On Nov. 7, Richmond voters will elect a sheriff to replace C.T. Woody Jr., the three-term incumbent who has served since 2006. Woody lost the Democratic nomination in June in an upset to third-time challenger Antionette V. Irving. Joining Irving on the ballot are independent candidates Nicole D. Jackson and Emmett J. Jafari. And just a month before the election, recently retired Sgt. Carol Adams, who headed the Richmond Police Department’s community care unit and established a foundation to assist domestic violence victims, announced her write-in campaign. The Sheriff’s Office’s main mission is to ensure security of the court system and the jail — officially called the Richmond Justice Center, with an average daily population of about 950 inmates and as many as 481 employees.
Antionette Irving (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Antionette Irving
Antionette Vanessa Irving is no stranger to the role of underdog. Long before being inducted into the athletic hall of fame at Shaw University in North Carolina, she says, a basketball coach overseeing Richmond tryouts for the U.S. Youth Games told her she’d never be good enough to play for a team. Irving says that putdown and her journey to becoming a top-performing college basketball player helped groom her tenacity — a quality that led her to run twice for Richmond sheriff before nabbing the Democratic nomination in June.
“I think people were ready for a change,” says Irving, 52, when asked what was different on her third run.
In making her pitch to voters, Irving talks about growing up in the Creighton Court public housing community; she describes working her way through the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office to the rank of major during a 26-year career; she lists her education credentials (a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, a master of science in general administration and a doctor of philosophy in business administration) and she tells them about her plans to bring restorative justice and improved inmate mental health and drug treatment services to the jail.
Irving proposes implementing an initiative similar to Henrico County’s Opiate Recovery by Intensive Tracking (ORBIT) program, which assists drug-addicted inmates with a detox process and provides work opportunities with the county’s capital projects.
Carlos Talley, a former colleague at the Henrico Sheriff’s Office, describes Irving as someone with “purpose and intent.” Though she's known for her no-nonsense work style, Talley says she is also kind and caring.
Irving says that many offenders come from circumstances similar to her own, but lack the encouraging influences she had, such as mentorship through the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club.
“When you don’t think much of yourself,” she says, “it’s hard for you to believe that anybody else thinks much of you.” —SW
Nicole Jackson (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Nicole Jackson
In April, not long before she decided to run for sheriff, Nicole Denise Jackson resigned her position as a major at the Richmond Sheriff’s Office — troubled, she says, by low staff morale and a “lack of opportunities for everyone across the board.” In 2016 alone, more than 25 deputies resigned, Jackson says. Though she speaks favorably of Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr.’s initiatives to help inmates, she says that his administration fell short in providing a fair process for staff promotions and a plan for staff retention. “I felt the sheriff’s office needed new leadership,” she says.
Born to a tobacco-farming family in South Boston, Jackson, 45, has lived in the Richmond area since she was in elementary school and she holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Strayer University. As a 13-year veteran of the Richmond Sheriff’s Office, Jackson notes that she’s the only candidate with extensive experience there. She also touts her experience with the Richmond Police Department, where she worked for nine years, as well as three years of active-duty service in the Army. Among the changes she’d like to see at the city jail are better screening of people coming and going, to prevent drugs and weapons from getting in. She sees a need for a certified interpreter, primarily to improve communication with Spanish-speaking inmates, and placement of certified medical professionals in the inmate housing area to handle emergencies. Jackson also proposes a 90-day program to prepare inmates for release, covering needs such as job preparation and coordinating support services.
Ronald Hopkins, a retired Sheriff’s Office employee who worked with Jackson at the John Marshall Courts Building, describes her as a supervisor who led by example and who was well-respected by police officers, judges, lawyers and inmates alike. “She cared about her workers,” he says. “If they had a problem, she’d talk to them and see what she can do, and find ways to make the working environment better and make sure the courtroom is safe each and every day.” —TE
Emmett Jafari (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Emmett Jafari
On a sunny Saturday before a family brunch, Emmett Johnson Jafari strides through his Belmont Woods abode filled with evidence of his family’s Richmond roots. The walls are lined with family pictures and, inside his home office, Jafari maintains pristine copies of his ancestors’ marriage licenses going back to the mid-1860s. He says documentation is a discipline that the Richmond Sheriff’s Office could improve upon.
“My research, looking at the audits and the annual inspections that are held down at the jail, clearly indicate that there’s a lack of proper documentation,” he says.
Jafari, 63, is semi-retired. These days, he operates a local tour business and does intermittent welding work, but he says he began building up his corrections and security experience in the mid-1970s – first as a corrections officer and mess steward at the now-defunct Virginia State Penitentiary, then as a unit supervisor at the Beaumont Learning Center. For the next 30 years, he alternated between operational oversight and security stints with groups and agencies including Crater Youth Care, Richmond Department of Social Services and Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, Goochland County’s Office on Youth, Richmond Public Schools and the GRTC Transit System. He views his varied professional experience as a strength.
Jafari’s former colleague Jerry Givens remembers when his friend arrived at the penitentiary as a new correctional officer. The two had played football against one another in high school – Givens for John F. Kennedy, Jafari at Maggie L. Walker. “Emmett was always known to be strong, and we needed that,” says Givens. In the penitentiary’s inmate population, “you had the worst of the worst. Everybody’s not cut out for it, but Jafari was.”
Jafari has sought public office unsuccessfully in recent years for the Richmond School Board (in 2000), sheriff (2001 and 2005) and clerk of the court (2011 and 2014). “When I see that there’s an office that my skill set fits,” he says, “I will offer myself as a candidate.” —SW
