After the Revolutionary War, Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson began to urge the state to construct a "penitentiary house."

In 1896, a penal farm operation (James River Correctional Center) was established in Goochland County for "miscreants and the infirm."

In May 2010, Governor Bob McDonnell signed Executive Order Number Eleven establishing the Virginia Prisoner and Juvenile Offender Re-entry Council.

[9] Prior to the abolition of capital punishment in Virginia in 2021, male death row was located at the Sussex I State Prison, while females were housed at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.

[11][12] Through 1990, the male death row was located at the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond, which began hosting executions on October 13, 1908.

In November 2010, after reviewing the complaints, the VADOC became the first corrections department in the country to install videophones, allowing deaf and hard of hearing inmates to communicate with friends and family outside the facility.

In addition, sign language versions of rules, proceedings, medical appointments, meals, and events were also made available, and interpreters were brought in twice a week.

Previously, some classic literature books with erotica, such as "Ulysses" by James Joyce, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence, and "Fanny Hill" were banned.

In 2010, as a result of a lawsuit filed by an inmate, a Federal court instructed the state corrections agency to begin permitting the circulation of the books.

[18] In September 2018, the department made headlines for banning female visitors to inmates from wearing tampons or menstrual cups in concerns over contraband being smuggled into the prisons.