CHAPTER 359
An Act to direct the State Board of Local and Regional Jails to make recommendations regarding certain fees in local and regional correctional facilities.
[S 581]
Approved April 11, 2022
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.