Freedom of information act (foia)

Piedmont Regional Juvenile Detention Center is committed to openness and transparency in government.  The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guarantees citizens of the Commonwealth and representatives of the media access to public records held by public bodies, public officials and public employees.

The FOIA policy states that the purpose of FOIA is to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities.  In furthering this policy, FOIA requires that the law be interpreted liberally, in favor of access, and that any exemption allowing public records to be withheld must be interpreted narrowly.

• You have the right to request to inspect or receive copies of public records, or both.
• You have the right to request that nay charges for the requested records be estimated in advance.
• If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you may file a petition in district or circuit court to compel compliance with FOIA.  Alternatively, you may contact the FOIA Council for a nonbinding advisory opinion.

You may request records from PRJDC by U.S. mail, email, in person or over the phone.  FOIA does not require that your request be in writing, nor do you need to specifically state that you are requesting records under FOIA.

Your request must identify the records you are seeking with "reasonable specificity" so that we can identify and locate the records you are seeking.  This does not refer to or limit the volume of records you are requesting, simply that you be specific enough that we can identify and locate the records for you.

Your request must ask for existing records or documents.  FOIA gives you a right to inspect or copy records; it does not apply to a situation where you are asking general questions about the work of the facility, nor does it require us to create a record that does not exist.

You may choose to receive electronic records in any format used by PRJDC in the regular course of business.  

i.e.  If you are requesting records maintained in excel you may elect to receive those records via email, on a flash drive, or printed.

If you have questions about your request, please cooperate with staff's efforts to clarify the type of records you are seeking, or to attempt to reach a reasonable agreement about a response to a large request.  

Where to send your FOIA request:

Spring Johnson

P.O. Box 344

Farmville, VA 23901

(434) 392-3834 ext. 23

sjohnson344@piedmontregionaljdc.org

PRJDC's responsibilities in responding to your request:

PRJDC must respond to your request within five working days of receiving it. "Day one" is considered to day after your request is received.  The five-day period does not include weekends or holidays.

FOIA requires that we make one of the following responses to your request within the five-day period:

• We provide you with the records you have requested in their entirety.
• We withhold all of the records you have requested because all of the records are subject to a specific statutory exemption. If all of the records are being withheld, we must send you a response in writing. That writing must identify the volume and subject matter of the records being withheld and state the specific section of the Code of Virginia or other law that allows us to withhold the records.
• We provide some of the records you have requested but withhold other records. We cannot withhold an entire record if only a portion of it is subject to an exemption. In that instance, then we may redact the portion of the record that may be withheld and must provide you with the remainder of the record. We must provide you with a written response stating the specific section of the Code of Virginia or other law that allows portions of the requested records to be withheld.
• We inform you in writing that the requested records cannot be found or do not exist (we do not have the records you want.) However, if we know that another public body has the requested records, we must include contact information for the other public body in our response to you. 
• If it is practically impossible for us to respond to your request within the five-day period, we must state this in writing, explaining the conditions that make the response impossible. This will allow us seven additional working days to respond to your request, giving us a total of 12 working days to respond. If you make a request for a very large number of records, and we cannot provide the records to you within 12 days without disrupting other organizational responsibilities, we may petition the court for additional time to respond.  However, FOIA requires that we make a reasonable effort to reach an agreement with you concerning the production of the records before it goes to court to ask for more time.

Costs

• A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for requested records.  No public body shall impose any extraneous, intermediary, or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining records or transacting general business.  Any duplicating fee charged shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication.  All charges for the supplying of requested records shall be estimated in advance at the request of the citizen as set forth in subsection F of  § 2.2-3704 of the Code of Virginia.
• Reasonable charges may include items such as staff time spent searching for the requested records, copying costs, or any other costs directly related to supplying the records.  It cannot include general overhead costs. 
• If PRJDC estimates the cost to be more than $200 to respond to your request, we may require you to pay a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before proceeding with your request.  The five days that we have to respond to your request does not include the time between when we ask for a deposit and when you respond.
• If you owe PRJDC money from a previous FOIA request that has remain unpaid for more than 30 days, we may require payment of the past-due bill before responding to your new request.

A public record is any writing or recording - regardless of its format - that is prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public entity or its officers, employees, or agents in the transaction of public business.  All public records are presumed to be open, and may only be withheld if a specific, statutory exemption applies.

The following is a general description of the types of records held by PRJDC:

• Personnel records concerning employees of PRJDC
• Records of contracts which PRJDC has entered into

If you are unsure whether we have the record(s) you seek, please contact Spring Johnson.

The Code of Virginia allows any public body to withhold certain records from public disclosure.  The following are common exemptions used by detention facilities:

• Personnel records ( § 2.2-3705.1 (1) Code of Virginia)
• Records subject to attorney-client privilege ( § 2.2-3705.1 (2)) or attorney work product ( § 2.2-3705.1 (3))
• Vendor proprietary information ( § 2.2-3705.1 (6))
• Records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a contract being awarded ( § 2.2-3705.1(12))
• Plans and information to prevent or respond to terrorist activity ( § 2.2-3705.2 (4))
• Personal confidential financial tax information pursuant to (58.1-3)

More information about FOIA can be found through the Freedom of Information Advisory Council.  You may contact the council by email at foiacouncil@dls.virginia.gov  or by phone at (804) 225-3056 or toll free at 1-866-448-4100.  The FOIA Council also posts useful information including advisory opinions, at http://foiacouncil.dls.virginia.gov