VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A massive operation took place at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center on Saturday morning.
Sheriff Rocky Holcomb with Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office says more than 150 deputies performed a jail-wide search. VBSO invited News 3 reporter Angela Bohon to witness part of the search.
“We bring in all the off-duty staff in,” explained Sheriff Holcomb. “We search every square inch of the building, every housing area, every inmate, and we make sure we get everything out of here that’s considered contraband.”
There are nearly 1,000 inmates in the jail.
Holcomb said they schedule a search twice a year and do not announce it ahead of time to the inmates.
Much of what they find is excess items which deputies say the inmates are not allowed to have, such as more than the five allowed books or extra linens. Holcomb says retrieving these items helps keep their supply stocked for new inmates.
“What the inmates will do over time is they’ll accumulate extra items that they’re not allowed to have like extra jumpsuits, sheets or blankets,” the Sheriff stated.
Authorities are also searching for more dangerous items like drugs or weapons.
“If we find something that’s considered a piece of contraband that could be a shank, which is a jail-made weapon, we’ll investigate that to see who it belongs to, where it came from, so that would be part of a criminal intelligence investigation so that we can apply criminal charges if necessary,” explained Holcomb.
K9s Apollo and Pablo assisted with the search, though VBSO says they did not alert to any drugs.
The Sheriff said this search “makes for a cleaner, safer facility - safer for us as a work environment, and it’s safer for the inmates as they live here.”
During Saturday’s search, VBSO says they did find homemade alcohol, a makeshift tattoo kit, and what appears to be several shanks.
