Jesse Matthew Jr. was transferred from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail to Red Onion State Prison March 29.
Matthew is serving a total of seven life sentences for the murders of University student Hannah Graham in 2014 and Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington in 2009, as well as a sexual assault in Fairfax County in 2005.
Red Onion State Prison is a super-maximum security prison located in Pound, Virginia, in Wise County — about 300 miles southwest of Charlottesville.
The prison is managed by the Virginia Department of Corrections and houses around 800 inmates, according to data from March 2009.
Greg Carter, community relations coordinator at the Virginia Department of Corrections, said offenders first entering the department are assessed using an “Initial Security Level Score Sheet.”
“All offenders entering Virginia Department of Corrections facilities are classified into appropriate security levels and assigned to facilities equipped to provide appropriate security which enhances public, staff and offender safety,” Carter said in an email statement.
Carter said the Department of Corrections classifies Red Onion as a 5-6-S prison with regard to security level. Level 5 means maximum security, level 6 is a “Step Down from Level S,” and level S is administrative segregation.
Administrative segregation refers to solitary confinement. Virginia’s Step Down Program allows inmates who are assigned to segregated housing to work their way into the general prison population and join small groups for program. Other aspects of the program include behavioral journaling and therapeutic models.
Carter said there are other aspects affecting the security level of a facility where an inmate serves his or her sentence.
“In addition to the objective score [about the inmate], decision makers must weigh in other factors such as the pre-sentence investigation, institutional adjustment, nature of the offense, time to serve and other factors affecting the level of risk an offender may pose to facility order or to the community,” Carter said.
Matthew had been held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail since his arrest in September 2014.
In late February of this year, he accepted a plea deal from Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci.
The plea deal spared him from the receiving the death penalty, but he will spend the rest of his life in prison; however, he could be moved from Red Onion at the discretion Virginia Department of Corrections.
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