Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-479

Escape without force or violence or setting fire to jail; penalties

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case State v. Bousman (1979)

Most recently applied in United States v. Mathias (April 2007)

Code 1950, § 18.1-290; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1985, c. 555; 2005, c. 573; 2025, cc. 38, 41.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

A. Except as provided in subsection B, any person lawfully confined in jail or lawfully in the custody of any court, officer of the court, or law-enforcement officer, as defined in § 18.2-57, for violation of his probation or parole or on a charge or conviction of a misdemeanor who escapes, other than by force or violence or by setting fire to the jail, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

B. Any person lawfully confined in jail or lawfully in the custody of any court, officer of the court, or law-enforcement officer, as defined in § 18.2-57, on a charge or conviction of a felony who escapes, other than by force or violence or by setting fire to the jail, is guilty of a Class 6 felony.

Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.