Fish tanks, all-day recreation, an upgraded salad bar.

Those are some of the benefits allowed to well-behaved prisoners at Lawrenceville Correctional Center, where, for the past year, the Virginia Department of Corrections has experimented with a new accountability program intended to improve prison safety. In the wake of that program’s success, the program will spread to as many as six prisons by the end of the year, the agency said.

The program, dubbed “The Virginia Model,” will now be offered at Buckingham Correctional Center, Dillwyn Correctional Center and a housing unit in Greensville Correctional Center. In a letter to the entire inmate population released in July, prisons director Chadwick Dotson promised the program would come online in another three prisons by the end of 2025.

“The Virginia Model is a whole new way to do your time in Virginia based on choice and accountability,” Dotson wrote in the letter. “Your behavior will open the door to new opportunities. If you show you’re ready for responsibility, you’ll earn access to better programs, more freedom, and a positive, healthier environment.”

To be admitted to the program, inmates must have had no major infractions or escape attempts in the past four years, Dotson said.

Qualification allows access to an expanded menu, upgraded mattresses, and more education and vocational programs, in addition to extended visitation privileges, according to a fact sheet outlining the program. It also allows all-day access to the prison recreation yard.

“You have a choice: keep doing time the old way, or step into something better — a system built around growth, education, respect, and real opportunity,” Dotson told inmates in his letter.

The program’s expansion comes after the conclusion of a one-year pilot program at Lawrenceville. The program kicked off almost immediately after the Virginia Department of Corrections took the facility back from a private contractor, the GEO Group, in August.

The statistics shared by the prison system indicate massive reductions in assaults, overdoses and deaths, problems which drew legislative attention to Lawrenceville while it was under private control.

For example, the agency has said Lawrenceville experienced a 100% reduction in fights, drug overdoses and overdose deaths in the 10 months following GEO groups exit.

“We haven’t had a single fight in a year,” said Lawrenceville Warden Mike Seville in an interview on the program released last month by the Department of Corrections. “That creates an environment for the inmates that’s really stress free. That creates for the staff, also, an environment that is relatively stress free.”

It should be noted that Lawrenceville’s population also dropped by about 400 inmates after changing hands. The prison houses around 736 inmates, according to a population report released by the Department of Corrections in July. Under GEO, Lawrenceville regularly held over 1,500 inmates, according to those same population reports.

Seville described having to restaff the facility from the ground up after GEO’s exit. And a fact sheet for the program suggests Dotson’s intent is to bring more inmates to Lawrenceville after infrastructure work on the prison is completed. The fact sheet states that Lawrenceville’s capacity “will double once repairs and renovations are completed.”

That appears to include the installation of fish tanks and fish hatcheries. Lawrenceville’s housing units are receiving tanks — said to promote tranquility — and the prison itself is receiving hatcheries — said to provide a fresh food source at the prison.

The agency has not yet announced which other facilities will be selected for the program’s expansion.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/09/09/virginia-expands-prison-incentive-program/