Three Interesting Bills: Prison Temperatures, GPS Trespassing and Teen Barbers and Cosmetologists

More than 1,000 bills are filed for General Assembly consideration each year. In this weekly series, the Mercury takes a look at a few of lawmakers’ 2025 proposals that might not otherwise make headlines during the whirlwind legislative session.

House Bill 1894: Mitigating extreme temperature in prison cells 

This bill from Del. Holly Seibold, D-Fairfax, requires the Virginia Department of Corrections to maintain a temperature of no less than 65 degrees or no more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit in each prison cell.

Seibold told the House Public Safety Subcommittee last week that extreme temperatures in Virginia prisons caused “inhumane conditions,” leading to reports of heatstroke and frostbite among other serious concerns.

Under the bill, each inmate would receive a fan if the temperature rises above 80 degrees and insulated blankets or clothing if temps falls below 65 degrees. Additionally, Seibold said the bill would “eliminate human error” by requiring the installation of wireless monitoring systems in cells to test temperatures. Tests are now randomly done by corrections officers.

The delegate told the panel there are currently seven correctional facilities in Virginia without air conditioning. Seibold said the DOC informed her that while there are facilities with heat ducts in cells, “there are many times when that heat is not working.”

Several groups spoke in support of the bill, including Kelly Darra, who spent 30 years incarcerated at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. She said that while her facility had air conditioning, it was outdated and didn’t always work.

“There were times in the summer it would get so hot in the cells that the walls would sweat and we’d take our sheets and soak them in water and lay under them to try and find some kind of relief from the heat,” Darra said.

Del. Tony Wilt, R-Harrisonburg, said he was concerned that the bill could “set inmates up” for another incident like what happened last year at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, where six inmates burned themselves using ‘improvised devices that were created by tampering with electrical outlets’  following claims of poor living conditions and treatment.

Seibold countered, saying the Department of Corrections already approves electrical fans in cells, although inmates have to buy them.

The legislation passed the House Public Safety Subcommittee and Committee on Public Safety on a party-line vote, with Republicans in opposition. It now heads to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Safety.

Senate Bill 1145: Holding GPS companies liable for trespassing

Sen. Timmy French, R-Shenandoah, wants GPS companies to remove private roads and driveways from their navigation systems to reduce instances of trespassing. Under his bill, if a person is charged with trespassing on a road or driveway clearly marked as private while relying on a GPS system, the GPS company would also be held liable for the trespassing.

Instead of a lengthy litigation process, the bill states the case against the company can be dismissed if it provides evidence that it has removed the private road or driveway from its system.

French told the Senate Committee for Courts of Justice this week that he and other rural legislators hear of challenges with delivery app softwares that navigate drivers down private roads, despite landowners pleas to the companies.

“A lot of my constituents have tried to take the steps to get these roads off the map and it’s not easy and it doesn’t happen when they think it’s going to,” French said.

Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, added that unintentional trespassing as a result of relying on GPS systems can happen across the commonwealth, like with the elderly or those who don’t have the capacity to understand the technology.

“It shouldn’t be incumbent on them to be responsible for someone else’s mistake,” Boysko said.

Guy Rohling, a lobbyist for Google, said the bill was the first of its kind they’ve seen in any country. He said Google already has a feature that allows property owners to ask the company to remove private roads, and he raised concerns over the bill’s definition of an owner and operator of a GPS system because Google uses, “a lot of third parties to provide the underlying road data.”

The bill passed the Senate unanimously and will be heard by the House.

House Bill 1667 and Senate Bill 1288: Allowing 16- and 17-year olds to work at a barbershop or salon

Identical bills from Del. Michael Jones, D-Richmond, and Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in barbershops and cosmetology salons if they are a registered apprentice, licensed by the Board for Barbers and Cosmetology or employed in a work-training program administered by the Department of Education and Department of Labor and Industry.

Aird told the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology last week her bill clarifies changes to the state code which caused confusion over what constituted an apprenticeship and resulted in “a prohibition onto the public school system students from being able to work in a barber and salon environment.”

Jones told the House panel young people training in the barbershop or cosmetology field face challenges gaining first-hand work experience due to current prohibitions against working with solutions and solvents outside of the classroom.

“A lot of our seniors are graduating at 16, 17 and we want to see them be productive in those years,” Jones said.

Aird’s bill cleared the Senate unanimously and Jones’ passed the House Labor and Commerce Subcommittee and full committee without opposition. If Jones’ legislation passes the House, both bills will be heard by the opposite chamber after crossover day.

by Meghan McIntyre, Virginia Mercury

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