The Virginia Parole Board-- A Modest Proposal

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)

7. THE INMATE COMPLETED THE REQUIRED AMOUNT OF TIME TO QUALIFY FOR DISCRETIONARY PAROLE (Old law, Juvenile, Fishback, Three Strike) OR GERIATRIC PAROLE: 

Discretionary (10), Geriatric (5)

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.

Guest Post: A Song For The Season

JD Martin, who grew up in the Valley, now lives
with his wife Jan near Aspen, Colorado. They
produce and perform music that has earned them
multiple awards.

 A Modern Prayer

Oh Canada I am your friend                           
I take a breath when I come in                                                          
No matter what some people say     
I’m with you today                                         
 
Those giant falls we share with you
On your side, rainbow hues
The water’s pure, cascading down
Now, just look around
 
Oh Canada                                         
 
Oh Mexico I am your friend                           
I take a breath when I come in                                                          
No matter what some people do      
I see a truth in you                                         
 
This little town, down by the sea
There’s always room for you and me
The ocean breeze, the friendly way
Como esta today
 
Oh Mexico
 
                        The loss of heart, the vicious storm   
                        Will fall away ………in the long run
           
Oh Mother Earth, I am your friend
The shining seas, majestic mountains
Please forgive the things we’ve done
Before it’s all gone
 
To every country near and far
I am part of who you are
We are held to hear the call
Oh Mother Earth, you hold us all
 
JD Martin & David Roth ©2025

Gill ‘n’ Goldie Music & Maythelight Music  (ASCAP)

Listen here: https://garrett-martin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/A-Modern-Prayer-JD-AJ.mp3

I'm Wearing Honduran and Vietnamese Today

Most of us rarely take note of where all of the clothes in our
closets are made, like this shirt I chose today. 

All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it.

- James 5:4-6 the Message

In a talk at VMRC several months ago Sam Funkhouser, director of the Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center, made the point that few of us could afford the clothing, food and other exotic amenities we take for granted if we had to pay all the workers who provided them the wages to which we would feel entitled.

An antonym for the word exotic is native, which would mean depending on what is produced and marketed in our local communities. Meanwhile, bananas, produced at a distance of 1000 miles or more from us, are much cheaper than locally produced apples. 

We all benefit enormously from the cheap labor of garment, agricultural and other workers in countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, India, Mexico, Peru, Pakistan, and Honduras, to name just a few of our world neighbors. Honduras, by the way, is the poorest country in our neighboring Central America, with a per capita GDP of just over $3200 as compared to over $83,000 in the U.S. The poorest country, South Sudan, is rated at under $900 per person.

Most of us fail to realize that we enjoy a more luxurious lifestyle than even the wealthiest of monarchs or  magnates prior to the 20th century. Think of life before electric power became widely available, before the availability of automobiles, and before the revolutionary advances in medical and dental science we now take for granted. 

On one of our visits to Pittsburgh we toured the Henry Clay Frick mansion and garden, the home to one of the wealthiest industrialists of his time. I especially remember its extensive stable and carriage complex, providing for the Frick family's transportation needs. In spite of its expanse and efficiency, I'm sure they would have gladly chosen to own a vehicle like our 2012 Toyota Corolla over the best of their prize horses, state of the art harnesses and elaborate carriages. It's hard to imagine the difference in the convenience and comfort provided by the engineering marvel of automobiles alone, something only about 18% of the world's people will ever own.

Rare earth minerals and metals from all over the world are used in automotive and other manufacturing, and especially for catalytic converters and batteries. Workers involved in extracting these minerals, including for our cell phones, computers and other devices, are typically exploited and work in horrific  conditions. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/supply-chain-research/from-mines-to-markets-exposing-labor-exploitation-in-critical-mineral-supply-chains

All of this contributes to the privileged lifestyle most of us take for granted as we travel, shop and enjoy life as the wealthiest people in the world. 

Here is a link to determine how rich we are in comparison to the rest of our world neighbors: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/how-rich-am-i?income=45000&countryCode=USA&numAdults=2&numChildren=0

Two Terrifying Recent Texts From Gaza City

My friend J. Daryl Byler, a Washington, DC. based attorney who spent years in the Middle East, just received the following texts from a Palestinian friend. Wikipedia photo

4/21/2025

I am Amjad, a Palestinian from Gaza living in the shadow of a horrendous war, a war that has lasted 19 months. This war has already killed my father, brother and sister, and wounded my wife and our two sons. 

I have had to run with them from place to place to try to protect and feed them. We have had to flee 17 times during this war, from home to home, from school to school, from tent to tent. During the ceasefire, we returned to our home in Gaza City, where we have been living in the ruins of our destroyed home.  

On March 2nd, the Israelis began a total siege of Gaza, closing the border crossings to all humanitarian aid and commercial trade, blocking all food, water, fuel, electricity and other supplies from entering Gaza. Then on March 16, the Israelis ended the ceasefire with Hamas, resumed military attacks against all of Gaza. Each day our life has become more difficult. 

As for food, everything is very, very expensive. Flour is no longer available in the market and the black market is extremely expensive. Even vegetables are very expensive. If the border crossing is not opened In a few days, we will completely run out of food.  During the siege my children are becoming malnourished.  

My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl the day before the Israelis ended the ceasefire, and a few days ago, the Israelis bombed the last hospital in Gaza City.  Now my wife and my new daughter need medical and nutritional assistance that is no longer available, and I am powerless to help them.

My brother, the Israelis are bombing everywhere. There is no fighting with Hamas, but the Israelis are bombing everywhere, including the hospitals which have now all been destroyed. If anyone is injured, there are no medical equipment or supplies to deal with the wounds, so their arm or leg must be amputated to save their lives. 

We are all under constant threat and fear.  I worry that I will have a heart attack just from the anxiety.  My children are terrified and wet themselves when the bombing gets close. They are afraid to sleep at night. We all sleep together, and when the bombing is too close to one side of the house, I gather them all up and carry them to the other side of our destroyed house. 

Gaza is now unlivable.  If the world powers cannot break the siege of food and water, and stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza, then they have a responsibility to get the people of Gaza get out so that we can receive the medical and nutritional assistance that we need.  We have learned that the Red Cross and the World Health Organization have helped some Gazans leave for medical assistance.  

My wife and two sons are all suffering from shrapnel wounds from an Israeli tank shell that hit the school room in which we were sheltering in November 2023, and now, we are all now malnourished because of the 36 day siege.  Please stop this war and end the occupation, but if you cannot, at least help my family and all Gazan people to leave and find safety.

4/22/2025

Yesterday there was a huge explosion that shook the whole area.  The children were terrified, started screaming and ran to hid in my arms as the shrapnel fell on our house. The situation is terrifying. I can’t breathe. . .  I discovered that the World Health Organization will try to get my family out of Gaza. I hope to escape death in Gaza.

And now they are bombing again!!  Huge bombing.

A Mother Laments Poor Jail and Prison Food

June Wells writes the following rerport of food served in
the jails and prisons in which her daughter served a
three-year sentence.

This is the complete version of a column published in a condensed form in today's Daily-News-Record. It is the fourth of the Valley Justice Coalition's monthly Justice Matters columns, posted here with the actual names of the jails and prisons the author refers to.

Food is such an important part of everyone’s life, something that is certainly true of the millions in  our country who spend endless years in our jails and prisons. I became especially concerned about jail and prison food when my daughter was sentenced to time in our local jail and in each of Virginia’s three state prisons for women,

What I am writing here is simply based on what she shared with me during that time and in the years since she has been released. I don’t claim to be an authority on this subject, and I hope many of the problems I am describing have been remedied. But what I hear from many who have loved ones behind bars I know there are still a lot of food issues that need to be addressed. Examples are meals with too many carbs, too few vegetables and fruits, and inferior kinds of meat products.

I’m told food served at our local jail has improved over the past years, but when my daughter was there they were often served a soy product with little actual meat and with an unappetizing smell. A kool aid type drink, served from a large canister, seemed to give the inmates UTI’s. 

She also spent some time at the Middle River Regional Jail before being transferred to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for the remainder of her time. There they served a chicken based product she said smelled and looked horrible and sat on the plates in a pool of fat. The hot dogs they served frequently were of an unappetizing color, taste and texture. Dry beans, also served regularly, were seldom thoroughly cooked, and occasionally contained foreign objects. Starches were consistently overcooked, and vegetables improperly prepared. The one decent item on the menu was a boiled egg. 

At Fluvanna Correctional Center, the intake facility for women, she never felt they were given enough calories to feel satisfied. The meat they served, called “meatrock,” was laden with fat and so bad they couldn’t tell from day to day exactly what was being served. There were days when there was no breakfast or often only a small pancake, with security guards walking by the tables with small doses of syrup dispensed from a jug. 

My daughter’s best food experience was at Goochland Correctional Center, where she worked in the kitchen. There she had access to the food served to the correctional officers and administration, and where she had the rare opportunity to eat a cube of cheese or a piece of raw carrot or celery. Mashed potatoes were served with skins on, and with some kitchen staff washing them and cutting them in half without checking for bad spots. Peanut butter came in 20 lb. bags stored in cardboard boxes, and was called “moon sand” because it was dry, gritty and sticky. It was at Goochland where she saw boxes of chicken bulk labeled “not for human consumption—not fully processed.”  The smell was horrible, and after being cooked the broth was green or yellow in color. 

My daughter was moved to State Farm Correctional Center when she was accepted for work release. While waiting for her job assignment, she had to eat regular prison food again. Sometimes grasshoppers, worms and beetles were in the vegetables grown on the State Farm property, and the kitchen was known to be infested with roaches and mice. It was not uncommon to have weevils in the flour and cornmeal, and fish was served that smelled of bleach and chemicals. 

My daughter and the women with whom she was incarcerated constantly reported having digestive problems, and there were cases of heartburn, nausea, indigestion, constipation, gas and diarrhea on a regular basis, along with reports of high blood pressure, ulcers, and UTI’s. 

She also noted that the contract with DOC’s vendors, the Keefe Company, which supplies inmate commissary items, allows everyone to win except the inmate. The Keefe Company charges exorbitant prices for highly salted, oily or sugary items inmates buy to supplement meals they often see as “unfit for human consumption.”

I know this is just one person’s story, but I felt it needed to be told. And while I agree people should be held responsible for their offenses, feeding bad food should not be a part of the punishment.

June Wells

Rockingham, Virginia

Warning And Evangelizing The Nations

Some of the 195 national flags displayed at the UN headquarters.

Why the big noise, nations?

Why the mean plots, peoples?

Earth-leaders push for position,

Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,

The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:

“Let’s get free of God!

Cast loose from Messiah!”

Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.

At first he’s amused at their presumption;

Then he gets good and angry.

Furiously, he shuts them up:

“Don’t you know there’s a King in Zion? A coronation banquet

Is spread for him on the holy summit.”

Psalm 2:1-6 (the Message)

To the Lord, all nations

are merely a drop in a bucket

    or dust on balance scales;

all of the islands

    are but a handful of sand...

God thinks of the nations

    as far less than nothing.

Isaiah 40:15, 16 (CEV)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may declare the goodness of the One who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

I Peter 2:9 (MEV)

The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.

from Handel's Messiah, Part Three, Scene 7, "God's Ultimate Victory" 

The Bible contains a surprising number of references to nations. The Hebrew Bible is primarily about, and is addressed to, the nations of Israel and Judah, and has much to say to other kingdoms as well. And in Jesus's first recorded words in Matthew's gospel, he urges his hearers to become transformed citizens of the international and eternal reign of God. This supreme kingdom, one without borders, is to be a living demonstration of God's rule "on earth as it is in heaven." 

In his final words in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commissions his followers to go to all nations and to baptize people of all kinds, including rich, poor, upper class, lower class, those in power and ordinary citizens alike, and to teach those recruited all of the "all things" Jesus taught. This would surely include his commands to love enemies, welcome strangers and foreigners, heal the sick, feed the hungry, and invest treasure in the "Company of Heaven" by generously sharing our wealth with the poor.

Our scriptures also make it clear there is only one Judge of every human on earth, of whatever rank, title or status. And that the fate of each person will be determined by one and the same standard, the reign of God as demonstrated, taught, and lived by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  

Then in the end, when God calls all the nations together (note the use of that word in Matthew 25), all will be judged by how they have responded to the needs of the "least of these," Jesus's family of brothers and sisters all around the globe. There is no support whatsoever in the Bible for there being one judgment for rulers of the worlds' nations and another for ordinary citizens like ourselves. 

True, God has instituted governments as a means by which those who are not citizens of God's kingdom will govern themselves and maintain some level of stability and social order. But no one outside the reign of God on earth can expect a "Well done, good and faithful servant" for having done so. 

Thus we will be judged as either having loved God and served our neighbors as Jesus did, or condemned for primarily furthering our own interests. And on whether we pledged our allegiance to the Beast of empire or  to the King of kings and Lord of lords who reigns forever.

So our urgent invitation to all nations and all people is that of Jesus in Matthew 4:17, "Repent, (change your direction, mend your ways, make a radical about face) for the Kingdom of God (the reign of Heaven) is at hand."

And He shall reign forever and ever. And ever.

Hallelujah!

It's Palm Sunday. The Crowds Are Celebrating. The Man Riding On The Donkey is Weeping.

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Pietro Lorenzetti, Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi

Every year there is a reenactment of a story that appears in each of the four gospels, that of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The annual commemoration begins in the church of Bethphage, which has a mural inside of Jesus on a donkey parading into town. From there the procession travels to the Mount of Olives, then toward the Dome of the Rock in east Jerusalem and by the Golden Gate, now closed. After going by Gethsemane they enter the city through the Lion’s Gate (or Sheep Gate, next to the market selling sheep for sacrifice) and by the Pool of Bethsaida.  

As in John’s gospel the participants are waving palm branches like welcome flags, reminiscent of a scene less than two centuries before when the revolutionary Judas Maccabees entered the city in triumph, also with crowds waving palm branches welcoming him as their deliverer. This was followed by Judas cleansing the temple, something Jesus is also about to do, their pagan conquerers having defiled this holy place by sacrificing a pig on the altar.  

During their brief period of independence under the Maccabeans Jews had produced their own currency, with one of their coins engraved with a palm tree and the words “for the redemption of Zion.” Before that there had been the coronation of King Jehu, with people taking off their cloaks and laying them down for the new king to walk over as he was crowned to replace King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. And before that a young Solomon was welcomed into Jerusalem to take the throne of his father David, riding on a royal donkey as a sign of peace rather than riding into town on a war horse. 

Now Jesus is entering Jerusalem, having set his face toward Jerusalem during a time of his growing popularity as a teacher and miracle worker, and as the one who had just raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. It was clearly a most dangerous and volatile time for the Son of Man to visit the capital city, joining the throngs of other pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. And Jesus wasn’t just met by people as he entered the city, but was surrounded by crowds of followers who were choosing to travel with him to the Passover celebration of deliverance from Egyptian oppression. 

Earlier that same day, Governor Pontius Pilate had led an impressive parade of troops into the city from his headquarters in Caesarea as a show of force and as a warning to any who might dare create any kind of disturbance.

Jesus planned ahead for a different show of kingly power, arranging for borrowing someone’s young donkey to ride into the city. A crowd of followers welcome him with hosannas, literally “hosiah na,” "Lord save us, please” a part of a song of victory familiar to them all, based on Psalm 118:25-26:

Lord, save us!
    

Lord, grant us success!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
    

From the house of the Lord we bless you.

So why, in light of this enthusiastic welcome, is Jesus crying, according to Luke’s account, and why doesn’t Luke even mention the hosannas? Rather, he quotes the people as proclaiming “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven.”

Luke explains it was because Jesus, then as now, is deploring the violence of empire as well as of those who opposed it, “If only you knew the things that would bring you shalom, ” he laments, and adds, “indeed the days will come when …you and your children will be crushed to the ground and they will not leave one stone on another among you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

Jesus, as Prince of Peace, has the words of the prophet Zechariah:9:9-10 in mind, who announced a reign of peace and the destruction of weapons of war:

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion 
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
    and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
    and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
    His rule will extend from sea to sea
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.

As Steve Thomason writes:

“The final thing I observe from Luke’s version of this story is that this is not a celebration for Jesus. The crowds don’t understand. Jesus weeps over the city because he knows that, very soon, their violent attitude toward Rome, and their need to bring in the kingdom of God through military revolution, would lead to their destruction. And that broke his heart.”

Another author, Jason Porterfield, in the book Fight Like Jesus, draws three fundamental lessons from the Palm Sunday story:

1. Christlike peacemakers move toward conflict rather than running away from it. “We must seek out those places where God’s shalom is painfully absent. Or to use imagery Jesus used elsewhere, we must become like salt rubbed into the moral decay of society. We must become like light shining in the darkness.”

2. Christlike peacemakers extend peace to all people, friend and foe, ally and enemy. :As Zechariah predicted, Jesus rode into Jerusalem intent on removing the weapons of war. He would take away the battle bow, chariot and warhorse. And in their stead, he modeled a new way of making peace.” 

3. Christlike peacemakers follow the way of the Lamb, and reject the way of the hammer. “Though they were enemies, Jesus’s admirers and Pilate’s army both believed in the power of the hammer to construct peace… Both embraced the world’s approach to peacemaking, and Jesus was confronting it head-on.”