By Luca Powell
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
RICHMOND, Va. — Standing in their kitchen, Dawn Hall’s husband, Jeremy, said there’d been an attack at work.
For three months, Jeremy had been working as a fully sworn correctional officer at River North Correctional Center in southwest Grayson County. A prisoner attempted to attack Jeremy using an improvised prison weapon, he said, but the attack was foiled.
Jeremy didn’t share all the details. There were things, he said, that he just couldn’t disclose. It was only four months later, after his killing, that Dawn discovered one of the details that had been left out: the prisoner’s weapon had the word “Hall” written on it.
“He didn’t want me to worry,” said Dawn Hall. “He didn’t want me to think he was a target.”
The picture is still murky, but new details continue to fill in the picture for Dawn in the months since her husband’s killing on Nov. 17. Now a widow, Dawn says her concerns with the Virginia Department of Corrections deserve to be heard. Not just for Jeremy’s memory, but for the sake of other correctional officers and prisoners – more than 30,000 people – who live or work in Virginia’s prison system.
Jeremy Hall’s death was the first line-of-duty death in 50 years. But the union that represents correctional officers said it did not come as a surprise. The union said they’d been met with “denials, misdirection, and deflection” for years.
At River North specifically, one officer quit, warning the prison’s warden, Kevin McCoy, that something bad was going to happen.
“It is my personal belief along with several other staff and supervisors that (River North) is headed down a dangerous path that (will) see staff severely injured if not killed, and I won’t be part of such a grave failure in oversight,” wrote Jacob Murray, a River North lieutenant, in announcing his decision to leave.
This month, the VADOC did an overhaul across its institutions. McCoy was removed, and a team of three wardens is temporarily in charge at River North.
For a few days, officials were forthcoming about Jeremy’s killing, Dawn said. Days after his death, they walked her through a diagram of the attack, she said.
Then, before his funeral, the tone shifted, and the agency stopped talking to her, she recalled. According to Jeremy’s father, state lawyers instructed employees to avoid communicating with Dawn.
Her response has been to speak up. In a TikTok that has garnered thousands of views since its posting on March 2, Dawn said she was tired of “giving grace” where it is not deserved. She said she won’t be silent about “the mistakes that were made that day.”
According to several employees at the prison, a threat was made against Jeremy “some time before the incident,” Dawn said. The specifics remain unclear.
According to her timeline of events, which was partially relayed to her by prosecutors, Jeremy was attacked just before 8 a.m. The alleged killer, John Holomon Russell, has since been charged with aggravated murder, formerly known as capital murder. It is the most serious charge available to prosecutors in Virginia and carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. Prior to 2021, Russell would have been eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
She also said his death occurred in the same pod where the initial attempt on his life had been made, although she believes that foiled attempt involved a different prisoner.
“The Department of Corrections has given me zero information about the attack, whatsoever,” said Dawn. “Where was the gunman? Why were they pulling chow and doing pill pass at the same time? And why was he back in a building where a threat had been made against his life previously?”
Hall says her husband would have wanted her to speak out on behalf of other correctional officers. She said they fear retribution and the loss of their livelihood if they do.
“They’re afraid they’re going to lose their jobs,” said Dawn. “And out here in rural Virginia, there’s not a lot of work.”
This year, a Republican delegate representing Grayson County, where River North is located, introduced two bills inspired by Hall’s death. The bills would have enhanced penalties for attacks on correctional officers. Both were unsuccessful this session, with one killed in the state Senate and another continued until 2027.
Dawn has also sued the Virginia Department of Corrections — seeking not money but judicial oversight. And the correctional officers union continues to push for better pay, which they say explains the understaffing at many facilities, and, in turn, the safety issues. Dawn put it bluntly.
“Jeremy died for $48,000 a year,” said Dawn. “That’s basically the gist of it.”
Meanwhile, many of the Virginia Department of Corrections’ problems continue. On March 6 , the department announced that another officer had been attacked. This time at Greensville Correctional Center, the state’s largest prison. The officer was treated off-site, with Walters issuing a public statement that safety is the agency’s top priority.
“I’m angry,” Dawn said. “I’m angry that there’s still not enough being done.”
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