                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

POWERS AND DUTIES OF DIRECTOR (§ 53.1-10)

The Director shall be the chief executive officer of the Department and shall
have the following duties and powers:

1. To supervise and manage the Department and its system of state correctional
facilities;

2. To implement the standards and goals of the Board as formulated for local and
community correctional programs and facilities and lock-ups;

3. To employ such personnel and develop and implement such programs as may be
necessary to carry out the provisions of this title, subject to Chapter 29
(&#xA7; 2.2-2900 et seq.) of Title 2.2, and within the limits of appropriations
made therefor by the General Assembly;

4. To establish and maintain a general system of schools for persons committed
to the institutions and community-based programs for adults as set forth in
&#xA7; 53.1-67.9. Such system shall include, as applicable, elementary,
secondary, postsecondary, career and technical education, adult, and special
education schools.
			a. The Director shall employ a Superintendent who will oversee the operation
of educational and vocational programs in all institutions and community-based
programs for adults as set forth in &#xA7; 53.1-67.9 operated by the Department.
The Department shall be designated as a local education agency (LEA) but shall
not be eligible to receive state funds appropriated for direct aid to public
education.
			b. When the Department employs a teacher licensed by the Board of Education
to provide instruction in the schools of the correctional centers, the
Department of Human Resource Management shall establish salary schedules for the
teachers which endeavor to be competitive with those in effect for the school
division in which the correctional center is located.
			c. The Superintendent shall develop a functional literacy program for inmates
testing below a selected grade level, which shall be at least at the twelfth
grade level. The program shall include guidelines for implementation and test
administration, participation requirements, criteria for satisfactory
completion, and a strategic plan for encouraging enrollment at an institution of
higher education or an accredited vocational training program or other
accredited continuing education program.
			d. For the purposes of this section, the term &#8220;functional
literacy&#8221; shall mean those educational skills necessary to function
independently in society, including, but not limited to, reading, writing,
comprehension, and arithmetic computation.
			e. In evaluating a prisoner&#8217;s educational needs and abilities pursuant
to &#xA7; 53.1-32.1, the Superintendent shall create a system for identifying
prisoners with learning disabilities.

5. a.  To make and enter into all contracts and agreements necessary or
incidental to the performance of the Department&#8217;s duties and the execution
of its powers under this title, including, but not limited to, contracts with
the United States, other states, and agencies and governmental subdivisions of
this Commonwealth, and contracts with corporations, partnerships, or individuals
which include, but are not limited to, the purchase of water or wastewater
treatment services or both as necessary for the expansion or construction of
correctional facilities;
			b. Notwithstanding the Director&#8217;s discretion to make and enter into all
contracts and agreements necessary or incidental to the performance of the
Department&#8217;s duties and the execution of its powers under this title, upon
determining that it shall be desirable to contract with a public or private
entity for the provision of community-based residential services pursuant to
Chapter 5 (&#xA7; 53.1-177 et seq.), the Director shall notify the local
governing body of the jurisdiction in which the facility is to be located of the
proposal and of the facility&#8217;s proposed location and provide notice, where
requested, to the chief law-enforcement officer for such locality when an
offender is placed in the facility at issue;
			c. Notwithstanding the Director&#8217;s discretion to make and enter into all
contracts and agreements necessary or incidental to the performance of the
Department&#8217;s duties and the execution of its powers under this title, upon
determining that it is necessary to transport Virginia prisoners through or to
another state and for other states to transport their prisoners within the
Commonwealth, the Director may execute reciprocal agreements with other
states&#8217; corrections agencies governing such transports that shall include
provisions allowing each state to retain authority over its prisoners while in
the other state.

6. To accept, hold and enjoy gifts, donations and bequests on behalf of the
Department from the United States government and agencies and instrumentalities
thereof, and any other source, subject to the approval of the Governor. To these
ends, the Director shall have the power to comply with such conditions and
execute such agreements as may be necessary, convenient or desirable;

7. To collect data pertaining to the demographic characteristics of adults, and
juveniles who are adjudicated as adults, incarcerated in state correctional
institutions, including, but not limited to, the race or ethnicity, age, and
gender of such persons, whether they are a member of a criminal gang, and the
types of and extent to which health-related problems are prevalent among such
persons. Beginning July 1, 1997, such data shall be collected, tabulated
quarterly, and reported by the Director to the Governor and the General Assembly
at each regular session of the General Assembly thereafter. The report shall be
submitted as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated
Systems for the processing of legislative documents and reports;

8. To make application to the appropriate state and federal entities so as to
provide any prisoner who is committed to the custody of the state a Department
of Motor Vehicles approved identification card that would expire 90 days from
issuance, a copy of his birth certificate if such person was born in the
Commonwealth, and a social security card from the Social Security
Administration;

9. To forward to the Commonwealth&#8217;s Attorneys&#8217; Services Council,
updated on a monthly basis, a list of all identified criminal gang members
incarcerated in state correctional institutions. The list shall contain
identifying information for each criminal gang member, as well as his criminal
record;

10. To give notice, to the attorney for the Commonwealth prosecuting a defendant
for an offense that occurred in a state correctional facility, of that
defendant&#8217;s known gang membership. The notice shall contain identifying
information for each criminal gang member as well as his criminal record;

11. To designate employees of the Department with internal investigations
authority to have the same power as a sheriff or a law-enforcement officer in
the investigation of allegations of criminal behavior affecting the operations
of the Department. Such employees shall be subject to any minimum training
standards established by the Department of Criminal Justice Services under
&#xA7; 9.1-102 for law-enforcement officers prior to exercising any
law-enforcement power granted under this subdivision. Nothing in this section
shall be construed to grant the Department any authority over the operation and
security of local jails not specified in any other provision of law. The
Department shall investigate allegations of criminal behavior in accordance with
a written agreement entered into with the Department of State Police. The
Department shall not investigate any action falling within the authority vested
in the Office of the State Inspector General pursuant to Chapter 3.2 (&#xA7;
2.2-307 et seq.) of Title 2.2 unless specifically authorized by the Office of
the State Inspector General;

12. To prescribe and enforce rules prohibiting the possession of obscene
materials, as defined in Article 5 (&#xA7; 18.2-372 et seq.) of Chapter 8 of
Title 18.2, by prisoners incarcerated in state correctional facilities;

13. To develop and administer a survey of each correctional officer, as defined
in &#xA7; 53.1-1, who resigns, is terminated, or is transitioned to a position
other than correctional officer for the purpose of evaluating employment
conditions and factors that contribute to or impede the retention of
correctional officers;

14. To promulgate regulations pursuant to the Administrative Process Act (&#xA7;
2.2-4000 et seq.) to effectuate the provisions of Chapter 5.1 (&#xA7;
32.1-162.16 et seq.) of Title 32.1 for human research, as defined in &#xA7;
32.1-162.16, to be conducted or authorized by the Department. The regulations
shall require the human research committee to submit to the Governor, the
General Assembly, and the Director or his designee at least annually a report on
the human research projects reviewed and approved by the committee and shall
require the committee to report any significant deviations from the proposals as
approved;

15. To provide, pursuant to &#xA7; 24.2-314, to the Division of Legislative
Services, not later than July 1 of any year in which the decennial census is
taken and in a format specified by the Division of Legislative Services,
information regarding each person incarcerated in a state correctional facility
on April 1 of that year. Such information shall include, for each person
incarcerated, (i) a unique identifier, other than his name or offender
identification number, assigned by the Director; (ii) his residential street
address at the time of incarceration, or other legal residence, if known; (iii)
his race, his ethnicity as identified by him, and whether he is 18 years of age
or older; and (iv) the street address of the correctional facility in which he
was incarcerated on April 1 of that year; and

16. To develop and implement policies for the accommodation in state
correctional facilities of inmate participation in telehealth appointments,
which shall include policies on designating a private space for such telehealth
appointments to occur.

HISTORY: Code 1950, §§ 53-19.8, 53-19.14; 1974, cc. 44, 45; 1982, c. 636;
1994, 2nd Sp. Sess., c. 7; 1995, c. 725; 1997, c. 894; 2003, cc. 94, 516, 854;
2006, cc. 431, 500; 2007, c. 392; 2009, cc. 39, 621; 2012, cc. 803, 835; 2013,
cc. 143, 214; 2014, c. 84; 2015, cc. 99, 293; 2016, c. 205; 2019, c. 618; 2020,
cc. 759, 1229, 1265; 2025, c. 427.