Evidence Against Fluvanna Women's Correctional Facility 

Fluvanna's History of Abuse, Sexual Assault and Inmate Neglect

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Articles

April 18, 2024, Fluvanna prison nurse accused of stealing painkillers, forging documents

September 7, 2023, At-Risk Fluvanna Inmate Sent to Gen Pop with No Explanation, Dies by Suicide Soon After

February 26, 2023, Detainee awarded damages for alleged sex assault

August 2, 2022, Fluvanna Correctional Center patients threatened for asking about symptoms at medical appointments

October 28, 2022, Former officer at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women charged with having sex with female prisoner

December 10, 2013, Fluvanna inmate began her sentence with a Hepatitis C diagnosis, but says her health deteriorated quickly inside the prison

March 9, 2012, Former Va. guard accused of repeated sex with female inmate

July 24, 2012, Scott v. Clarke: Class Action Lawsuit Filed by Inmates at Fluvanna

August 14, 2019, As prisoners continue to die, Virginia appeals federal court order mandating better health care

October 12, 1999, Virginia Investigates Guard-Inmate Sex

History

Fluvanna Women's Correctional Center is a prison operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) since its opening in 1998. Located northwest of Richmond, VA, it is the largest prison in Virginia dedicated to housing only female inmates. Jennifer Emmi has been incarcerated at Fluvanna since January 20, 2023, when she was abruptly moved 1,500 miles cross-country from a Colorado facility near her family after attempting to report abuse by guards there.

Fluvanna has been plagued with accusations of neglect, overcrowding, and sexual abuse on the part of the predominantly male guards ever since its founding. An incomplete list is included below.

• In 1999, just a year after Fluvanna's opening, dozens of inmates reported sexual misconduct on the part of the male prison staff, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to launch an investigation. 

• In 2009, Virginia state senators requested the VADOC investigate allegations that Fluvanna was denying access to religious services and profiling lesbian inmates for segregation, forcing the warden at the time to resign. 

• In 2016, after repeated deaths at the facility, the VADOC settled a lawsuit brought by inmates alleging medical care at Fluvanna was so poor it violated inmates’ constitutional rights. Twelve deaths later, a federal judge ruled the prison wasn’t keeping up its end of the bargain and ordered the state to hire more staff and take inmate health complaints more seriously. 

• In October 2022, a former officer was indicted on charges of having sex with a female inmate.

• In December 2022, the power gave out in the facility, leaving inmates to suffer the 20 degree weather. Many pointed to this as yet another example of the consequence of Fluvanna's chronic understaffing.

• In April 2023, Fluvanna's warden was abruptly replaced with an acting warden with no explanation provided. The VADOC has vanishingly little oversight and is currently opposing a state bill that would create a state office for overseeing it. 

• In August 2023, an inmate at Fluvanna was forced to "sue for bathroom use." She revealed that inmates at Fluvanna are locked in their cells—which do not contain toilets—for extended periods of time, and women who take certain medications are unable to wait. She has personally developed multiple urinary tract infections and other medical problems as a direct result.