Committee forwards Richmond's juvenile services plan after gun-violence prevention briefing

The Education and Human Services Standing Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to forward Resolution 2025-R041, Richmond's plan of services under the Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act (VJCCCA), to full City Council with a recommendation to approve.

The motion to forward the plan passed on a roll call that recorded Aye votes from Mister Bridal, Vice Chair Jones and Chair Lynch. The vote followed a 40-minute briefing from Greg Hopkins, the city's interim director of Department of Justice Services and director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, who described a citywide, multi-partner violence-reduction strategy and a five-point presentation on the office's current work.

Why it matters: the VJCCCA plan governs local programming, contracts and how state-allocated juvenile services dollars are spent. Council members pressed staff about evidence of program effectiveness, how many people each program serves, the mix of city versus grant funding, and what can be changed locally before the city asks the state to approve larger adjustments.

Hopkins framed the office as a coordinating body that "sees itself sort of like air traffic controllers," aligning national technical assistance, local partners and data analysis. He said the city undertook a five-year crime analysis and described a shift in the city's homicide profile since the COVID period: "the average age of a victim is 32," he said, and "starting, I think, January, the average age of an offender is 30 years old," a change Hopkins said requires adapting programs for older cohorts as well as youth.

Hopkins outlined the office's six-pillar framework (including credible messengers, training and crisis response) and said Richmond is standing up roughly four of the six pillars. He also highlighted the CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) initiative and the state's Safer Communities earmark: Richmond is "one of four localities that receive earmarked funding from the state," he said, and the grant runs 12 months.

Committee members repeatedly sought concrete program metrics: participant counts, duration and whether interventions are prevention or intervention. On that point, Hopkins said programs such as We Matter are prevention focused, while other services are designed to address criminogenic risk factors and act as interventions for higher-risk youth. He told members the city is building a "gun-violence dashboard" to show program inventories, funding sources and how many people each program serves.

Several members pushed for stronger evidence-based contracting and for performance measures tied to longer-term outcomes. Hopkins said local endorsement is required before the city implements the plan and that up to 50 percent of the allocated plan can be changed locally without returning to the state DJJ board; any change above that threshold would require state approval.

Public comment during the meeting included an allegation from Craig Jones that a named Richmond Police Department detective had suppressed evidence and that there was corruption in regional courts; the commenter's remarks were not addressed substantively by staff during the meeting.

Votes at a glance: Resolution 2025-R041, city plan of services under the Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act — forwarded to full council with a recommendation to approve (committee vote: 3-0).

Next steps: staff captured follow-ups including additional data on crossover youth and scheduling a spring presentation on Richmond Public Schools' master facilities plan; the plan will move to full City Council for consideration.