HARD TIME VIRGINIA Vol. 7, No. 1 an occasional newsletter by and for Virginians in prison

To what extent is our criminal justice system recognizing and rewarding the hard work many are putting into correcting their behavior and demonstrating they have been rehabilitated? And to what extent is the Virginia Department of Correction, the largest department in the Commonwealth, fulfilling its own stated mission, vision and values? 

Mission 

We are in the business of helping people to be better by safely providing effective incarceration, supervision and evidence-based re-entry services to inmates and supervisees. 

Vision

A premier correctional organization where all individuals achieve their full potential.

Values 

Citizenship Commitment Communication Ethics Honesty Learning Support

Editor's Note: Some opinions by incarcerated persons below are edited for brevity or clarity.

For the past 33 years I have exceeded what was asked of me. I have been steadily employed in three Enterprise Shops, spent six years as a teacher's aide, worked the main laundry at Lawrenceville, and have been a law library clerk, a houseman and a sports official. I have completed four vocational treatment programs, volunteered as a mentor in the reentry program, participated in Education Straight and paid for classes to complete my Associates Degree. I have had an attorney represent me to the parole board since 2010. In 2015 and 2016 I had a commitment from Outreach for Christ in Virginia Beach to provide me with a job and transition assistance. Yet this year I was denied release for the 16th time.

I'm 66 years old and will never be able to work at a public job where I will be able to use the skills I have learned here. And until they start giving the new law inmates (not eligible for parole) something to work for they aren't going to work those programs because they have a release date, and nothing can keep them from leaving when that time comes. I've seen young guys leave here who couldn't even write their own names. When I look around and see the word "rehabilitation," to me it's a joke because they are so understaffed here and there are so many officers who do not or will not do their job to help bring these young guys under control. If you all saw and knew what I know you probably wouldn't believe it. But spiritually I'm doing fantastic because I know what side of the fence I'm on and I enjoy living a godly life with evil all around, but none of it comes near me, praise God! 

Seems like no matter what I do to better myself or how much other people try to help by writing letters, offering me a place to live and a job, and even if some in the administration try to help me make parole, it doesn't do any good. But I am doing well and good, so I will keep pressing and praying, but I don't think I'm going to write to the Parole Board anymore... Recently two men here passed away, one had colon cancer, the other prostate cancer. They should should have been allowed to go home to die.

I just finished chemo and radiation for throat cancer and had to give up my paint job here. I typed up a nice 14-page parole plan that I sent to the members, with a home plan of running our family farm and taking care of my 91-year-old parents. I wrote three pages about my time, crime and responsibility and seven pages of vocational courses completed, plus ten college courses, Bible studies, teaching vocational school, taking ten college courses and reading over 600 books on medical, horticultural and pharmacognosy, and would like to become a certified herbalist. I have nine more years to max out. My parents will be dead and gone, or 100 years old and in a nursing home.

I was sentenced to life in prison for a murder I committed as a teenager. Now as an aging man in my 60's it is only the faith in God that I found in prison that has kept me from despair. For a long time I held on because of my parents. For almost 33 years my mom always made sure she and my dad came to visit, and he was there for me until he died. So out of 43 years of incarceration I had only one or both of my parents for 39 years, but I have other close relatives who don't seem to even know I exist. But when I began to give up hope some people from Aging Persons in Prison once again gave me hope that someone cared for me, even though I may not get the freedom I so hopefully long for. It hurts to know some people who committed the same crime as adults that I did as a foolish teenager have been released on parole.

The VDOC is permitting for-profit companies such as Keefe Commissary Network, JPay, Inc., Global Tel*Link, Armor, and others to price gouge us. VADOC should not be getting commissions/kickbacks for inmate purchases. Staff should be required to eat the exact same meals as inmates with the same cooks. This would ensure healthier and more nutritious meals.

An official 1/24/22 report states that 1489 State Responsible (SR) inmates and 633 staff members were COVID-19 positive; 58 SR inmates and 5 staff members died of COVID. I have not heard of a memorial for these individuals. If more deserving persons would have been granted Discretionary, Geriatric, or Fishback parole release or have been pardoned, some of these SR inmates would still be alive, I'm sure of it, especially the medically vulnerable inmates such as myself. I am a COVID-19 long hauler and I have pulmonary fibrosis and neurological damage in my extremities. I also now have severe sleep apnea and I'm pre-diabetic. COVID Code Red or Yellow housing units were not single cells. At BKCC men are crowded in a prison that was designed around 1982 and built to house only one inmate per cell and 32 inmates per housing unit. BKCC has 20 housing units with 32 cells in each and a majority are double bunked. Many older steel and concrete prisons like ours don't have air-conditioning units in the housing or work areas.

Pay for work by inmates has remained the same for decades while commissary prices continue to increase with inflation. Skilled workers get ¢0.45 an hour, semi-skilled workers ¢0.35, and unskilled workers ¢0.27. And we are not typically allowed only 30 hours of work per week. 

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Final Editor's Note: I applaud the aspirations and the efforts of all of the people in the agency who are trying to help VADOC's mission, vision and values become a reality. But given the lack of adequate funding and the resulting difficulty in hiring and retaining the staff needed, along with public sentiment that is strongly pro-punishment, there is clearly a lot that remains to be done.

Harvey Yoder, editor