HARD TIME VIRGINIA, Volume 1, No. 2

"Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there." Leviticus 25:10

♦ 2015 VIRGINIA STATISTICAL INFORMATION

• Probation and Parole cost per case was $1,373

• Per capita cost of housing inmates was $27,928, up 1.7% from FY2014

• Commissary Earned From Offender Telephone System was $3,527,238

• Per Capita Medical Expenditures was $5,749

• Inmate Medical Co-payment Revenue $616,250 or $2,370 per with work day.

• Food cost was $24,513,599 but is now $23,150,140 which is $1,363,459 less. This $2.10 per day for staff and inmates.

• Direct Inmate Cost was $175,206,817, with $978,295,255 was non-inmate cost. Total appropriations were $1,153,502,072. 

• As of April 30, 2015, there were 4,348 parole eligible inmates in Virginia and 33,336 inmates subject to the post-1994 no-parole law.

† Currently, of the 4,348 parole eligible offenders serving one or more life sentences, 1,200 will die while in prison only because they committed a sexual and/or violent offense. Not because they have not changed, are not sorry for their crimes or because they misbehaved while incarcerated.

• Bureau of Justice Statistics state that Sex Offenders are less likely to re-offend than Non Sex Offenders. Just 5.3% of all sex offenders - and even smaller 3.3% of child molesters - were rearrested for a sex crime within three years of being released, the Report found.

Sources: www.deseretraw.com; www.sltrib.com

♦PRISON POPULATION IN 1993 AND NOW

As of November 2015 VDOC prison population was 30,290 offenders. June 30, 1993 VDOC prison population was 17,013. That was a 78% or 13,277 population increase in twenty-two years. That is at least 600 new Truth-in-Sentencing (TIS) offenders being incarcerated per year.

* JAMYCHEAL MITCHELL, a mentally ill 24-year-old, was arrested in April 2015 for stealing about $5 worth of snacks - a Snickers bar, a 2-liter Mountain Dew soda and a Zebra cake - from a 7-Eleven. He was jailed on a $3,000 bond. Unable to make bail and adjudicated incompetent to stand trial, Mitchell was ordered to the care of "qualified staff" at Eastern State Hospital. He was never transferred to the hospital, however, because no beds were available. On August 19, 2015, Mitchell was found without a pulse in a feces and urine contaminated cell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. He had lost nearly 40 pounds since his arrest and one of his legs was swollen to an "elephant alike" size. Despite the overwhelming evidence of neglect, Mitchell's death was ruled to have resulted from "natural causes."

Source: Prison Legal News February 2016, Vol. 27 No. 2

♦ Notes from Virginia CURE 28th Annual Meeting - November 14, 2015

• Harold Clarke, Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections spoke of the challenges facing the DOC. One big problem is the sheer numbers of prisoners and the lack of resources.

There are also attitudes that must be overcome when trying to help people change.

Statistics reveal that 66% of Female prisoners and 24% of Male prisoners suffer from mental illness.