Accreditation Program

The Accreditation program offers this facility the opportunity to evaluate our operations against national standards, to remedy deficiencies and to upgrade the quality of correctional programs and services. The recognized benefits from such a process include improved management, a defense against lawsuits through documentation and the demonstration of a "good faith" effort to improve conditions of confinement, increased accountability and enhanced public credibility for administrative and line staff, a safer and more humane environment for personnel and offenders, and the establishment of measurable criteria for upgrading programs, personnel practices and physical plant on a continuous basis.

Earning American Correctional Association (ACA) accreditation is a significant achievement for a correctional facility. It signifies that a facility’s management team is committed to operating the facility to the highest standards.

Accreditation Audit

For an agency to achieve a perfect score on its initial accreditation audit and to do so within two years of the opening of its facility is almost unheard of; and yet, that is exactly what the Western Virginia Regional Jail did in April 2011. Since that time, the jail has had two reaccreditation audits, the most recent in May 2017. The WVRJ has proudly scored 100% on both of the reaccreditation audits. In order to accomplish this feat, the management and staff of the Jail worked tirelessly to prepare themselves and the facility for each ACA audit. The audits were conducted by a three‐person team of highly‐experienced corrections experts over a three day period and consisted of a facility tour and inspection, extensive interviews with staff and inmates, and a close examination of the accreditation files assembled to demonstrate that the Jail had met all 361 applicable ACA standards (59 mandatory standards and 302 non‐mandatory standards). The auditors also reviewed the 170 statistical outcome measures which are used during the recertification process to track the Jail’s evolution and progress.

Accreditation Award

The Jail received initial formal accreditation from ACA at the Association’s 141st Congress of Correction in August 2011 and the accreditation was awarded again in August 2014 at the 144th Congress of Correction. Members of the Jail staff will attend the Congress of Correction in August 2017 to be awarded accreditation for the next three year cycle.

The three year accreditation award granted to the Western Virginia Regional Jail does not signal the end of our involvement in the accreditation process. During the award period, our staff works to maintain continuous compliance with the standards.