Hampton Roads Regional Jail

PDCCC instructor honored

FRANKLIN—A Paul D. Camp Community College instructor was recently honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Workforce Development in Occupation Specific Instruction and Services.

Jeff Jacobs, who teaches the Warehouse and Distribution Operations Career Studies Certificate Program at the Regional Workforce Development Center, worked in management at Union Camp Corp. and International Paper in Franklin and Normal, Ill.

Jacobs used innovative methods to teach his students to value teamwork.

“Although our college has only completed our third semester of Warehouse and Distribution Operations Career Studies Certificate program, many of Jeff’s graduates have gone on to secure entry-level positions in warehouse and distribution facilities in western Hampton Roads,” said program director Bob Hayes.

He cited examples of success due to Jacobs’ instruction, including a former International Paper worker who was hired as a supervisor at a nearby warehouse. Through Jacobs’ work with the Western Tidewater Regional Jail’s Education Program, a warehouse graduate and former inmate also has a job at a facility.

“Through his engagement, sense of humor and commitment to help our students achieve success, Jeff represents all that is good about community colleges’ impact,” Hayes said.

The award was presented during a luncheon at Thomas Nelson Community College Workforce Development Center.

Population of Detained Immigrants in Virginia Increases ...

The number of immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Virginia jails has nearly doubled in the last year.  In 2010, the average daily population of immigrant men and women detained in Virginia hovered between 600 and 700.  As of June 2011, the detainee population stands at over 1000.

Currently, the facility with the largest number of immigrant detainees is ICA-Farmville, in Farmville, Virginia which as of the first week in June was holding over 500 immigrant men and women.  ICA-Farmville is a private, for profit detention center built specifically to hold ICE detainees. The other two facilities currently holding immigration detainees in Virginia are Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia and Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford, Virginia both of which are owned and operated by local governments and house both criminal detainees and immigration detainees.

Two ICE programs appear to be the driving force behind these skyrocketing numbers.   The first,  Secure Communities, has garnered a significant amount of publicity in recent months.  The second, Operation Cross Check, is less well known.

As of June 2010, the state of Virginia has required that all local jurisdictions participate in the Secure Communities program, even localities such as Arlington County, which would prefer to opt out of the program.  Under the Secure Communities program, any fingerprints that are taken by local law enforcement and sent to the FBI are automatically forwarded by the FBI to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be run through their immigration database.  If there is a “hit” on the prints, i.e. the individual has a prior deportation order or some other contact with DHS that calls their immigration status into question, the person will be taken into immigration custody at the conclusion of the criminal proceedings.  Even if no criminal charges are filed or the charges are ultimately dropped, the person will still be turned over to ICE.

In theory, if there is no “hit” on the prints, i.e. no record of the individual in the DHS database, the individual should be let go.  However, in practice, Virginia’s participation in Secure Communities has opened the door for law enforcement officials to ask questions about an individual’s immigration status even if that individual has never had a previous encounter with immigration enforcement.  Thus, immigrants pulled over for a minor traffic stop in VA in which no arrest is made very often find themselves confronted by a police officer demanding information about their immigration status.

Hampton Roads regional jail

Justice facilities review

Chronic Indifference

Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia

Virginia review