PORTSMOUTH — A fire at the Portsmouth City Jail last week forced more than 150 inmates and staff to move to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, where city officials hope they will remain during the coming months as the city works to finalize the purchase of the facility.
Portsmouth City Attorney Lavonda Graham-Williams told The Virginian-Pilot thecity is working to negotiate a temporary lease agreement to occupy the HRRJ earlier than planned given the circ*mstances. She was unable to provide details this week about cost and timeline.
The urgency to pursue a lease agreement comes as the city is working to complete its purchase of HRRJ after cities that previously housed inmates there — Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News and Norfolk — formally approved the deal. Ultimately, the regional jail facility will serve as Portsmouth’s new city jail, allowing the city to convert the current aging waterfront jail facility into a tax-generating property — a goal that’s been in the works, or at least discussed, for years.
The regional jail, which closed April 1, has operated on Elmhurst Lane since the late 1990s. The publicly owned facility housed overflow inmates until the HRRJ authority voted in October to close the facility after several cities began pulling back on the number of inmates they housed there.
Portsmouth Sheriff Michael Moore said the purchase is slated to close in September, which would then allow the city to formally make the transition to the regional jail facility and operate it as the new city jail. But a fire that broke out in the city jail’s basem*nt last week meant 155 inmates and staff had to be relocated to the regional jail facility after an evacuation.
“We were just fortunate, of course, that no one got hurt, injured or anything in the fire at the jail,” Moore said. “And also fortunate that we had a place to move our employees and inmates.”
HRRJ can hold at least 1,200 inmates — more than four times the current city jail.
The cost to purchase the facility is $31.5 million, according to the purchase and sale agreement. The Portsmouth City Council on May 28 approved a bond purchase agreement of up to $46.5 million to use for the city’s capital improvement plan and purchasing the regional jail facility, which will also help cover the costs of repairs and improvements at HRRJ.
From that sale, all member cities will receive a share of the proceeds. Over the past few weeks, the city councils of each municipality unanimously agreed to sell the facility to Portsmouth and dissolve the authority over the next two years.
In Hampton, plans are underway to join the Western Tidewater Regional Jail Authority in July, assuming all the other cities involved in the authority approve — including Suffolk, Isle of Wight and Franklin. The Western Tidewater Regional Jail is already housing some Hampton inmates as the city’s downtown jail is currently closed for renovations.
It will cost Hampton $5.7 million to buy into the authority — the cost the city once paid annually to house 175 inmates at HRRJ. The city intends to pay for that from the nearly $8.1 million it will receive from its share of the proceeds of the sale of HRRJ to Portsmouth. With the Western Tidewater Jail, it will cost Hampton $3.1 million to house 200 inmates.
Other cities plan to house inmates at their own city jails.
Chesapeake is slated to receive about $2.6 million. A memo to city leaders from Deputy City Manager Bob Geis, the most recent chair of the HRRJ authority board, said the city budgeted $7 million in 2023 to house 90 inmates there; however, the city was still contractually obligated to pay for 250 beds. Though the city received a rebate, it still cost double the amount it did to house inmates at the city’s jail instead, Geis said. The city estimates it will save $2 million by relying only on its city jail.
Newport News will gain about $9.3 million from the sale. City staff said in a memo to city leaders that $5 million was budgeted in last fiscal year for inmate care at the regional facility, and the city was obligated to cover costs for 200 beds. Around the time of the facility closure, Newport News was housing 94 inmates there. The city estimates it will save about $3 million in annual operating costs from the regional jail’s closure.
Norfolk will receive the most at about $11.6 million.
Moore has spoken numerous times about his support for the transition to the regional jail and said this week the sale is “a good move for everyone all the way around.”
Josh Janney contributed to this report.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com
