By Luca Powell
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
INDEPENDENCE, Va. — The union that represents correctional officers is blaming the recent death of a colleague on what they say are chronic short-staffing issues at the Virginia Department of Corrections.
In a statement released on Wednesday evening, the union said that they were shocked, but not surprised, by the death of Jeremy Hall on Monday and a fatal inmate attack at Greensville earlier this month.
“Chronic staffing shortages and high turnover in the Virginia Department of Corrections have persisted for more than a decade,” said Charles “Bubba” Craddock, president of Communications Workers of America Local 2201, which encompasses the National Coalition of Public Safety Officers. “Adequate staffing levels and proper training are foundational to the safe and effective operation of any correctional facility for officers, staff, and the incarcerated population. These issues have been our highest priority since 2009, yet year after year we have been met with denials, misdirection, and deflection.”
The union represents around 1,000 correctional officers at 42 different Virginia correctional facilities, Craddock said.
On Monday, the prison system accused an inmate named John Holomon Russell of the fatal attack. But details about the attack itself have not yet been released. Hall was a relatively new hire, having joined the Department of Corrections in 2024.
Staffing concerns, which have simmered among Department of Corrections employees for years, rose to a boil beginning in May of 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of correctional officer vacancies increased from approximately 600 to around 2,000 by 2022.
In response, the legislature increased the minimum starting salary for officers and authorized a 5% across-the-board raise. In 2023, the agency began offering $6,000 sign-on bonuses to new officers. Today, starting salaries for openings begin at around $47,000, according to recruitment listings posted to Virginia’s state recruiting website.
In November 2024, a private consultant group hired to review the prison system found that many prisons remained “dangerously understaffed.” As a result, the consultants said, wardens were frequently locking down their facilities in order to restrict inmate movement, creating de facto conditions of solitary confinement. Non-security staff, such as administrators and medical personnel, were also being increasingly conscripted to perform the work of correctional officers, the report said.
“This lack of staff impacts every aspect of facility operations and results in facilities that are unsafe,” the consultants wrote.
The report identified the staffing shortages at each of the Virginia Department of Corrections facilities. One prison, Lawrenceville Correctional Center, reported vacancies as high as 66%. River North, where Hall was working when he was attacked, reported a 12% vacancy rate.
A more recent news report from WTVN, based on an internal document shared by a prison official, suggests the vacancy rate at River North is closer to 17%.
Kyle Gibson, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Corrections, said that as of October 2025, the agency has a 26% vacancy rate for correctional officers statewide. Facilities in the agency’s western region, which tend to be better staffed and include River North, had just a 9% vacancy rate, Gibson said.
Craddock said that the department had ignored the union’s concerns for years. However, the union appears hopeful that the agency’s director, Chad Dotson, will be responsive to the union’s requests. Dotson was appointed in 2023 to succeed Harold Clarke, who had led the agency for 13 years.
“These issues have been our highest priority since 2009, yet year after year we have been met with denials, misdirection, and deflection. It was not until the appointment of Director Dotson that the department openly acknowledged that our concerns were not only valid, but critical,” said Craddock.
Craddock is also supporting passage of collective bargaining reforms in the upcoming legislative session, which he thinks will lead to improved working conditions for prison officers. Under current Virginia law, state employees remain barred from collective bargaining. Last year, Democratic legislators sought a reform that would remove that restriction, but the measure was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
At a campaign event this spring, Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger said she supported collective bargaining for public employees. The bill is expected to be revisited in the upcoming session. A spokesperson for Spanberger’s campaign did not return a request for comment.
The last time an inmate at a Virginia prison fatally attacked a correctional officer was in March of 1975, according to the Department of Corrections and the correctional officers union.
At least three prisons have a 50% vacancy rate, with some so short-staffed that they have been incapable of complying with policies on safety, medical treatment and solitary confinement.
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