Luca Powell

1 week ago | dailyprogress.com | Luca Powell

It's been a little more than a month since executives from the Virginia Birth Injury Fund were in court, watching a former employee be sentenced to nine years for stealing millions of dollars from disabled children. On that day, the fund announced it had a new chief financial officer. That hire, Billy Johnston, was supposed to help right the ship at an agency that manages more than $700 million. But on Monday, two months into the job, Johnston resigned.

1 week ago | dailyprogress.com | Luca Powell

Five officers with the Virginia Department of Corrections have been found not guilty in the death of a severely mentally disabled prisoner. The officers were all former employees of the Marion Correctional Treatment Center in Southwest Virginia. In 2023, the officers were sued by Kymberly Hobbs, whose brother, Charles Givens, was found dead in his cell in February 2022. Givens was severely mentally handicapped, with his sister saying that he had the intellectual ability of a young child.

1 week ago | dailyprogress.com | Luca Powell

For nearly six years, Virginia’s prisons have been fighting allegations that they callously lock away prisoners for years in solitary confinement. In 2019, Virginia’s prison system was sued in a class action lawsuit brought by 11 prisoners at Red Onion and Wallens Ridge, the state’s two highest security prisons. The suit claims that, despite changes promised decades ago, state prisons still place inmates in conditions that are effectively solitary.

1 week ago | richmond.com | Luca Powell

It's been a little over a month since executives from the Virginia Birth Injury Fund were in court, watching a former employee be sentenced to nine years for stealing millions of dollars from disabled children. On that day, the fund announced it had a new chief financial officer. That hire, Billy Johnston, was supposed to help right the ship at an agency that manages more than $700 million. But on Monday, two months into the job, Johnston resigned.

1 week ago | richmond.com | Luca Powell

Five officers with the Virginia Department of Corrections have been found not guilty in the death of a severely mentally disabled prisoner. The officers were all former employees of Marion Correctional Center in Southwest Virginia. In 2023, the officers were sued by Kymberly Hobbs, whose brother, Charles Givens, was found dead in his cell in February 2022. Givens was severely mentally handicapped, with his sister saying that he had the intellectual ability of a young child.