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| Recent parolee Paul Taylor, Virginia Parole Board Chair Adrianne Bennett, and Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran Photo courtesy Daniel Lin, Daily News-Record |
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Parole Discussion Draws Policymakers, Advocates
By MEGAN WILLIAMS Daily News-Record Dec 4, 2018
HARRISONBURG — A group of more than 20 stakeholders in the discussion of parole and parole reform met at James Madison University’s Festival and Conference Center on Tuesday, including Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and Virginia Parole Board Chair Adrianne Bennett.
Among those in attendance were professors, attorneys, concerned citizens, nonprofit advocates, local politicians, lawmakers and people recently paroled from prison.
The event was hosted by JMU Mahatma Gandhi Center’s Terry Beitzel and Harvey Yoder of the Valley Justice Coalition.
Paul Taylor, a former Newport News resident, and convicted killer, served 23 years in prison before being paroled 15 months ago. During his time in prison, he worked to facilitate programs to help other inmates transition back into society to lead productive lives.
“I couldn’t be a citizen on the outside so I decided to be a citizen on the inside,” Taylor told the group assembled at JMU.
Taylor said he saw men who needed hope and it was Bennett who told him that she was looking for people who could be her neighbor if paroled without feeling scared, and she counted Taylor among them.
“He’s been doing some great things, inside and out,” Bennett said.
Virginia abolished parole for felonies committed in 1995 or after. Now sentences handed down without years suspended must be served, with some discretion for good behavior.
According to the Virginia Department of Corrections, inmates convicted of a felony prior to 1996 are eligible for parole only under few conditions.
The Virginia Parole Board, at its discretion, may grant parole before the offender completes his or her sentence if it determines that an offender is suitable to be paroled and that his or her release is in the best interest of the public. Otherwise, mandatory parole requires offenders to be released six months before completion of his or her sentence.
A condition of Taylor’s parole included five months of intensive programming to help him get back into the community and manage his life, Bennett said.
In Virginia, only 22.4 percent of all prisoners who are released from prison are reincarcerated within three years. That’s the lowest in the nation, Moran said.
However, when it comes to recidivism for paroled felons, that number drops to 5 percent in Virginia. And when just looking at discretionary parolees, it’s only 1 percent, Bennett said.
In Virginia, there are 2,100 inmates convicted before parole was abolished in 1996 who are eligible for parole, Bennett said. In 2017, more than 300 inmates received discretionary parole, and, of those, two-thirds were younger than 60, she added.
“If we can safely release people before 60 they have a chance to have a life and be a part of society,” she said.
One issue that came up at Tuesday’s event included what are referred to as “Fishback cases,” referencing a 1999 case Fishback v. Commonwealth.
Local resident Latonya Cooper’s husband was given a decadeslong prison term after parole was abolished, but before a 2001 ruling that said juries had to be told that the sentences handed down were given without the possibility of parole. Until then, that information was not required to be shared with jury members.
Cooper said she believes her husband’s sentence would not have been so severe if the jury had known that he would not have the chance for parole.
“How do we know what was in the mind’s of that jury?” Moran asked of juries involved in “Fishback cases.”
At the end of the day, Moran said that he feels the goal of the Department of Corrections is corrections, and granting second chances.
Adding to that, Bennett said: “I do not believe the abolishing of parole has made our community any safer. It just creates a lack of hope of getting out.”
Contact Megan Williams at 574-6272, @DNR_Learn or mwilliams@dnronline.com
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