PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Editor's note: the video above is from March 2021.
A Virginia Jail Review Committee is recommending the closure of the Hampton Roads Regional Jail saying the conditions at the facility "represent a significant public safety threat to inmates and correctional officers."
The recommendations were made in a 23-page report that reviewed three inmate deaths--Jakub Michael Plucinsk, Victor Rhea Fountain, and Tyrone Lee Bailey--at the jail in 2018 and 2019.
In its preliminary violation findings, the committee said the jail failed to meet acceptable minimum standards for the supervision of inmates.
It also said the jail failed to meet "minimum standards required for access to Twenty-Four Hour Emergency Medical and Mental Health Care."
The committee said the violations that it found in its report show an "egregious lack of concern for the health and safety of all who enter the Hampton Roads Regional Jail."
RELATED: 13News Now Investigates | Hampton Roads Regional Jail reports four inmate deaths in three weeks
The Jail Review Committee said it believes HRRJ knowingly withheld information and gave inaccurate and misleading case summaries in the deaths of the three inmates.
The committee said it would recommend to the Board of Local and Regional Jails find that HRRJ would be unable to bring its facility into compliance with its minimum standards.
The recommendations to decertify HRRJ and close it will take place May 19 at 10 a.m.