GENERAL: The Norfolk City Jail is an inner-city facility that is the largest and one of the most overcrowded jails in Virginia. Despite those challenges, the jail has earned the distinction of being accredited by the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission. In addition, it consistently rates as one of the best run jails in the state in terms of inmate care, efficiency, fiscal responsibility and overall management.

STAFF: The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office, which managers the city jail, has 425 sworn staff and 71 civilian staff.

AVERAGE POPULATION: 1600 residents/inmates.

MEAL INFORMATION: The Norfolk City Jail served nearly 2 million meals in 2008. The total number was 1,886,861, including 2991 special diet trays, 21,666 diabetic trays and 84,068 bag lunches.

INMATE PROPERTY: The Norfolk Jail staff receives, protects and manages all clothing, funds and other personal property items collected from inmates entering the facility. In 2008, more than 17,000 property items were received nearly 17,000 items were released about 2,000 items were disposed of and about 2600 checks were disbursed, valued at nearly $400,000 dollars.

MEDICAL INFORMATION: In 2008, more than 11,000 inmates were seen by the jail’s medical staff. The medical screenings included nearly 5150 physicals and 16,375 sick calls. The dental staff handled 621 sick calls and 210 annual exams.

WORK ORDERS: 3970 work orders were completed in 2008, including 231 paint projects, the installation of 140 triple bunks and about 180 plumbing requests a month, with plumbing costs alone totaling about $13,000 a year.

LAW LIBRARY: The jail’s law library staff received 656 visits, completed about 1300 research requests and dispensed more than 23,000 copies of legal documents.

AGE: The average age of the jail population is 34 years old. The youngest resident in the survey was 15 years old and the oldest was 66.

GENDER: 88% of the inmates are male and 12% female.

MARITAL STATUS: More than half of the inmates are single (66%). 17% are married. 10 % divorced and 7% reported being separated.

EMPLOYMENT: 67% of the inmates reported being employed prior to jail and 33% report being unemployed.

RACE: African Americans make up 81% of the jail inmates. Caucasian offenders are 17%, Hispanic 1.7% and Asian/Indian 0.3%.

BIRTH INFORMATION: Over half of the residents (64%) in the Norfolk City Jail were born in Norfolk. 23% were born in Virginia, outside of Norfolk. 4% of those were born in Virginia Beach, 4% in Williamsburg/Newport News, 3% in Chesapeake/Suffolk, and 1% in Richmond. 13% of the inmates were born out of state, with the largest numbers from New York (4%) and North Carolina (3%).

EDUCATION: 10% of jail inmates have completed some college education. Nearly half of the jail inmates (41%) have completed their high school education or have their GED. 17% have completed the 11th grade; 18% the 10th grade; 7% the 9th grade; 4% the 8th grade; 3% grades 5 – 7.

WARDS: 5% of Norfolk jail residents report they live in Ward 1. 14% are from Ward 2; 23% from Ward 3; 29% from Ward 4 and 11% from Ward 5. (See graph below.) The top three neighborhoods are Park Place: 10%, Norview: 7% and Berkley 5%.

This information is based on a survey completed by inmates at
the Norfolk City Jail on January 5, 2007 and jail records from 2008.