2026 LEGAL ACCESS BILLS

HB126 Local, regional, and community correctional facilities; access to counsel for inmates.
Introduced by: Katrina Callsen (Chief Patron) [D]

View the bill here.
Local, regional, and community correctional facilities; access to counsel for inmates. Requires the State Board of Local and Regional Jails to establish additional standards no later than January 1, 2027, to ensure access to legal counsel for inmates held in any local, regional, or community correctional facility and enumerates the standards that the Board shall include in such additional standards.
1/2/2026 House. Referred to Committee on H-Public Safety

1/16/2026 House. Assigned H-PS sub: Subcommittee #2

1/30/2026
House-Public Safety committee amendment offered

HB1392 Powers and duties for operation of local and regional correctional facilities and courthouse security; attorney access to courthouses and communication and visitation with incarcerated clients; penalty.

Introduced by: Karen Keys-Gamarra (Chief Patron) [D]

View the bill here.
Provides that if a sheriff allows courthouse employees, law-enforcement officers, or both to bypass any security screening required to enter a courthouse, such sheriff shall also exempt from the security screening any attorney who displays a valid Virginia State Bar-issued bar card and a government-issued identification. The bill creates a Class 1 misdemeanor for any attorney who has had his license to practice law in the Commonwealth suspended or revoked and who displays a Virginia State Bar-issued bar card in an effort to be exempt from the security screening. The bill also requires the State Board of Local and Regional Jails to develop and establish minimum standards to ensure that attorneys have sufficient opportunities to have confidential visits with their clients and requires sheriffs or jail superintendents to provide a telephonic, electronic, or web-based communication method for prisoners in local correctional facilities to communicate with attorneys.

1/21/2026 Referred to Committee on House-Public Safety