FOIA data exposes soaring ICE arrests in Virginia // Push for FOIA library sparks debate at Richmond City Hall // Protesters shut out of UVA board meeting, raising FOIA concerns

Virginia’s relatively new prison inspector, Andrea Sapone, left a community forum escorted by a Virginia Capitol Police officer after the meeting teetered out of control. The meeting, held at the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond, was a scheduled “public stakeholder meeting” designed for the newly formed Corrections Ombudsman’s office to hear feedback regarding the Virginia Department of Corrections. After about 30 minutes of testimonials, the Office of the State Inspector General began to lose control of the meeting when a speaker refused to leave the podium after running over her allotted time. The final speaker, a parent who alleged his son had been shot in the eye with a rubber bullet at Wallens Ridge, ran long again and was almost shouting into the microphone. That’s when a Capitol police officer was called in by one of Sapone’s colleagues, and Sapone left quietly without taking questions from the crowd. She left to jeers from attendees who said it signaled mistrust in the public to bring in a law enforcement officer.