On June 17, a primary election will effectively decide who will become Richmond’s next sheriff. The election sees the city’s current Sheriff Antionette Irving facing off again against former Richmond Police Sergeant William Burnett. Irving, a two-term incumbent is defending her job against a vocal critic who is promising a sweeping overhaul of Richmond's jail.
A group of incarcerated people attend a meeting at the Richmond City Justice Center on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The two are familiar opponents. In 2021, Burnett lost an identical match-up by a 11-point margin, with Irving taking 55% of the vote. In his campaign to unseat Irving, Burnett is seeking to turn the election into a referendum on Irving's past four years in charge. He has positioned himself as a fresh face able to reverse negative media attention drawn by
a string of jail deaths and subsequent lawsuits.
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"I'm planning on reinventing the sheriff's department," said Burnett. "It's going to be like it's never been before." Burnett, the only challenger, served two stints at the Richmond Police Department sandwiched around several years as a colonel under Irving’s predecessor, former Sheriff C.T. Woody. Burnett rose to the level of sergeant and worked street crime throughout public housing in the city, beginning in Mosby Court. From his stint at the jail, Burnett says he has a number of allies who still work in the Richmond City Justice Center, and who have told him that Irving has depressed morale by berating employees, leading to staff retiring or changing careers.
William Burnett, who is running for Richmond City Sheriff, poses for a portrait in front of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. He believes the jail’s low staffing level — the jail
was short 150 officers in 2023 — reflects on Irving’s leadership, even as jails, prisons and police departments across the country struggle with staffing crises of their own. “The staffing issue is a major problem there. And it’s been a problem for probably the entire 8 years that the current sheriff has been in place,” said Burnett. Burnett is also critical of what he says is a lack of transparency. Since 2023, the jail has been under a compliance plan with the state agency that oversees jail operations. That compliance plan came in the wake of four deaths at the jail in 2023, and after investigators for the state found that employees had been forging logs related to monitoring jail detainees. Some detainees overdosed in their cells, the Times-Dispatch has reported, and at least three families have since sued Irving claiming that her deputies were negligent. One lawsuit
was settled for an undisclosed amount in March, according to VPM News. Burnett promised broader access to the media as part of his reinvention of the office. And to crack down on the jail’s drug problem, Burnett said he would create a canine drug detection unit that will help ferret out drugs being smuggled by staff into the Justice Center. “Not only will I catch you, you will make the news by that afternoon,” said Burnett.
Richmond Sheriff Antoinette Irving poses for a portrait in her office at the Richmond City Justice Center on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The Times-Dispatch toured the jail and interviewed Irving on Tuesday. Burnett's dark description of status quo at the jail isn't readily apparent. Deputies and detainees stand to attention when Irving enters jail pods. Irving, whose own office is crowded with Himalayan salt lamps and elephant figurines, showed off a wellness room she created for her staff after finding tired deputies catching shut-eye in the jail's gym. "We needed to do better," Irving said. And she outlined the efforts she's made to replenish her ranks, which she says are frequently depleted when sheriff's offices from neighboring counties poach her newly trained employees. Starting salaries, now at $54,000, may need to be bumped even higher, she said. Irving's pitch to be sheriff is tied to her youth growing up in Richmond. A product of Creighton Court, Irving came up through the ranks at the Henrico County Sheriff's Office, where she was promoted to the rank of major. From there, she ran for office in Richmond, unseating former Sheriff C.T. Woody in 2017. Her trademark is rehabilitation, with an eye towards what happens after men and women leave her jail. "The biggest thing that we work on here is reentry," said Irving. "We want people to believe in themselves, we want to give them an opportunity, to get jobs, own businesses, to be a part of what goes on in our city."
Richmond Sheriff Antoinette Irving, speaks to a group of incarcerated people at the Richmond City Justice Center on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. She hopes to achieve that through programs offered within the Richmond jail. One floor has jail pods dedicated to substance abuse recovery, behavioral therapy, and medication assisted treatment, or MAT. The latter, which helps addicts in long-term recovery, is a relatively new program. Addiction specialists had criticized Irving for not offering the program in the past, leading
some detainees to be forced into dangerous detox upon admission. The jail's MAT program is one response she's implemented in the wake of the 2023 jail deaths. The jail has reported at least 8 deaths since Irving’s re-election in 2021, according to the Board of Local and Regional Jails and reporting from the Times-Dispatch. Irving credits the pandemic for bringing more individuals with comorbidities into her care. She also said the deaths have to do with the "mindset" of detainees, some of whom don't take care of themselves or seek out the jail doctor. "I know that those questions are going to come up, and we can only control what we can control," said Irving. "So we try to make sure that we can do the things necessary if someone is harming themselves or if something is happening to someone. And that's basically where we are."
William Burnett, who is running for Richmond City Sheriff, poses for a portrait in the Mosby Court neighborhood on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Management of the jail is the primary responsibility of the sheriff, but the office is also responsible for carrying out writs of eviction and staffing courthouse security. The election is already underway, with early voting opening on May 2. Burnett and Irving will face off in a debate on May 17, hosted by local chapters of the Democratic party. Burnett's white lawn signs have popped across town, in both the suburbs of the West End and in the East End's public housing. In total, Burnett has registered around $30,000 in campaign donations. That figure is many times what Irving has raised so far this year. Since July of 2024, Irving has raised just $1,350 from five campaign donors, according to campaign filings. By this time in 2021, when she last ran for office, Irving had raised ten times that sum. However, Irving said she is campaigning, and that she has more to accomplish as sheriff. "We've still got a lot of work we need to get done," said Irving.
A corrections officer checks doors at the Richmond City Justice Center on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. A group of incarcerated people attend a meeting at the Richmond City Justice Center on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
