Prince William County jail superintendent reports vacancies, program metrics and describes lobby bomb threat

The Prince William County jail superintendent delivered an operational update that included staffing, population and program details and a description of a recent bomb threat at the facility.

The superintendent reported the facility’s operational capacity at 871 and summarized recent population figures for March and April. He told the board: “Currently, we have 62 sworn vacancies, 10 civilian vacancies with total of 72.” He also listed recent training activity, including 14 jail staff graduating from Basic Academy and multiple staff attending crisis-intervention and regional training events.

On programming, the superintendent said the jail has distributed 806 boxes of Narcan to inmates upon release and that “there’s currently a 114 inmates receiving medical assisted treatment.” He described plans to expand mental-health programming and to add yoga classes as part of a requested new line item in the commissary budget.

The superintendent also recounted a bomb threat last Thursday. As he described it: "He left the lobby, went outside, come back in with a paper bag, walked past our security into the bathroom, come out and informed the lobby staff that he had planted a bomb ... The county police were notified ... the phone was taken from the gentleman, and he was taken into custody and charged." He said the Virginia State Police bomb unit responded and removed the item.

Board members followed with specifics. One member asked whether a recently reported substantiated assault was a repeat of the earlier case; the superintendent said this was a second incident and described separation, lockdown and disciplinary steps: the accused was given a disciplinary report and placed in administrative segregation. Another member asked what was inside the paper bag; the superintendent said bomb technicians determined the item was not an active device.

The board did not take additional formal action on the incident during the meeting; the superintendent said mental-health staff continued to meet with victims and that disciplinary procedures were in place for accused detainees.

Next steps noted during the meeting included continuing recruitment to fill vacancies and moving forward on the sanitary-pipe replacement and HVAC update contract awarded to TAF Construction with a notice to proceed given on 05/03/2024.