Programs

Deputy Watching Inmates Gardening

The Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office provides a wide variety of programs to aid in the rehabilitation of offenders. Programs include the following:

  • Inmate Workforce: This takes approximately 45 inmates out into the community (with deputy supervision) to landscape and maintain public property and provide low-cost tents for charitable events (inmates receive additional food and privileges and can earn time off their sentences);
  • Trustee Program: This allows inmates to provide cleaning and maintenance services throughout the Correctional Center, prepare and serve meals for their fellow inmates, do laundry and help with other tasks (inmates receive additional food and privileges and can earn time off their sentences);
  • Reentry Program: A three-month program to prepare inmates to successfully reenter society after their sentence has been served;
  • GED Program: This provides instruction and testing for inmates who haven’t graduated high school to earn their GED (General Educational Development) diploma;
  • Jail Education Services (JES): A division of the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services that provides educational services, including to special education inmates with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs);
  • Life Empowerment Program (LEP): This offers inmates a three-phase, biblically-based opportunity to improve their basic life skills;
  • Religious Program: This provides counseling and religious services to inmates of all faiths through the Chaplain’s Office;
  • Recovery Program (formerly the Substance Abuse Program): A 12-step, 20-week program to help inmates learn to live drug- and alcohol-free; and
  • Veterans Program: A dedicated housing unit and four-week program for current and former military service members that provides veteran-specific services.

The Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office also provides programs and services to help those suffering from mental illness and those detoxifying from drugs and/or alcohol.

The Sheriff’s Office Alternative Sentencing Program provides alternatives to traditional incarceration, including the:

  • Weekender Program , which allows offenders to serve their sentences on non-consecutive days for the purpose of maintaining employment;
  • Weekender Offsite Work Crew, which permits qualified Weekender Program applicants to work for other City departments as an alternative to spending weekends in the jail;
  • Electronic Home Incarceration Program (EHIP), which allows offenders who have secured employment to be released from jail under the supervision of the Sheriff’s Office utilizing GPS-enabled ankle bracelets; and the
  • Offender Support Unit (OSU), which permits offenders to report to the Sheriff’s Office each day for work either within the jail or in the community and then be released to go home at the end of each work day.

Inmates may be ordered into a program by the court or may request placement into a program by submitting an Inmate Request Form. Inmates must meet the eligible criteria and may be removed from a program for any reason, including institutional rule violations or failure to participate.