THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504080234
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
The U.S. Justice Department, which investigated the Norfolk and Portsmouth jails last year, is looking at all other city jails in Hampton Roads for possible civil rights violations, interviews and documents show.
Teams of investigators led by a lawyer with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division this month have visited or have scheduled inspections of the jails in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News and Hampton.
The teams spend one to three days in the jails and look into the following conditions: overcrowding, medical facilities, health and environmental conditions and inmate safety. Justice consultants who are experts in each of these fields accompany the team, as well as an FBI photographer, according to letters sent by the Justice Department to local sheriffs.
The agency apparently is targeting Hampton Roads jails for investigation, though it could not be determined why.
The Justice team was in the Hampton Jail from Monday through Wednesday, and inspected the Newport News jail on Friday, jail officials said. Tours have been scheduled for the Chesapeake jail on April 18 and 19, and the Virginia Beach jail on April 20 and 21.
``I welcome the inspection,'' said Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew on Friday. ``If we have any conditions here that are unsafe, we want to know so that we can fix them.''
In February, an unrelated team of federal inspectors found the Beach jail in full compliance with standards for housing federal prisoners, documents show.
Last year, the Justice Department looked into allegations of civil rights violations at the Portsmouth Jail following the death of Curtis C. Devin in 1993. Devin was an inmate who got sick in the jail and whose family claimed they begged jail officials for days to get him medical attention.
In a letter dated Sept. 1, Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick told Sheriff Gary Waters that ``after a careful review . . . we concluded that this matter should be closed . . . This Department has no intention of taking any further actions.''
Portsmouth jail officials said Friday that Justice inspectors reviewed the same conditions last year that the teams are checking in other Hampton Roads' jails this month.
Justice officials did not return calls on Friday; it is not known what sparked the new round of investigations. However, the inspections follow the same pattern, look at the same issues and even include some of the same personnel as were involved in the 10-month investigation of civil rights violations at the Norfolk City Jail that ended last year.
During two weeks in November 1993, a Justice team led by Shenetta Brown, a trial attorney with the Civil Rights Division, looked into multiple allegations of overcrowding, medical negligence and other civil rights violations at the Norfolk jail under the administration of former Sheriff David K. Mapp Jr.
In a letter dated Aug. 3, Patrick told the current sheriff, Robert McCabe, that conditions at the jail ``are grossly deficient and violate the constitutional rights of prisoners.''
The Justice Department ordered McCabe to cut the population of his jail to 750 within two years or face a federal lawsuit. The Norfolk Jail, built to hold 579 inmates, housed about 1,300 when the investigation was conducted. The numbers have not changed significantly since then.
Hampton Roads officials interviewed Friday said they believe the Norfolk jail investigation led federal officials to question jail conditions throughout Hampton Roads.
In a March 15 letter, the Justice Department asked for extensive records, including: all serious incident reports, including records pertaining to assaults, fires and deaths; figures reflecting inmates' average stay; organizational charts; disciplinary records of jail staff; copies of all reports regarding jail conditions; inmate grievances over the last three months; medical records of all inmates; copies of contracts with medical providers; budget information on medical services; and records of all inmates requiring mental health treatment.
Another factor sparking the investigations may be media reports of severe overcrowding, some jail officials said.
``I think one thing spurring the investigations are the newspaper reports of overcrowding,'' said Chesapeake Sheriff John Newhart. ``They're probably going after the jails that were most crowded - and many of those are in this area.''
On Feb. 8, a survey of the state's local and regional jails published in The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star showed that, on average, the jails were 85 percent over rated capacity - the number of prisoners the state mandates they can legally hold.
The jails in Hampton Roads were among the state's most overcrowded, the survey showed. The Hampton jail was 226 percent over capacity. Portsmouth was 158 percent over capacity; Norfolk and Newport News 123 percent; and Chesapeake 112 percent. Virginia Beach, at 62 percent over rated capacity, was below the survey's average.
The overcrowding led seven urban jails to file suit against the state this year. The sheriffs in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Hampton and Newport News sued in mid-January. On Jan. 30, the sheriffs in Richmond, Arlington County and Alexandria filed suit together in Richmond Circuit Court.
Jail officials in Richmond, Arlington County and Alexandria said Friday that their jails are not being investigated by the Justice teams.
The Hampton jail is experiencing problems similar to those faced by the Norfolk jail under former Sheriff Mapp - problems which eventually led to the federal investigation of that facility. Last year, a citizens group tried, but failed, to have a judge oust Hampton Sheriff B. J. Roberts. The citizens said Roberts mismanaged his department, compromised jail and courtroom security and allowed conditions that violated inmates' rights.
Roberts said problems at his jail were common to overcrowded facilities. The jail, built to hold 160 inmates, held 522 on Jan. 10, when the survey was taken.
The citizens' group alleged the following:
That Roberts did not charge five inmates who incited a riot in 1993.
That Roberts assigned deputies to dangerous tasks without proper training.
That only one guard was assigned to watch over 100 inmates during the second and third shifts. Suits filed in federal court last year by five former inmates alleged that the five were beaten by other inmates after guards failed to adequately patrol that jail.
However, Norfolk and Hampton have not been the only jails to experience serious problems linked to overcrowding.
In November, a federal jury in Norfolk awarded $90,000 to one of two South Norfolk men who were raped, sodomized and beaten for four hours by inmates in a crowded Chesapeake jail cellblock while a nearby guard, ignoring their screams, drank coffee and read a newspaper.
The cellblock where the attack occurred had cells and beds for only 10 inmates, but housed 24 on Dec. 7, 1992, when the two men were assaulted. ILLUSTRATION: TARGETS
Justice Department investigators are looking for possible civil
rights violations in the following areas:
Overcrowding
Inmate safety
Medical conditions
Environmental conditions, including the conditions of jail
kitchens
by CNB