by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Eligible incarcerated people in Virginia will be able to further reduce their sentences through an earned sentence credit program beginning this July. 

While expansions to the program stemmed from a 2020 law, it had a delayed start date in 2022 that was later blocked by Gov. Glenn Youngkin through language in a previous state budget. A renewed attempt by the Youngkin administration to block the expansions this year did not make it through final negotiations in the budget that the governor and lawmakers agreed on this week. 

Earned sentence credits allow incarcerated people to trim the length of time they serve behind bars; they earn the credits by completing various educational and training programs. The expanded program allows certain inmates to earn 15 days of credits for every 30 days served. 

“Thanks to the new biennial budget, thousands of people will finally receive the credits they have worked for years to earn while in prison,” Chris Kaiser, a policy director at Virginia’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. 

In addition to the governor’s attempts to block the expanded program, Republican lawmakers also previously sought to repeal the expansions unsuccessfully over the years. 

Virginia’s ACLU  sued the Department of Corrections on behalf of inmates who had been expected to be among the first wave of people released in 2022, prior to Youngkin’s budget language that impeded the program. 

Youngkin again included the language in the budget for this year. His efforts were bolstered by Attorney General Jason Miyares, who wrote a letter to lawmakers in support of keeping the limits. 

In it, Miyares argued that expanding the credit system “disregards past and future victims.” 

“Allowing such a practice is not justice, and it’s not safe,” he wrote. 

Advocates for the credits argue otherwise. 

“Virginia is safer because we give incarcerated people an incentive to rehabilitate themselves,” Kaiser said in his recent statement following the budget passage. 

Former ACLU policy strategist Shawn Weneta echoed Kaiser. He added that he and members of criminal justice reform organizations are pleased the 2020 law can take effect this July. 

It’s not the only change in state law that incarcerated people and their families might look forward to. Weneta and others worked with lawmakers in both parties to adjust Virginia’s parole board operations. 

More parole board transparency

While the earned sentence credit program can help eligible inmates reduce time spent behind bars, a limited scope of people can seek parole through approval by the state’s parole board. 

If granted, people can serve the remainder of their sentences outside of prison as long as they meet with their parole officer and do not reoffend. Since Virginia eliminated most parole in 1995, a limited number of people qualify — such as elderly inmates. 

Meanwhile, Virginia has had one of the lowest rates of granting parole in the country. In recent years the board has also had vacancies and lacked the quorum needed to grant certain parole petitions. 

“Youngkin has not been quick to appoint people nor has the General Assembly been receptive to Youngkin’s appointments,” Weneta said. 

For example, new parole board chair Patricia West, a Youngkin appointee, had originally been blocked by a Senate committee earlier this year before the full Senate approved her appointment. 

Meanwhile, two laws will take effect on July 1 that could help the board operate amid future vacancies and allow increased public insight into its operations.

House Bill 913 by Del. Irene Shin, D-Fairfax, allows for the board to still vote to grant parole to petitioners if at least three of the four necessary members are present to do so. 

Senate Bill 1361 by Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania and former Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, will require the board to meet with petitioners in order to vote. Previously, inmates have not been present but now the board will vote on granting their petition or not through an in-person or virtual meeting. The law passed the legislature last year but had a delayed start date of July 1, 2024. 

Weneta said the new law can give petitioners and their families some peace of mind going through the process. 

Additionally, the law increases transparency by requiring the board to hold public hearings and publish more frequent and detailed reports on its decisions. 

Reeves said he was first inspired to collaborate with Morrissey on the bill to increase transparency following a spike in parole releases at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A 2023 report from Miyares’ office asserted that the Gov. Ralph Northam-era board had violated policy when releasing more people in that time, but that the statute of limitations had passed and the former chair of the board, Adrienne Bennett, could not be prosecuted.

Reeves said that he figured more insight into the board’s operations and decisions could benefit everyone, from parole petitioners, to victims of crime.

“I think transparency and daylight is probably the best thing we can do,” Reeves said.

He added that working on the bill in a bipartisan manner was a way to subdue the partisanship that has surrounded the parole board in recent years.

“That’s I think what we did,” he said. “And I think that’s why it passed and I think that’s why people are comfortable with it.”

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