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Virginia Faces Crisis in Corrections System

There’s a Corrections crisis in Virginia! State prisons and juvenile facilities are facing claims of unsafe conditions for both staff and the incarcerated, and lawmakers are starting to push back. Rich talks to VPM news reporter Keyris Manzanares and the Virginia Mercury’s Charlotte Rene Woods to find out what they’ve uncovered. Listen and subscribe to RVA’s Got Issues wherever you get your podcasts.

Richard J. Meagher [pronounced MARR] is Professor of Political Science, Director of Social Entrepreneurship at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, and the host of RVA's Got Issues.

Meagher is an expert observer of local and state politics in Richmond and has been featured everywhere from print to television to radio. He is a political analyst for WRIC 8 News, and his commentary and opinion have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and his own RVAPolitics site.

He is also a Faculty Fellow for Brandeis University’s Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT), a national program engaging undergraduates in state-level legislative change. Meagher's 2020 book, Local Politics Matters, argues for the importance of participation in city and county politics.

In 2023, he launched the Virginia Amendments Project, a resource for scholars and citizens about amendments to the Constitution of Virginia.

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