The Record → Grievances
The Record · GrievancesFinding: 1,206 of 1,915 grievances were closed without being investigated.
In FY2026 people held at the Rappahannock Regional Jail filed 1,915 grievances. 709 were investigated. 1,206 — 63.0% — were recorded as not investigated. 28 appeals were filed in the entire year. 0 were upheld. 28 were overturned. Every appeal that was actually pursued succeeded.
Inmate grievances filed, investigated, not investigated, substantiated, unsubstantiated, appeals, upheld and overturned · Period: FY2026 monthly, 7/01/2025–6/30/2026 · Source: RRJA July 23, 2026 agenda packet, Monthly Report performance measures, pp. 59–60, a public record of the Rappahannock Regional Jail Authority (rrj.state.va.us). Retrieved August 22, 2026. · Program statistics are not marked pending audit; the financial tables in the same packet are.
Filed against investigated, month by month
RRJA-2026-07-23-program-statistics.csv, packet
pp. 59–60.| Month | Filed | Investigated | Not investigated | Share not investigated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul-25 | 239 | 86 | 153 | 64.0% |
| Aug-25 | 150 | 62 | 88 | 58.7% |
| Sep-25 | 102 | 39 | 63 | 61.8% |
| Oct-25 | 158 | 58 | 100 | 63.3% |
| Nov-25 | 176 | 54 | 122 | 69.3% |
| Dec-25 | 160 | 63 | 97 | 60.6% |
| Jan-26 | 170 | 78 | 92 | 54.1% |
| Feb-26 | 200 | 72 | 128 | 64.0% |
| Mar-26 | 144 | 60 | 84 | 58.3% |
| Apr-26 | 137 | 63 | 74 | 54.0% |
| May-26 | 118 | 45 | 73 | 61.9% |
| Jun-26 | 161 | 29 | 132 | 82.0% |
| FY2026 | 1,915 | 709 | 1,206 | 63.0% |
↓ Download CSV — monthly performance measures including grievances
Computed: filed (1,915) equals investigated (709) plus not investigated (1,206), so the categories close. Substantiated grievances (179) are 25.2% of those investigated and 9.3% of all filed. Appeals (28) are 1.46% of all grievances filed. At an average daily local population of 1,105.34, that is 1.73 grievances filed per person per year.
Grievance dispositions and appeal outcomes · Period: FY2026 · Source: RRJA July 23, 2026 agenda packet, pp. 59–60, a public record of the Rappahannock Regional Jail Authority (rrj.state.va.us). Retrieved August 22, 2026.
The context the same page reports
The performance measures that count grievances also count who is inside. Between 238 and 323 people per month were on psychotropic medication in FY2026. Substance abuse groups reported zero participants, male and female, in Jul-25, Aug-25, Sep-25, Feb-26 — five months of a twelve-month year with nobody in the room.
Computed from the same table: psychotropic totals are male plus female counts by month; the zero months are months where both columns read 0.
Number on psychotropic drugs and participation in substance abuse groups · Period: FY2026 monthly · Source: RRJA July 23, 2026 agenda packet, Monthly Report performance measures, pp. 59–60, a public record of the Rappahannock Regional Jail Authority (rrj.state.va.us). Retrieved August 22, 2026.
One thousand two hundred and six.
Not denied. Not answered. Not investigated.
Filed by a man with a pen he had to ask for, on a form he had to ask for,
and stamped closed by a hand that never went looking.
Twenty-eight men found the ladder anyway.
Twenty-eight appeals. Zero upheld. Twenty-eight overturned.
Every single one who got a second look was right the first time.
So tell me what the other one thousand two hundred and six were.
Move or Be Moved.
Musings of Sir Paul the Apostle · written for this page's figures, August 22, 2026
Produce the grievance log as data, and say who reviews a grievance that is never investigated.
- The ask
- Release the FY2026 grievance log as a field-limited export — tracking number, date received, disposition, reason for return, appeal filed, appeal outcome — with no names, ID numbers, housing assignments or narrative. Then publish whatever record exists of supervisory review of grievances closed without investigation. Under Va. Code § 2.2-3704(G), excising exempt fields from a database export is not creating a new record.
- Who it goes to
- Santina Thelen, FOIA Officer, Rappahannock Regional Jail Authority, and the Authority Board; copied to the Virginia FOIA Advisory Council under Va. Code § 30-179.
- Where it can be said out loud
- The next quarterly Authority Board meeting, Roll Call Room at the jail. Public comment first; three minutes; no invitation needed.