Pregnant & postpartum inmates; reporting requirements of state, regional, & local correctional fac.

Crime Housing

Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor: Cousins
Last action: 2026-04-13
Official status: Acts of Assembly Chapter
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide specific details on enforcement mechanisms or consequences for non-compliance.

Reporting Requirements for Pregnant and Postpartum Inmates

This act requires state correctional facilities to report monthly on pregnant and postpartum inmates, while local and regional facilities must do so quarterly.

What This Bill Does

Requires the warden or other official in charge of a state correctional facility that houses women prisoners to compile a monthly summary about pregnant and postpartum inmates and submit it to the Director of Corrections.
Requires the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary about pregnant and postpartum inmates and submit it to the Board.
Includes information on deaths among pregnant and postpartum inmates in these summaries.
Requires submission of this data to the Maternal Mortality Review Team and relevant legislative committees.

Who It Names or Affects

State correctional facility officials who must report monthly.
Local and regional correctional facilities that must report quarterly.
Pregnant and postpartum inmates in these facilities.

Terms To Know

Maternal Mortality Review Team: A team created to review cases of maternal mortality, which is the death of a woman during pregnancy or within one year after childbirth.
Local Inmate Data System: A system used by local correctional facilities to report inmate data to the Compensation Board.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill does not specify an effective date.
It is unclear how this reporting will be enforced or what consequences there might be for non-compliance.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

HB861AS1

2026-02-23 • Committee

Rehabilitation and Social Services Amendment

Plain English: The amendment adds language to specify that certain reporting requirements apply only to facilities housing women prisoners and makes grammatical changes by replacing 'the' with 'a' in specific sections.

Adds the phrase 'that houses women prisoners' after references to 'facility' on lines 13 and 16, limiting the scope of reporting requirements to such facilities.
Replaces 'the' with 'a' before 'charge of' and 'superintendent of' in sections mentioned on lines 28 and 32.

The amendment's text does not provide context for why these specific grammatical changes are necessary or their full implications.

HB861EDOC

2026-03-04 • Senate

Senate Amendments

Plain English: The amendment modifies the bill to specifically mention women's correctional facilities and changes certain references from singular 'the' to plural 'a'.

Adds language specifying that the reporting requirements apply to facilities that house women prisoners.
Changes some instances of 'the superintendent of' to 'a superintendent of'
Replaces 'the charge of' with 'a charge of'

The exact impact and context of these changes are not fully explained in the provided amendment text.

Bill History

2026-04-13 Governor
Approved by Governor-Chapter 685 (effective 7/1/2026)
2026-04-13 Governor
Approved by Governor-Chapter 685 (effective 7/1/2026)
2026-04-13 Governor
Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0685)
2026-03-14 House
Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 14, 2026
2026-03-14 Governor
Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026
2026-03-13 House
Signed by Speaker
2026-03-13 Senate
Signed by President
2026-03-13 House
Enrolled
2026-03-13 House
Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB861ER)
2026-03-13 House
Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB861)
2026-03-06 House
Senate amendments agreed to by House (95-Y 0-N 0-A)
2026-03-04 Senate
Read third time
2026-03-04 Senate
Engrossed by Senate as amended
2026-03-04 Senate
Passed Senate with amendments Block Vote (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
2026-03-04 Rehabilitation and Social Services
Rehabilitation and Social Services Amendments agreed to
2026-03-04 Senate
Passed Senate with amendments Block Vote (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
2026-03-03 Finance and Appropriations
Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 0-N)
2026-03-03 Senate
Rules suspended
2026-03-03 Senate
Passed by for the day
2026-03-03 Senate
Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
2026-03-03 Senate
Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
2026-02-20 Rehabilitation and Social Services
Reported from Rehabilitation and Social Services with amendments and rereferred to Finance and Appropriations (15-Y 0-N)
2026-02-06 Senate
Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
2026-02-06 Rehabilitation and Social Services
Referred to Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services
2026-02-06 Public Safety
Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB861)
2026-02-05 House
Read third time and passed House Block Vote (97-Y 0-N 0-A)
2026-02-04 House
Read second time
2026-02-04 House
Engrossed by House - committee substitute
2026-02-04 House
committee substitute agreed to
2026-02-03 House
Read first time
2026-02-02 Public Safety
Committee substitute printed 26106507D-H1
2026-01-30 Public Safety
Reported from Public Safety with substitute (21-Y 0-N)
2026-01-29 Subcommittee #2
Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 0-N)
2026-01-29 Subcommittee #2
House subcommittee offered
2026-01-23 Subcommittee #2
Assigned HMPPS sub: Subcommittee #2
2026-01-13 House
Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26103318D
2026-01-13 Public Safety
Referred to Committee on Public Safety

Official Summary Text

Reporting requirements of state, regional, and local correctional facilities; pregnant and postpartum inmates.
Requires the warden or other official in charge of a state correctional facility that houses women prisoners to compile a monthly summary and the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary of all of the following and submit such summary to the Director of the Department of Corrections or State Board of Local and Regional Jails, as applicable: (i) the number of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility, (ii) the number of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility, (iii) the number of women prisoners in the facility, (iv) the total number of prisoners in the facility, (v) the number of deaths of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility, and (vi) the number of deaths of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility. The bill also requires such summary to be submitted to the Maternal Mortality Review Team and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice.
Lastly, the bill requires the sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, to compile a quarterly summary of all written reports received pursuant to relevant law regarding use of restraints on any prisoner known to be pregnant or any prisoner who is in postpartum recovery and any body cavity search of a pregnant prisoner and submit such summary to the Board each quarter.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

An Act to amend and reenact §
53.1-40.14
of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Article 7.1 of Chapter 3 of Title 53.1 a section numbered
53.1-133.010
, relating to reporting requirements of state, regional, and local correctional facilities; pregnant and postpartum inmates.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §
53.1-40.14
of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Article 7.1 of Chapter 3 of Title 53.1 a section numbered
53.1-133.010
as follows:
§
53.1-40.14
. Reporting requirement.
A.
The warden or other official in charge of a state correctional facility
that houses women prisoners
shall compile a monthly summary of all written reports received pursuant to §§
53.1-25.1
,
53.1-40.12
, and
53.1-40.13
and shall submit the summary to the Director each month.
B. The warden or other official in charge of a state correctional facility that houses women prisoners shall compile a monthly summary of all of the following and submit such summary to the Director each month:
1. The number of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility;
2. The number of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility;
3. The number of women prisoners in the facility;
4. The total number of prisoners in the facility;
5. The number of deaths of prisoners in the facility;
6. The number of deaths of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility; and
7. The number of deaths of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility.
The summary required by this subsection shall also be submitted to the Maternal Mortality Review Team, created pursuant to §
32.1-283.8
, and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice.
§
53.1-133.010
. Reporting requirement.
A. The sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, shall compile a quarterly summary of all written reports received pursuant to §§
53.1-133.07
and
53.1-133.08
and shall submit the summary to the Board each quarter.
B. The sheriff in charge of a local correctional facility, or his designee, or the jail superintendent of a regional correctional facility, or his designee, shall submit the following data to the Compensation Board through the Local Inmate Data System each quarter:
1. The number of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility;
2. The number of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility;
3. The number of women prisoners in the facility;
4. The total number of prisoners in the facility;
5. The number of deaths of prisoners known to be pregnant in the facility; and
6. The number of deaths of prisoners in postpartum recovery in the facility.
Data received pursuant to this subsection shall be shared by the Compensation Board with the Maternal Mortality Review Team, created pursuant to §
32.1-283.8
, and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice.