2025 SESSION

HOUSE SUBSTITUTE

25105161D

HOUSE BILL NO. 1894

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE

(Proposed by the House Committee on Public Safety

on January 17, 2025)

(Patron Prior to Substitute—Delegate Seibold)

A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 1 of Title 53.1 a section numbered 53.1-1.3, relating to state correctional facilities; cell conditions; temperature monitoring.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 1 of Chapter 1 of Title 53.1 a section numbered 53.1-1.3 as follows:

§ 53.1-1.3. Cell and facility conditions; temperature monitoring.

The Department shall maintain a temperature of not less than 65 degrees Fahrenheit or more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit in all state correctional facilities. The Department shall create and implement a policy for procedures to provide heating or cooling equipment when any state correctional facility staff member or the Director becomes aware through an inmate report, through a report from a family member of an inmate, through the facility's random temperature checks, or through any other measure, that an individual cell reaches a temperature below 65 degrees Fahrenheit or above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Such policy shall include that such heating equipment may include blankets or other apparel made of high-insulating materials and that such cooling equipment shall include an electric fan to provide air circulation for every cell where an inmate is housed. Additionally, the Department shall require the temperature inside all state correctional facilities to be monitored and recorded on an ongoing basis.

2. That the Department of Corrections shall (i) study remote temperature monitoring, including the cost of implementation of such remote temperature monitoring, and (ii) collect data regarding the total number of instances from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, where the temperature of any state correctional facility was recorded to be below 65 degrees Fahrenheit or above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and shall include in such data the state correctional facility in which each such instance occurred. The Department shall submit a report of such study and data to the General Assembly by October 1, 2025.