There was no long-term imprisonment for major crimes in colonial Virginia. Many crimes in colonial Virginia were punished by death, and people convicted of capital crimes were executed at a gallows in Williamsburg soon after the General Court condemned them. At the time of the American Revolution, a new concept in punishment was advocated by the Quakers in Pennsylvania. They proposed to reform criminals by placing them in a building for a period of time, during which they could contemplate their past, become penitent, and change their behavior before being released.
Thomas Jefferson led the charge in Virginia to modify state laws, and he proposed a "Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments in Cases Heretofore Capital" in 1785. Jefferson also sketched out designs of a prison where people could be held in solitary confinement to labor and to reflect upon their sins.
In 1786, the General Assembly adopted a modified version of Jefferson's bill, and in 1800 a state penitentiary was built in Richmond. That structure represented the new approach to punishment, with imprisonment preferred over physical punishment or execution.
For nearly two centuries, the "state pen" was located west of the state capitol, on a ridge overlooking the James River next to the modern Lee Bridge. However, the state pen is no longer in the state capital. Redevelopment of downtown Richmond was enhanced in the 1980's by the razing of the state prison. (It's now the research center for Ethyl Corporation - think the local business community welcomed that trade?)
In colonial times, prisoners condemned to death were kept in the Williamsburg "gaol" until they were taken to the gallows. After the state penitentiary was built, prisoners condemned to death were kept in that prison until executed there.
Not all prisoners were sent to Williamsburg or Richmond for execution. Local jails were also used to house prisoners who were executed after local courts sentenced them to death. Gallows Road in Fairfax County gained its name when it led to the site for hangings near the first county courthouse at Tysons Corner.
Executions by the electric chair started in 1908 at the state penitentiary in Richmond.1 Virginia's death row is now at Sussex State Prison. Executions occur at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Prisoners scheduled for execution are transported to Greensville a few days before the execution date. Since 1995, most executions have been by lethal injection, but some prisoners have chosen to die in the electric chair that is also located at Greensville. (Virginia never had a cyanide gas chamber; that technology was adopted by other states after Virginia had switched to the electric chair.)