Agency News
VADOC Director Chad Dotson's Remarks at Master Corrections Officer Jeremy Lewis Hall's Memorial Service
December 02, 2025
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Please see VADOC Director Chad Dotson’s remarks from Master Corrections Officer Jeremy Lewis Hall’s memorial service, held today at the Wytheville Meeting Center.
Good afternoon. On behalf of the Virginia Department of Corrections, thank you for being here to honor Master Corrections Officer Jeremy Lewis Hall.
To Dawn Hall and the Hall family, please know this room gathers first for you. No words can reach the depth of your loss, but I pray you can feel the depth of our love. We gather today because the Commonwealth must say, with one voice, that Jeremy Lewis Hall lived as a protector, a craftsman, a husband, a father, and a friend, and he gave his full measure of devotion in the service of others.
If you only knew Jeremy by the uniform, you missed the larger truth. Those who served beside him and those who loved him would tell you he was the kind of friend you hoped would show up when something needed fixing, and especially if you needed something welded. He was the colleague whose laugh turned an ordinary shift into a lighter one. He had that toboggan (everyone will tell you about the toboggan!) that somehow made sense no matter what time of year he was wearing it.
He was “firm, fair, and consistent,” not just on a post, but in his life. Firm, fair, consistent. That’s what we strive for in our profession. Firm enough to keep people safe. Fair enough to earn cooperation and respect. Consistent enough that everyone knows where the lines are and what is expected. You know, Jeremy believed that things would be okay, and he worked like a man determined to help make them so.
As I’ve met with members of our Virginia Department of Corrections family in recent days, including our team at River North, I met men and women who showed up in the hardest hour to keep their post, to care for one another, and to protect the Commonwealth. That’s courage, real courage, and it is the heart of corrections. It is the courage Jeremy lived.
In the days since we lost Jeremy, my phone has rung from every corner of this nation. Directors, Commissioners, Secretaries: people who understand the weight of what we do in Corrections. They’ve reached out to say, “We are with you.” My desk is stacked with cards and letters from the corrections family, the broader law enforcement community, and from ordinary Virginians who simply wanted to honor a man who stood a post FOR THEM. I haven’t been able to read them all yet, but the message is already clear: in the face of loss, this community closes ranks. We carry one another.
To the men and women of the Virginia Department of Corrections, and especially our River North team, I want you to hear this clearly: you are the quiet strength of public safety.
I am proud, deeply proud, to lead this Department. The people of VADOC do their work when no one is watching. They keep order, de-escalate, mentor, teach, provide care, and prepare people to return home safely. They are often unseen, but they are absolutely essential.
When the rest of the world sleeps, you stand the watch. Most will never see your courage, but they live under its protection every day. This is a solemn duty that we take seriously, and I am grateful to Governor Youngkin for the privilege to stand shoulder to shoulder with these heroes. And I say to our staff: ask for what you need. Your safety, your dignity, your resilience: these are not slogans and they are not negotiable. They are MY obligation.
Our vision remains steady and sure: safer facilities today and stronger communities tomorrow. We live it through our Five Pillars – Humility, Passion, Servanthood, Thankfulness, and Unity, which we have seen demonstrated so clearly by the public safety community since this unspeakable tragedy. These Pillars are not theory. This is how we honor Jeremy in the only way that ultimately matters: by turning our grief into purpose.
And we honor Jeremy by caring for his family. By caring for each other. By standing our posts with professionalism, and by continuing the work that keeps Virginians safe.
To Dawn and the entire Hall family: we cannot mend what has been torn, but we can vow what we will do. We will say Jeremy Lewis Hall’s name, today and forever. We will say his name in our institutions, at our ceremonies, and in the quiet moments when we remember why we serve. We will not forget Jeremy’s sacrifice, and I make this pledge to you publicly – we WILL look after you, not just today but in the long tomorrow when the crowds have gone home. You are part of the VADOC family, now and always.
And I promise something else: the law will speak with clarity here. Accountability for this violent act is not vengeance; it is the solemn promise that the Commonwealth will keep faith with its guardians. With those who protect us every single day. With those who walk into a prison, to do a job that most Virginians are not willing to do. Justice will be pursued fully and faithfully, on behalf of Jeremy and every corrections officer with the courage to sacrifice for our fellow citizens.
A nation is kept not only by the laws on our books, but by the guardians who keep the watch. So today the Commonwealth does more than mourn: We renew a covenant. We say to every Virginian: when you see a corrections officer or a probation officer or a nurse or anyone else who works inside: Meet their eyes and tell them their work matters. Let the country see in Virginia a people worthy of the sacrifice made in their name, a people who keep faith with those who protect them, and who carry the torch forward with steadiness and resolve.
Jeremy, thank you, for your steadiness, your humor, your courage. Rest easy. We will carry the standard forward. We will keep the watch. We will live the values that you lived. And we will make sure tomorrow is safer for others because you stood your post for us.
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