RICHMOND, Va. — In the latest episode of “Untold – A WTVR Podcast,” host Catie Beck sits down with Richmond Sheriff Antionette Irving for a thought-provoking conversation about the state of the jail, the city’s drug problem, and the obstacles she overcame while growing up with an abusive father in Creighton Court.
“My dad was an alcoholic, not knowing until I was an adult that he was suffering from PTSD,” Irving said. “I can remember us as kids being outside and people coming and scooping us up out of the neighborhood because he thought he saw something that he saw in the war, and he began to shoot, you know, those types of things.”
“It got to a point that, myself as a kid, was no longer willing to tolerate that, and some things happened. Because I felt that I was at an age that I could speak up and speak out. And that reaction of, you know, seeing my mother in the situation that she was in, it was like, this has got to stop.”
In high school, Irving blossomed into a star athlete, which would ultimately prove to be the future sheriff’s ticket out of Richmond.
“I started playing softball and playing basketball and just learning other sports,” said Irving. “And I think that was an avenue for me that kept me busy. And you know, my siblings were always there for me. My brother would walk me from my house to middle school in the morning to go do track at 3 and 4 in the morning, because we had trips to go to. So that was a plus, that I knew that somebody cared and wanted to make sure that I was safe.”
Beck also asked Irving about the problems that have plagued the jail in recent years, including a string of inmate deaths and the 2023 determination by the Virginia Board of Local and Regional Jails that the Richmond City Justice Center needed to be placed under a compliance plan due to issues with regulatory standards.
“I've been in this business a long time, and the main thing that we have to do, again, is to follow the process and make sure that we're doing things the right way,” said Irving. “Making sure that the individuals who reside there don’t have to follow all the rules. They don’t always do what they should be doing. So we have to make sure that we're doing the things that we should be doing, following the process, making sure we're doing our security checks, making sure that we are providing medical attention, making sure that we're providing our programs, and making sure that when there's a question about what their needs are, we address those questions and try to put them in a position to be successful.”
A link to this latest episode of “Untold – A WTVR Podcast” can be found at the top of this page. You can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.
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