In the wake of several controversial deaths in Virginia jails, members of the General Assembly are taking action to make sure the cases are thoroughly investigated.
In 2015, a woman with schizophrenia died at the Fairfax County jail after being tasered four times by sheriff’s deputies. The Fairfax Police Department investigated and declined to bring charges. Then in 2016, an inmate at the Hampton Roads jail died of starvation. Multiple investigations followed that death, although Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran says many questions still linger. That's why the governor is pushing to have these deaths investigated by the state.
“And there appeared to be an absence of responsibility and accountability for those reviews and investigations so the governor has led with the Board of Corrections," said Moran. "They have expertise currently. They have some relationship with jails.”
Republican Senator John Cosgrove of Chesapeake is moving forward with a bill that would have the Department of Corrections investigate every death behind bars and report findings to the governor and the General Assembly.
“This will be a uniform way of investigating these deaths," he explained. "It’s not trying to point fingers; it’s just trying to find out what may have gone wrong. Was there negligence on anybody’s part?”
Cosgrove is also pushing to have inmates screened for mental illness when they arrive at jails and before they’re released.