A Message from Dr. Antionette V. Irving

In completing my second year as Sheriff here in the City of Richmond, I would like to thank the citizens for their trust and confidence placed in me to oversee the operations of the Richmond City Sheriff’s Office (RCSO). The RCSO is one of the largest sheriff’s offices in the Commonwealth of Virginia with nearly 500 sworn and civilian staff members. We are not only responsible for the operations of the Richmond City Justice Center (RCJC) and the safety and security of the residents in our jail, we are also responsible for the safety of the citizens, judges and staff at our three courthouses: John Marshall, Manchester, and Oliver Hill. RCSO provides service of civil process and the execution of court ordered documents, transportation of inmates, and the safety of the general public.

Moving forward we will continue serving the citizens with excellence and ensuring we provide the best level of customer service to all who interact with the various divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. During 2019, we have continued to develop a rapport with universities and colleges to grow and enhance educational levels of our staff members. We were awarded the 2019 JAG Law Enforcement grant for Recruitment and Training. We continued to build relationships with the youth, citizens in the communities and schools by participating in various school activities and community programs.

We received two grants to assist in the development of our population and staff members: U. S Department of Justice/Office of Justice Programs/ BJA 2nd Chance Act: Innovations in Re-Entry Initiative: Reducing Recidivism Through Systems Improvement, and Mental Health Jail Pilot Program (MHJPP). We grew our residential weekend program and New Environment Action Team (NEAT) to assist with the cleanup in the communities of our city by removing trash and debris. We also worked with the Department of Corrections (DOC) to have individuals from DOC return to Richmond to work while completing their sentence which helps to build a rapport with family and community while preparing to return home. Our continuing goal here at the Sheriff’s Office is to ensure that programming build individuals to be work ready, home ready and community ready. Additionally, we started using tablet visitation access to family members to enhance their bonding with their loved ones.

One area of focus moving forward is recruitment and retention. As we continue to have unfilled deputy positions, we strive to increase salaries of our staff members at entry-level deputy and supervisory positions to ensure that we are able to recruit, hire and retain officers to serve this city at the highest level of professionalism. The second area of focus will be training and development for all staff members. We will work to ensure that our staff members are able to communicate within our culturally diverse environment, as well as, with those that may be differently-abled. Another area of focus will be accountability. As we grow, expectations shall grow for our staff members, vendors and contractors, volunteers, population and administration. A critically immense focus is securing funding for a new software application to replace the antiquated Jail Management System (JMS), which is the lifeline to our operations and remains a priority of the office. We will continue to focus on programs and services provided to the inmate population to ensure readiness of individuals in areas of re-entry, mental health, substance abuse and addiction, homelessness, workforce development, education (academic and vocational), skills building, personal growth and development, family mediation, parenting, restorative justice, life skills and entrepreneurship. We will also continue to work on infrastructure improvement and funding sources to ensure the execution of services.

As this era of change in the City of Richmond continues, we look forward to proficient relationships and partnerships with different Richmond agencies and those of our neighboring jurisdictions in the Central Virginia region. We look forward to working with Mayor Levar Stoney and his administration, the members of City Council, the Richmond Police Department, Chief Melvin Carter and members of the Richmond Fire Department, the Richmond Ambulance Authority, as well as, all other leadership and servant leaders of the Central Virginia community. We look forward to serving the citizens of the City of Richmond with integrity, accountability and excellence.

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