Overcrowding at county jail persists,
worrying both inmates and officials
Officials at the Rockbridge Regional Jail say cells held up to seven inmates last week.
(ALISHA LAVENTURE / Rockbridge Report)
In the past week the Rockbridge Regional Jail has been bunking as many as seven inmates to a cell.
Superintendent John M. Higgins said overcrowding at the jail is a problem that needs to be solved now.
"Every bed is full," Higgins said. "There is no room to shift inmates around, no flexibility to relieve tension within the cells."
The jail was built 20 years ago to house up to 56 prisoners, one for each cell. But within the past month, there have been as many as 122 prisoners housed at the jail, more than twice the number of beds.
Today the average daily population of local prisoners has risen to 98, compared to the average of 23 prisoners housed in 1990, according to jail records.
James Hardy, 43, a Buena Vista resident, has been in and out of jail for the past 25 years. He sleeps in one of the 10 available bunks in the good-behavior block.
"There's been overcrowding particularly in the women," Hardy said.
"There are more women in here now than I've seen in the past 20 years. They [are] sleeping on top of each other pretty much."
Only 12 beds are available for the 23 female inmates, one of whom is pregnant.
Michael Sandridge, chief corrections officer, has worked at the jail almost as long as Hardy has been in and out of it.
"Recently, that's been more of a female overcrowding problem than male," said Sandridge. "I've got more opportunities to get males into the state system than I do females because there's only a couple institutions that take females."
Plans to expand the jail have stalled. Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista must all pass a resolution that has been agreed upon by the Virginia Department of Corrections for expansion to go forward. But when Higgins proposed the plan, Buena Vista City Council would not go along.
Higgins is most worried about tension between inmates created by the overcrowding.
"I don't have anyone back there for going to Sunday school," he said. "On any given day we have people in here arrested for sexual assault, rape, and even someone facing the death penalty."
Lexington police see the overcrowding as a potential human rights issue.
"No one here will tell you, but these are people, too," said Investigator Mark Riley. "And they need to be treated as such. No one should live like that."
Sandridge said the facility has limited choices until more space is built.
"We're just trying to make the best of a bad situation," he said.
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