VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office is launching a new jail-based competency restoration program designed to reduce wait times for mental health evaluations and ease overcrowding at state psychiatric hospitals.
The program will operate inside a newly renovated restoration pod at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center. The facility is one of three jails in Virginia to receive an almost $2 million grant from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to establish a jail-based competency restoration program.
The initiative is intended to reduce the need to transport inmates to state hospitals, such as Eastern State Hospital, where bed space is limited. Instead, eligible inmates can receive competency restoration services while remaining at the jail.
Sheriff Rocky Holcomb said the program will significantly speed up the legal process for inmates awaiting competency restoration.
"Huge," Holcomb said. "What happens now is the prisoner may go to Eastern State and have a competency hearing and then come back, and it might be six weeks before they get back to the courthouse, waiting on the paperwork and all of the logistics. But we're going to do it here in-house."
Holcomb said keeping the restoration process at the jail will eliminate transportation delays and reduce the time inmates wait to return to court.
It will also help to free up deputies who would be traveling.
Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marvin Figueroa said the program also helps address capacity challenges at the state's psychiatric hospitals while ensuring people receive mental health treatment sooner.
"I worry about our state hospitals. The commissioner and I talk about them almost weekly, if not daily," Figueroa said. "I'm concerned about the care those individuals are getting there. Our staff is doing incredible work to make sure we uphold a standard, and even with all of the work we're doing, we know those beds are not enough, and we need to work more in the community to prevent people from getting there."
The restoration pod will initially serve four to five inmates. Officials said it has the capacity to expand and eventually accommodate up to 26 inmates.
The jail-based competency restoration program is scheduled to begin Aug. 17.
The grant is expected to last for two years.
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