An aging population, mental health issues and a lack of staff are issues impacting jails throughout our region.
The News 3 Investigative Team sat down with the Superintendent at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail William Smith to learn about the struggles he and others have with the current system in place.
Smith said there are about 700 inmates in the entire jail. He said about 30 of them are over the age of 60 and about a third of the entire jail population has been diagnosed with a mental health issue.
“Over the past several years, we’re starting to see the inmate population get older,” said Smith.
He said both groups have more medical needs, require more attention, and need to be checked on more frequently.
“I cannot provide the mental health services that a mental health hospital provides, just in the same note, I’m not a hospital either,” said Smith.
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Jesse Crosson spent 19 years locked up in Virginia prisons for robbery and a separate shooting. Today, he works as an advocate and a social media influencer, sharing his experiences about being incarcerated.
He said he was given a 32-year sentence, but in 2021, the Governor of Virginia granted him a conditional pardon and he was released from prison after serving 19 years.
Now, his mission is to raise awareness and advocate for change. He started a group called the Second Chancer Foundation.
He said being in prison is “like middle school with more knives.”
He said there are a lot of ways the system could improve to help people who are incarcerated, prevent them from reoffending and improve people’s lives.
“It's generally people who haven't emotionally developed or don't have the best impulse control or are still struggling with addiction or still struggling with mental illness or struggling with something, and then all put in there together,” Crosson.
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He said as a society, we are punishing people and asking them to fix themselves while they are locked up, but we don’t give them enough tools to make themselves better.
According to the Department of Justice, about half the people in U.S. jails and over one-third of the population of U.S. prisons have been diagnosed with a mental illness.
The Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit against mass incarceration, reports that older people make up five times as much of the prison population as they did three decades ago.
Smith says sometimes, inmates have nowhere to go when they’re released, especially if they're older.
“We have to take them to a shelter if they’re accepted or sometimes drop them off at the hospital. Some of these individuals are in wheelchairs, they have walkers, they’re on oxygen, we can’t just release them and let them walk the street. So, it’s very difficult to find housing for them,” said Smith.
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Richard Walker is a former inmate turned advocate who runs Bridging the Gap in Virginia, a nonprofit that helps former inmates get their voting rights back, housing support and other resources.
Walker said the entire state is lacking in mental health support and housing.
Smith says he recently just hired a reentry coordinator for his facility.
“I think there's just limited services available now in Hampton Roads,” said Smith.
“When you have ample support and guidance and connection, you don’t commit crimes and go to prison. This is a matter of isolation. This is a matter of trauma, and I think it speaks to how we've neglected people, whether they're youth or whether they're elderly in our communities in our society,” said Crosson.
Right now, there is a proposal in the state budget to spend $250,000 to create a new Office of the Department of Corrections Ombudsman for two years. This group would monitor facilities, make recommendations for safety and well-being improvements. It would also provide information to inmates, their families and corrections officers about their rights.
