Virginia Parole System Scrutinized After Covid Missteps

But she also pointed to the haphazard nature of the release as part of the system’s way of addressing coronavirus outbreak concerns as the virus spread rapidly in prisons in Virginia and across the country. 

“Unusual circumstances created during early responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with a transition in VPB leadership in mid-April, highlighted several areas in policy, procedure, and Virginia Code that required additional clarity to improve the VPB’s 21-day notification process,” she said. 

Still, for family members of victims, any kind of release, let alone a flawed one, reopens old wounds. 

“The reason I have been able to live my life as fully as I have is because a serial killer that raped and murdered my sister and four other women is behind bars,” Sarah McClelland told the Roanoke Times in August when the GOP senators’ effort was up for debate during a recent special session. “How would I be able to feel safe in my community knowing that this monster who has never expressed remorse was free to roam the streets to kill again?”

But those who’ve been on the punitive side of the Virginia justice system see things differently. 

“Those of us with violent offenses, we didn’t see a lot of hope but we still pressed forward to improve ourselves,” said Willie Brown, a formerly incarcerated Virginian who entered the system at age 14 after he was accused of murder. He attempted to escape during his trial which led to the death of a prison guard, compounding his offense. 

He entered prison in 1983 and was finally released in 2018 thanks to a release program spearheaded by Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat. Brown said he spent his 35 years and 11 months trying to improve himself and worked with younger newly incarcerated folks to try and help them get on the straight and narrow. 

“Older prisoners told me you have to go out better than when you came in so you can help your family when you're out some day,” he said, noting he left two children at home when he was locked up. 

Since his release Brown has stayed the course and used his experience in the parole system to advocate for those still inside.

Since his release Brown has used his experience with the parole system to take on a leadership role with the National Action Network, a group that specializes in advocating for those still inside, where he chairs the Criminal Justice Committee.

He might be in luck as criticism over the state’s parole system is not a single party issue, however the end goals are quite different. 

Democrats have long taken issue with the programs near abolition, signed into law by  Republican Governor George Allen in 1994 as part of a nationwide “truth in sentencing” effort which required inmates to serve large majorities of their sentences as opposed to an earned good-time release program that existed previously. 

The new system led to rapidly increased incarceration rates, tax-payer funded prison projects, and lasting impacts on those, sometimes in their teens like Brown, who were burdened with seemingly endless sentences. 

“We’re a nation of second chances, and people ought to have a second chance,” Senator John Edwards of Roanoke told the Washington Post in defense of his effort, after submitting legislation earlier this year that aimed to roll back the 25-year-old ban. 

The effort failed, but another bill that addressed so-called Fishback parole. This program — named after the plaintiff in a Virginia Supreme Court opinion that addressed those sentenced to life after parole’s abolition but without proper jury instruction — passed. 

In an email, Chapman said Virginia’s Department of Corrections had identified 549 inmates eligible under the new Fishback law but only 14 have been granted parole “thus far” since Northam signed the effort into law in April.

Energy to address the system more broadly exists in the House as well. Delegate Jay Jones, a Norfolk Democrat, who’s gunning for the state’s attorney general’s chair next year, has a unique connection to the effort. His father, Delegate Jerrauld Jones, was in the Legislature in the '90s when parole was abolished, but the senior Jones voted against it. 

“My father had serious concerns about the policy, but also with the money being spent,” he said, pointing to the millions of dollars spent on a handful of prisons the state built in the wake of parole’s demise. 

And despite the failure of Senator Edwards’ effort, the junior Jones is hopeful the 2021 session will open the door to real parole reform for the first time. 

“Now, more than 25 years on, I think it's worth examining reinstating,” he said.

But any such effort is sure to be met with pushback from both chambers’ Republican members. 

“Sentences should be upheld by what the jury or judge made,” said Suetterlein. “The folks being kept locked up have done some of the most serious crimes.”

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, was unsurprised by the right’s effort to hammer Northam and Democrats over the board’s missteps. 

“Politically, it’s worked well for them in the past,” he said, pointing to the years with former Governor Allen in charge and the decades of GOP control that followed. He also said parolees are not exactly sympathetic subjects to most voters. Combine that with modern political tribalism and the parole boards errors and you get a perfect open wound for the minority party to pour salt on. 

And as for any parole-reform efforts from either side actually making it to Northam’s desk in 2021, a year when all 100 of the state’s House of Delegates seats are up for grabs, Farnsworth is less optimistic there, too. 

“The difficulty of legislating in an election year is apparent to both incumbent parties,” he said about the dangers of taking bold steps when your district seat is on the line. “Fuller resolution of both parties’ agenda items in this area will probably wait till 2022 when seats aren’t up for grabs.” 

Virginia legislators start their 2021 General Assembly Session Jan. 13, 2021.

Follow @@BradKutner

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit