Guest Post: After Promising Hard Earned Releases, Virginia State Lawmakers Renege

The following Open Forum piece was submitted the the Daily News-Record by Debra Turner, a member of the Valley Justice Coalition, and is posted here with her kind permission: 

Last week's decision is a hard blow to some 500 incarcerated men and
women and their families.

Everyone likes to save money on car insurance.  

Sounds like the opening to a commercial, but it actually describes well the philosophy behind the Earned Sentence Credits Bill passed in 2020. The insurance company offers you lower rates as long as you drive safely and obey the rules of the road. The State of Virginia lowers the sentence time of those with nonviolent offenses when they remain infraction free and improve themselves by participating in programs. Both policies help keep us safe and everyone benefits.

 In 2020 during a special session, a bipartisan group of legislators devised legislation to incentivize those with nonviolent crimes to improve themselves for an earlier release.  These individuals would eventually be released anyway so why not incentivize them to participate in programs, hold a job, and in general stay out of trouble and come home better citizens. In order to give VADOC time to update its databases and prepare, Governor Northam amended the bill so that it wouldn’t take effect until July 1, 2022.

Then came the Virginia State elections in the fall of 2021 and there was a change in the political makeup of the House of Delegates and every top political office including that of governor. Before the law could even take effect, in 2022 members of the House of Delegates entered bills to either exclude more people from the original bill or to repeal the bill entirely.  These bills passed in the House, but didn’t even make it out of the Senate committees.  In the normal legislative process this should have been the end of the story for this legislative session.

After the 2022 General Assembly adjourned, final steps were taken to bring home those who had worked for two years to improve themselves, stay out of trouble, and earn an earlier release. Those who were eligible were notified and given a release date.  Family and friends made plans to help their loved ones come home. Home plans were approved, jobs were found, applications for driver’s licenses were filled out.  Weddings were planned, reunions set up, and fathers and grandparents were in joyous anticipation of seeing children after many years or for the first time.

About 500 of those scheduled to be released have what are called mixed charges. They have completed their sentences for violent offenses that did not qualify for the ESC Bill but were also serving consecutive sentences for nonviolent offenses that did qualify. Members of the House of Delegates persuaded the governor to use a nonconventional way to block legislation it was unable to block through the normal legislative process of the 2022 General Assembly session. The Governor was persuaded to enter a budget amendment that would exclude those with these mixed charges. But Virginia doesn’t legislate through the budget. There is a legislative process followed for a reason. It’s called democracy.

Friday evening Senator Mark Obenshain rose before the Senate body to urge members to deny early release to people who had worked in good faith for two years to improve themselves, fully expecting the legislative process to honor the promises made in 2020.  As Senator Boysko pointed out, “We cannot create a system of reform if the people we govern cannot trust the laws we have set in place.” Senator Obenshain’s repeated claim that “murderers and rapists” would be given reduced sentences is completely false. They have served their full sentence for the crimes which are not eligible for the ESC Bill. But as Senator Morrissey pointed out, Obenshain’s statements are “a great soundbite and a great commercial, but it’s not what they are doing.”

The news of the cruel reality that they are not coming home this summer as promised is quickly being spread through the facilities and to loved ones. They feel anger, disbelief and betrayal by a system they trusted to honor the commitments made to them. They kept their end of the bargain. They did everything required of them so they could come home just a little earlier to their loved ones. Sadly, the Virginia Legislature has sacrificed its honor for the benefit of a political soundbite.