A federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia is asking a judge to place the Virginia Department of Corrections under court oversight.
The lawsuit argues that prison officials failed to address known safety risks that preceded a deadly attack and continue to place correctional officers in danger.
It was filed on behalf of Dawn Hall, the widow of Master Corrections Officer Jeremy Lewis Hall, who was killed during a Nov. 17, 2025, attack at River North Correctional Center, and Anthony Kellam, a corrections officer named as a plaintiff who alleges unsafe staffing levels and management practices endangered both officers and inmates.
The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages. Instead, they are asking a federal judge to order changes to staffing, training and threat-response policies and to place the department under court oversight to ensure those changes are implemented statewide.
According to the complaint, prison officials failed to act on intelligence about threats, assigned officers to high-risk posts without adequate backup, and retaliated against staff who followed protocol or sought legal counsel.
The lawsuit claims those practices violate constitutional protections for correctional officers and continue to create safety risks inside Virginia prisons.
The attack killed Hall and injured two other officers. Prosecutors later charged an inmate at the facility with aggravated murder and related offenses.
Tim Anderson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said court oversight would result in operational changes to make the prisons safer.
“If the court grants the relief requested, court oversight would translate into concrete, day-to-day changes on the ground, not abstract policy statements,” Anderson told said.
