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According to the Virginia Parole Board's website, they have carried out this mission only once so far in 2025. |
Fact #1: In 1995 parole was replaced with Truth in Sentencing legislation that required at least 85% of a sentence being served before one could be released from prison. However, there are still nearly 3500 men and women in the Commonwealth who are parole eligible, including those who were incarcerated before the 1995 law was passed and those sentenced as juveniles. Half of the total are also eligible for geriatric release due to their age and time served.
Fact #2: The Virginia Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by the governor, has a support staff of between 40-50 persons and an annual operating budget of over $2.8 million.
Fact #3: The Board's stated mission is “to protect public safety and contribute to a fair and effective justice system by ensuring that persons who remain a threat to society remain incarcerated and those who no longer present a risk are released to become productive citizens.”
Fact #4: Yet according to the 2025 numbers posted on the Board's official website, only one person, a geriatric case, has been granted release so far this year. One.
Is our Department of Corrections failing to correct the over 20,000 men and women its charge, at a cost of over $1.5 billion annually? Or is the Parole Board not carrying out its mission?
In any case, scores of parole eligible individuals are being denied release year after year, in spite of their 1) maintaining infraction-free records while incarcerated, 2) taking every vocational and self-improvement class possible, 3) serving as mentors and role models in their pods and work places and 4) even earning college degrees behind bars. Many lament that had they been sentenced by “truth in sentencing” guidelines, they would have already been released, without any parole board action.
For those eligible, parole examiners make a recommendation to the board based on both a meeting they have with an individual and an examination of their record, after which cases are voted on by at least three, or depending on the sentence, four, of the five board members in a video meeting. The stated reasons posted for their “not grant” verdicts appear to be computer-generated, as in the following actual example from the website:
Release at this time would diminish seriousness of crime; History of violence; Crimes committed - Kidnap/Abduct, Kidnap/Abduct; Extensive criminal record; Considering your offense and your institutional records, the Board concludes that you should serve more of your sentence before being paroled; The Board concludes that you should serve more of your sentence prior to release on parole; Serious nature and circumstances of your offense(s).
If there are other factors affecting Board decisions, such as resistance from victim families or from a Commonwealth’s Attorney office, that information is not made public.
The Valley Justice Coalition strongly favors Virginia rejoining the majority of states who see that it is in tax-payer’s best interest to have a fully functioning parole system. Mississippi, for example, one of 16 states that once abolished parole, reinstated it in 2021, realizing that the prospect of earning an early release is a powerful incentive for doing well.
We also favor legislation proposed by numerous groups, including by some parole eligible individuals I know, that would create specific criteria for determining whether to grant release.
Here are 14 items one such group has put together that would create a “Scored Parole Eligibility Level” of either One (75-100 points), Two (60-74 points), or Three (0-59 points), based on the following criteria:
1. PRIOR OFFENSE HISTORY IN VDOC: None (2 points) 2-3 One (-1), Two (-3), Four or More (-4)
2. HISTORY OF INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE WITHIN THE PAST FIVE YEARS: None (0), Assault not involving the use of a weapon (-5), Assault involving the use of a weapon (-10)
3. POSITIVE DRUG TEST IN THE PAST 60 MONTHS CONVICTION: None (0), One (-2), Two or more (-4)
4. POSITIVE ALCOHOL TEST IN THE PAST 60 MONTHS CONVICTION: None (0), Two or more (-2)
5. LENGTH OF TIME SERVED: 5 years (3), 10 years (4), 15 years (5), 20 years (8), 25 years (12), 30 years or more (14)
6. THE INMATE ADMITS TO THEIR ACTION IN THE CRIME FOR WHICH THEY ARE CONVICTED: No (0), Yes, (10)
8. THE INMATE HAS OBTAINED THEIR G.E.D. OR HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA, OR IS ENROLLED IN A G.E.D. CLASS: No (0), Yes (10)
9. THE INMATE HAS COMPLETED A VOCATIONAL, TRADE OR JOURNEYMANSHIP, OR IS CURRENTLY ENROLLED: No (0), YES (10)
10. THE INMATE IS CURRENTLY ENROLLED OR HAS COMPLETED A MENTAL HEALTH/THERAPEUTIC PROGRAM, PROGRAMS: None (0), Yes (10)
11. THE INMATE PARTICIPATED IN ALL WORK PROGRAMMING OR HAS APPLIED FOR A JOB IN THE LAST 60 MONTHS: No (0), Yes (10)
12. THE INMATE ADHERED TO ANY THERAPY REQUIREMENTS IN THE PAST 60 MONTHS BY ENROLLING ON THE WAITING LIST: No (0), Yes (10)
13. A) THE INMATE COMPLETED THE VADOC COMPASS TEST, AND IF SCORED HIGH RISK FOR RECIDIVISM, AGREES TO ANKLE MONITORING AS A CONDITION FOR PAROLE: No (-5), Yes (5)
B) THE INMATE COMPLETED THE VADOC COMPASS TEST AND SCORED LOW FOR RECIDIVISM: Yes (10)
14.CURRENT AGE: Under 21 (0), 21-29 (1), 30-39 (2), 40-49 (3), 50 and older (4)
We urge members of the General Assembly to consider this or similar legislation that would help Virginia become a model state for best practices in criminal justice.