility, (v) the number of deaths of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility, and (vi) the number of deaths of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility. The bill also requires such summary to be submitted to the Maternal Mortality Review Team and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice. Lastly, the bill requires the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary of all written reports received pursuant to relevant law regarding use of restraints on any prisoner known to be pregnant or any prisoner who is in postpartum recovery and any body cavity search of a pregnant prisoner and submit such summary to the Board each quarter.

State correctional facilities; visitation privileges; Visitation Enhancement Program established. Establishes the Visitation Enhancement Program (the Program) and requires all state correctional facilities to participate in the Program and provide visitation privileges to inmates in accordance with the standards specified in the bill. The bill provides that all inmates in state correctional facilities shall be classified within one of three phases of the Program, which shall be based on the class level at which the inmate earns good time such as good conduct time, good conduct allowances, or earned sentence credits. The bill specifies certain enhanced visitation privileges permitted for each of the three phases of the Program. The bill also requires visitors be permitted to visit an inmate for at least two hours prior to a visit being terminated due to capacity issues and provides that if the visitation area is at maximum capacity, state correctional facility staff shall ask visitors, on a voluntary basis, to end their visit. The bill states that if a sufficient number of visitors fail to volunteer, staff shall terminate visits, beginning with the first visitors processed, until the required seating or space is available for incoming visitors.

Fines, costs, forfeitures, penalties, and restitution; collection fees; assessment against incarcerated defendant; deferred payment agreement. Extends from 90 days without payment to 180 days without payment the period of delinquency necessary for an account to be included on the required monthly report of delinquent accounts made by the clerk of the circuit court and district court.The bill also provides that for any defendant sentenced to an active term of incarceration and ordered to pay any fine, cost, forfeiture, or penalty related to the charge that such defendant is incarcerated for, or any other charge for which such defendant was sentenced on the same day, the court shall enter such defendant into a deferred payment agreement for such fines, costs, forfeitures, or penalties. The bill requires the due date for such deferred payment agreement to be set no earlier than the defendant's scheduled release from incarceration on the charge for which such defendant received the longest period of active incarceration. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027. This bill was incorporated into SB 180.