Crumbling paint. Exposed pipes. Cracked floors. As I walk through the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, it is clear the 48-year-old facility is in horrible condition.
When ACRJ Superintendent Martin Kumer guides me to a cell block in the older section of the jail, built in 1974, my eyes are immediately drawn to the small silver toilets, tan sinks resting directly above them, inside of each 7-by-5 cell, offering no privacy. The metal bunk beds, covered in chipped blue paint, allow the jail to put up to two people in a cell, but there is one person in each at the moment. Still, when people are allowed to leave their cramped cells and use the common space throughout the day, everyone—and everything—is visible to the entire block.
Kumer points me to the block’s A/C system, which does not remove humidity, making the hot Virginia summers even more unbearable for those incarcerated here. There are no fresh-air intake vents, or air filtration systems, significantly increasing the chance of COVID and other airborne diseases spreading around the jail. The entire space appears very unsanitary—the communal shower, shared by up to a dozen people when the cell block is full, looks like it has not been cleaned in a long time. Before we leave the block, bathed in harsh fluorescent lights, Kumer motions to several bargrate windows that let no natural sunlight in.
The jail’s poor state does not come as a surprise to me. Since the beginning of the pandemic, people incarcerated here have called attention to the facility’s host of health and sanitary issues, including black mold, faulty wiring, leaky ceilings, poor plumbing, freezing temperatures, bug infestations, standing water, and shoddy COVID containment procedures. Seeing these conditions firsthand is no less disturbing.
Kumer takes me past a gym, classroom, visitation room, and small outdoor recreation space before we stop at the intake unit, located in the newer section of the jail. Because the facility has no dedicated mental health unit, people who are experiencing mental health crises and need to be separated from the general population are taken here, where they can be monitored at all times. We see a man inside a small single-person cell, his distressed face visible through the door’s window. The superintendent thinks he recognizes the man, and believes he may be on suicide watch. Staff will ensure the man does not harm himself, but the intake unit’s environment—especially its bright, 24/7 lights—does little to de-escalate mental health crises, and may even worsen them, Kumer admits.
“It’s the best we have,” he says, sighing.
Acknowledging these unsettling conditions, jail leadership has begun taking steps to renovate the facility, which serves the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle and Nelson counties. But the massive project and its $49 million estimated price tag has sparked pushback, particularly regarding the proposed mental health unit. Some community members have called on Charlottesville to invest in local mental health resources and programs instead—and do more to prevent people with mental health conditions from entering the criminal justice system at all.
Staff photos.
Proposed renovations
In 2000, the jail added three new housing units, each holding up to 40 people. Compared to the older portion of the jail, these units appear to be in better condition. The bigger cells can house up to four people, but typically two or three people are put in each. There’s also a larger common space, and plexiglass windows instead of bargrate. A gym, medical unit, and other necessities are located next to each housing unit.
The ACRJ, however, currently houses its entire population in the older cell blocks, in addition to the medical, intake, and other units—only those who have tested positive for COVID and need to quarantine are held in one of the newer housing units, largely due to the jail’s low population and staffing shortage. As of December 12, the jail’s population is 262 people, 67 below its rated capacity of 329.
To use these units, “you have to find enough people, 40 or more, who can get along 24/7, otherwise the housing area would be chaotic and unsafe,” Kumer says. “We have a relatively small population with several different issues that make it impossible to find enough people to efficiently use those spaces. Those issues include co-defendants, individuals testifying against others, people who have had issues [with each other], [and] gangs.”
Though the jail could house smaller groups of people who get along with each other in a new unit, it does not have enough staff for a low officer-to-individual ratio—in the older section’s general population areas, each employee is able to supervise between one and 60 individuals, or more.
The $49 million project will completely demolish and rebuild one older jail wing, while renovating the rest of the facility. In addition to upgrading and replacing the HVAC units, electric systems, lighting, and air filtration, the renovation will create an outdoor recreation space and larger visitation area, as well as add more classrooms, programming space, and administrative offices. Housing areas will be revamped with larger common spaces, natural sunlight, sound-deadening materials, plexiglass, and more showers and private toilets.
After the renovation, the jail will house its population in the renovated 1974 section, which will have larger cells. The 2000 section will be used when necessary, depending on the jail’s staffing.
Though the renovation will enlarge the jail’s square footage, it will not add more beds, or increase its capacity. After conducting a needs assessment—which examined crime trends, criminal justice reforms, and other factors in the three localities—jail leadership determined the facility’s population would not increase substantially in the future.
However, the renovations will demolish 40 beds in an old wing, and move them to a new dedicated mental health unit, featuring sound-absorbing materials, anxiety-reducing colors, and other elements of trauma-informed design. The unit will house people with mental health conditions, as well as other people who need to be separated from the general population, until “they are stable enough to be housed in the general population, transferred to a state hospital, entered into the therapeutic docket, or released,” says Kumer.
From July 2015 to July 2021, approximately 33 percent of the people held long enough at ACRJ to receive the Brief Jail Mental Health Screener (at least 24 to 48 hours) met the minimum screening criteria for serious mental illness, according to findings by the 2021-22 UVA Systems Engineering Capstone Team.
“Consistently, we have found that between 25 and 33 percent of ACRJ inmates meet the minimum screening criteria for serious mental illness,” says Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board planner Neal Goodloe. “We have also found that one in four former inmates are treated for either a physical or behavioral health issue at UVA’s Emergency Department within one month of their release from custody.”
“The majority of individuals we see are those who suffer from severe depression, mood disorders, anxiety, bipolar [disorder], and personality disorders that can be effectively treated with medication,” says Kumer. Individuals diagnosed with more severe mental illnesses “who are a harm to themselves or others or cannot care for themselves” are transferred to a state mental hospital until they are stable enough to return to ACRJ.
The new unit will have individual cells and a common area, which people will have access to during the day. Individuals who cannot safely socialize with others will have limited access to the common area.
“The purpose of the unit is to provide an environment that reduces the potential traumatizing effect that incarceration can have on individuals, especially those with mental illness,” says Kumer.
In March, the ACRJ board authority passed a resolution asking the Virginia Board of Local and Regional Jails to consider approving the renovation project, and requesting the state cover 25 percent of the cost. Cyndra Van Clief, a Republican and self-described fiscal conservative, was the only board member who voted against the resolution, citing concerns about the project’s high cost and a desire for more public input. In April, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors voted to remove her from the jail board for her “failure to act in the County’s best interest,” she told C-VILLE in May.
The state is expected to contribute $12.5 million to the renovation, and the three member localities will be on the hook for the rest. Each locality will pay a portion of the renovation cost equivalent to their jail beds usage—Albemarle uses about 45 percent of the beds, while Charlottesville uses around 40 percent, and Nelson about 15 percent.
Community backlash
Some community members and activists have spoken out against the $49 million project, particularly the proposed mental health unit. Instead of investing millions into the jail, they argue the city should increase its funding and support of mental health resources and programs.
“You can’t get well in a jail,” says city resident Gloria Beard. “If anything, if I was put in a jail and my mental health was bad … I think it would make me worse being locked up.”
“The treatment … in [the new unit] will not be any different,” adds Kate Fraleigh. “They won’t be hiring any new staff to provide more services. The only thing that will be different is that it will just look different.”
Kumer argues that medication is the only form of treatment the jail can provide, due to the short stays of individuals—typically 30 to 40 days. “Talk therapy or group therapy can take months or years to be truly effective,” he says. “Individual and group therapies are more common in prisons, since those individuals’ release dates are known and they will be incarcerated for potentially several years.”
Harold Folley of the People’s Coalition points to the closure of Region Ten’s Wellness Center as an example of the desperate need for investment in local mental health resources. This year, Region Ten—which serves six localities including Charlottesville and Albemarle County—paused admissions to the 16-bed center, a short-term residential stabilization program for adults experiencing an acute mental health crisis, due to staffing shortages. It hopes to reopen the center in January 2023, according to Community Relations Director Joanna Jennings.
“How can we increase the funds in the places that we need?” asks Folley. “Instead of being reactive, how can we be proactive?”
Fraleigh questions why the renovations cannot reduce the jail’s size, and in turn, come at a cheaper price, citing the area’s dwindling crime rate. From 2012 to 2021, crime in Charlottesville and Albemarle decreased significantly, according to data compiled by Goodloe. Under Charlottesville and Albemarle commonwealth’s attorneys Joe Platania and Jim Hingeley, progressive reforms, including the drug treatment court and restorative justice program, have also diverted people from incarceration. This year, Nelson County started a drug treatment court, too.
“My issue is not the renovation at all. It needs to be done. [The jail is] terrible. The old section is really, really bad. … My objection is how much money is going to be spent,” Fraleigh says. “There will be fewer people in the jail anyway because … crime is dropping.”
The jail’s current low population does not guarantee it will not rise again in the future, making it financially unwise to reduce the jail’s size and capacity now, Kumer says. “In the long run it would be significantly more expensive to at some point have to rebuild a facility you just paid to have demolished.”
The jail will not have any cost savings after the renovations, he adds.
Still, the city can do more to address the root causes of crime, says Ang Conn of Charlottesville Beyond Policing, including by creating a mental health crisis response team.
“Jails, prisons, and detention centers have and never will be designed to rehabilitate but rather continue to disappear those who are most in need of support services,” says Conn. “While some may believe that reform is the key to resolve the immediate needs, true resolve will come from a transformative approach outside of the carceral state.”
Board division
After working for Region Ten for more than 10 years, Charlottesville City Councilor and ACRJ Authority Board member Sena Magill says she understands the community’s concerns over the renovations and mental health unit, but adds the issue is “so much more complicated,” pointing to the cracks in Virginia’s mental health care system.
Since Virginia expanded Medicaid in 2019, the program has increased its coverage of mental health care services. However, Medicaid’s strict reimbursement conditions and inadequate reimbursement rates have contributed to staffing shortages on community service boards like Region Ten, as well as other state mental health care providers, for years. And some services aren’t covered by Medicaid or private insurance, requiring community service boards to try to fill those gaps—leaving even less money available to pay their staff, explains Magill.
“That state has made it so complicated to give services to people,” says Magill, who served as Region Ten’s director of intensive services from 1999 to 2010, and later served on the organization’s board of directors. “People are leaving [community service boards] in droves because it’s just not affordable for them anymore to stay working there.”
Magill claims the funding for the new mental health unit will not be enough to solve the staffing crisis at Region Ten. Until the state boosts community service board funding, improves Medicaid reimbursement, and takes additional steps to fix its mental health care system, “we’re going to see people [with mental health conditions] in jails,” she says.
“We need massive state infusions. … They got the money,” she adds, citing Virginia’s $654 million Medicaid surplus last year.
Additionally, mental health care resources and programs cannot entirely prevent people with mental health conditions from being put in jail, says Magill, explaining the need for the mental health unit.
“Sometimes someone with a mental health issue commits a crime that has nothing to do with their mental illness. [And] being in jail can set off your symptoms of mental illness,” she says. “The jail needs to be able to do the least amount of damage. It’s not supposed to be treating mental illness … that’s not its purpose.”
Jail board member Lisa Draine, Charlottesville’s citizen representative, says that if she could vote again on the state funding request for the renovations today, she would vote against it, echoing community concerns over the hefty price tag.
When Kumer brought the request to the board for approval in March, “I assumed nothing was set in stone. The three jurisdictions had not been asked for funding for the renovation. … I hoped we as a board would have the opportunity to further discuss the renovations,” says Draine. “If I could do it all again, knowing what I know now, I would change my vote.”
“There’s no question that the jail is in bad shape … but we don’t need to spend this kind of money,” explains Draine, who joined the board in October 2021 when the renovation planning process was already underway. “Should we be putting $49 million of taxpayer money into this facility in which the population is decreasing, instead of putting that money into community solutions and programs that address the root causes that would lead somebody to end up in the criminal legal system?”
Kumer emphasizes that the state funding request is non-binding, and the jail board and leadership can explore ways to cut down the renovation costs. The member jurisdictions can also choose not to move forward with the project in the future.
Draine says she has asked the board multiple times to further discuss the renovation costs, but so far, those conversations have not happened. She hopes jail leadership and the board can find a way to reduce the renovation costs, and leave more funding available for community resources and programs addressing mental health, poverty, and other issues.
Jail board Chairperson and Albemarle County Supervisor Diantha McKeel says there will be “many more discussions to follow in 2023 with the community, service providers, ACRJ inmates, and staff regarding a final design. The current estimate … is only that, an estimate, as required by the [state Department of Corrections] process to submit for 25 percent reimbursement from the state.”
“I certainly understand the concerns around the cost,” McKeel adds. “There will be many opportunities [for] … discussion regarding reduction of cost.”
To cut costs, Draine suggests the jail move its population into the newer wing, make repairs and upgrades to “the infrastructure most in need,” and demolish the 1974 wing entirely.
According to Kumer, the newer housing units are not large enough to do that. “The new section was designed to hold 120 people. … It would be irresponsible to reduce the capacity of the facility to the point that it doesn’t serve the current needs, let alone the future unforeseen needs,” he says. “Several of the jail’s primary services are located in the old section and would have to be maintained. Even if the jail’s population was somehow guaranteed to be 120 people or less … it would be unlikely they could all be housed safely and effectively in three pods.”
Regardless of the project’s final cost, the jail has a strong need for a mental health unit, Kumer says. “I agree people can’t get well in a cell … but I have no control over who comes through that back door.”
Mental health reforms
In response to community and nationwide calls for criminal justice reform, several programs aiming to divert people with mental illnesses from the criminal justice system and reduce police involvement in mental health crisis response have been implemented in the Charlottesville area.
In 2018, Offender Aid and Restoration-Jefferson Area Community Corrections created the therapeutic docket, which allows defendants diagnosed with serious mental illnesses to receive mental health treatment, and be diverted from incarceration in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Since then, 169 people have participated in the program, something that takes a minimum of nine months to complete. The county and state each fund one-fourth of the program’s costs, while the city covers the other half.
Major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder are among the mental illnesses often seen among docket participants. Many also have substance abuse disorders. “These are people that are clinically diagnosed with needing help, are generally on medication, have some history of treatment … and often have had multiple run-ins with the criminal justice system,” explains OAR Executive Director Ross Carew.
When defendants are referred to the therapeutic docket, docket coordinator Jennifer Scott and Region Ten conduct an assessment to determine the influence of mental illness on the offenses they are charged with, before presenting their findings to the court. Defendants must agree in court to participate in the docket, and the judge or commonwealth’s attorney can approve or reject their participation request.
While defendants must plead guilty to their charges in order to participate in the docket, the charges are usually reduced to a misdemeanor with a suspended sentence, or dismissed, upon their completion of the program. The program is limited to Charlottesville and Albemarle residents who are charged with misdemeanors, or felonies that can be “safely reduced” to misdemeanors, says Scott.
Upon beginning the docket program, participants meet with a Region Ten clinician and Scott, and attend group therapy at least once a week. They also do regular court check ins. To assist them throughout the program—which often takes a year to complete—they are connected with a Partner for Mental Health navigator. At any point, participants can choose to leave the program, and continue with their case in regular court.
“We try to wrap people as holistically as possible so they have a support network to build the skills so that when it comes time for graduation, they’ve had a period of success,” says Carew.
After graduation, participants are encouraged to continue to receive the services they did while in the program, but they are not required to. Some of them continue with their treatment, and stay in touch with OAR, says Scott.
OAR does not have data yet regarding participant recidivism, but says the program has had a positive impact. According to the Virginia Supreme Court’s 2021 Behavioral Health Docket annual report, “preliminary research, although still very limited, demonstrates that Behavioral Health Docket participants tend to have lower rates of criminal activity and increased linkages to treatment services, when compared to defendants with mental illnesses who go through the traditional court system.”
The docket currently has a long waiting list. OAR plans to ask the county to contribute the same amount of funding as the city so the docket can take on significantly more participants. OAR has also discussed expanding the docket into felony court and the adult side of juvenile and domestic relations court, but “there needs to be more resources before we can do that,” says Carew.
This year, the Albemarle County Police Department opened a Crisis Intervention Team Assessment Center through a partnership with Region Ten, offering care to individuals experiencing mental health crises outside of the criminal justice system.
When the Emergency Communication Center receives a 911 call regarding someone experiencing a mental health crisis in the county, an ACPD officer responds to the call and speaks with the individual, then reaches out to the CITAC and speaks with a Region Ten mental health professional about the case. The professional decides if the person meets the criteria to be brought to the center, where they can be connected quickly with resources and treatment, instead of the hospital, explains ACPD Lieutenant Jeremy Wood.
However, the department’s response to mental health calls will soon change again. In the county’s FY23 budget, the Board of Supervisors funded a new Human Services Alternative Response Team. Managed by the county social services department, in collaboration with the police and fire rescue departments, the team will consist of “a police officer, firefighter/paramedic, and human services worker, [and] will respond to incidents where a person is in crisis,” says social services department director Kaki Dimock. “The team will adjust their response based on each situation to ensure the safety and best outcome for the individuals involved and the team members responding.”
A mental health crisis response team will eventually come to Charlottesville, thanks to Virginia’s Marcus-David Peters Act, named in honor of a 24-year-old Black high school biology teacher who was killed by a Richmond police officer during a severe mental health crisis in 2018.
Passed in 2020, the law initially required localities to create a 988 number for mental health crises, and to develop protocols by July 2022 for when behavioral health experts, instead of law enforcement, will respond to crises related to mental health, substance use, and developmental disabilities. But in March, the Republican-majority General Assembly passed a bill allowing localities with populations of less than 40,000 to opt out of the system, and giving those with more than 40,000 residents until July 1, 2028, to implement the system.
Last year, the city’s Marcus Alert work group began exploring how to develop the new system. And this year, the city allocated funds for it—but with the state’s fluctuating deadlines and requirements, it remains unclear when it will be implemented in Charlottesville, which has around 46,000 residents. For Region Ten, the current expectation is for all six of its member localities to implement the system. Marcus Alert legislation will be revisited during the next General Assembly legislative session, according to Jennings.
Magill says Charlottesville’s severe staffing shortage has also slowed down the Marcus Alert implementation process—it currently has around 70 job openings. However, the city plans to look to the county for guidance in the near future.
The shortage “is impacting everything. … New initiatives take time and energy, and we have to have staff to do that,” says Magill. “We really want to see what Albemarle’s doing … and learn from them.”
Pushing forward
As various mental health reforms work to expand or get off the ground in the Charlottesville area, the ACRJ’s massive renovation project is pushing forward.
Charlottesville, Albemarle, and Nelson have passed resolutions supporting the jail’s request for state funding for the project. The Virginia Board of Local and Regional Jails has also recommended the state fulfill the jail’s funding request.
During the next legislative session, the General Assembly is expected to review the BLRJ’s recommendation. “At the same time, [the jail’s] member jurisdictions will hear from Davenport Financial Consulting, and consider the request for interim financing that will fund the planning phase of the project. The funds would be used to finance architecture and engineering services to get the project bid ready,” says Kumer.
If the state approves the funding request, the jail plans to advertise a request for proposals, and hire an architectural engineering firm for the renovations next June. The firm will “work with the community and stakeholders to determine the actual renovation design,” says McKeel. “After that, engagement … followed by value engineering and receipt of construction bids [we will] be able to determine an actual cost.” The final cost will be paid by a bond issued by the ACRJ authority.
Construction is estimated to begin in August 2024 and finish in November 2025.