Prince William jail suspends contact visits, closes modular building amid COVID surge

The Hassett Regional Adult Detention Center in Prince William County suspended in-person programs and all contact visits and closed its modular housing unit as part of a 30‑day COVID mitigation plan, the superintendent told the facility board during its meeting.

The superintendent said the jail is enforcing noncontact visits only, with confession or pastoral requests handled through the facility chaplain. “It’s a 30 day plan, and we’ll reassess it as we go along,” the superintendent said, explaining the measures were prompted by a recent spike in staff and inmate infections.

Why it matters: the changes affect inmates’ access to religious services, orientation sessions and in-person attorney contact, and they were adopted to preserve staffing and limit further spread among inmates and employees.

Officials reported that the facility had recently seen a surge that at one point left as many as 36 staff positive and 27 staff out with exposure (63 staff out at one time). That situation has improved but remained significant: the superintendent said staff positives fell from 29 to 20 and quarantined staff fell from 27 to 21; inmate positives fell from 22 to 13. He also said roughly 70% of ADC staff were fully vaccinated, with four staff partially vaccinated.

The superintendent said inmate programming is on hold and the modular building — which housed about 60 inmates — has been closed to consolidate staff. “We stopped all contact visits,” he said, adding that confession requests require inmates to submit a request to the chaplain who will arrange private accommodations where appropriate.

A public defender asked whether strict noncontact rules could be relaxed on a case‑by‑case basis for attorneys who can show full vaccination and negative tests; the superintendent said he was not inclined to alter the policy now but agreed to discuss the specific case after the meeting.

The superintendent said the jail continues medication‑assisted treatment for opioid use — 29 inmates were receiving MAT — and that the main jail repair project (roof, showers, fixtures and other upgrades in the 1982 facility) was progressing and might finish by February or early March.

Next step: the superintendent and staff said they will reassess the 30‑day plan as case counts and staffing levels change and will submit required mitigation reporting to the state health department.