CHAPTER 710
An Act to direct the Department of Corrections to convene a work group to study use of restorative housing in correctional facilities; report.
[S 108]
Approved April 27, 2022
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. The Department of Corrections (the Department) shall convene a work group to study the use of restorative housing within state correctional facilities and juvenile correctional centers, including the length of time each inmate is kept in restorative housing and the purposes for which inmates are placed in restorative housing. As a part of such study, the Department shall facilitate confidential interviews between work group members and at least 25 persons currently incarcerated in a state correctional facility who are currently or who have within the past 12 months been placed in restorative housing units or other units within the state correctional facility under conditions of isolated or restrictive confinement, provided that such persons are not the subject of or involved in pending litigation with the Department, and confidential interviews with existing staff and facility officials as requested by the work group. The work group shall make recommendations of its findings, including how to safely reduce or end the use of restorative housing that lasts longer than 14 days and criteria to be considered when a determination is made that placement in restorative housing should last longer than 14 days. The work group shall be composed of at least one licensed clinical psychologist, at least three formerly incarcerated individuals, each of whom was placed in restorative housing during his term of incarceration, and at least three representatives from each of the following agencies or groups: (i) the Department, (ii) the Department of Juvenile Justice, and (iii) the Virginia Coalition on Solitary Confinement. 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.