ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120020
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: A. LEE HOLTON
THE COMMONWEALTH of Virginia has a major problem with prison overcrowding. That problem is drawing hundreds of millions of dollars from state coffers, and diverting money from education, services and other projects the citizenry should be able to expect of their tax dollars. Must Virginia build so many prisons so fast at such high cost?
Parole was abolished effective January 1995. The law abolishing parole and requiring offenders to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences was not made retroactive; it applies only to persons who commit crimes after Jan. 1, 1995. The rationale for this is that people should know the potential sentence for a crime before they commit it. This is, per Virginia lawmakers, a viable deterrent to criminal activity. However, persons who committed crimes prior to the effective date of this new law are being kept in prison as if the law were retroactive.
Eligible persons are being denied parole by the thousands because of the "serious nature and circumstance of their offense," per the Virginia Parole Board. People have committed crimes such as murder, rape and robbery, have become eligible for parole and are being denied not because they show institutional records of misbehavior, nor because psychological reports indicate they are "risk" cases, nor because of any sign of unreadiness for return to society, nor because the system taxpayers paid for failed, but because the crime committed was of a serious nature.
That is why Virginia imprisoned these people. Now, years later, they have served their sentences. The prison walls are bulging; the situation is far from cost-effective; the overcrowding is dangerous to innocents. Yet we are failing to release people for whom we have paid millions to be ready for that very release. Hundreds of counselors and professional psychologists have worked with prisoners for years to ensure Virginians that these people are ready.
Staggering cost now becomes horrifying cost because this work is treated as if it had all been for naught. Sometimes the denial of parole is for as long as three years. Meanwhile, we are paying for food, clothing, housing and continuing counseling/psychological services for prisoners who should be prisoners no longer.
E. Montgomery Tucker, chairman of the Parole Board, stated that if he erred in decision-making he would err on the side of public safety. It is not safe to have a publicly funded system out of balance. Balance was quite intelligently included with the nonretroactive aspect of parole abolition. It has been knocked out of kilter by real misapplication.
Persons who have been imprisoned for 10 years or more could not be responsible for any change in the crime rate during that period. Virginians are given to believe that keeping eligible persons confined reduces the crime rate. The logic is missing.
Several people very dear to me have been victimized by crime. Victims are recovered to the fullest extent possible when their assailants are dealt with rationally. A sentence that includes parole, if adhered to by all involved, allows victims to know the what and the when, and assists in recovery. Denial of parole "tough-on-crime, voters-of-Virginia" style frustrates the entire process.
We as a state abolished parole; it is a done deal addressing our present as well as our future. Virginians do not need to have our safety and well-being jammed down our throats for these to become important issues to us. To utilize my safety as rationale for a singular agenda is an affront. We voted via our legislators for a law and got the law we wanted, not one with a twist of unilateral expansion.
The manner in which the law has been expanded to include persons who should not be included is making a mockery of the hard work that went into the planning and implementing of parole abolition, and a good thing for Virginia is sold at what price? The answer is unsettling.
I am a tough-on-crime advocate. We do ourselves no favor when we abuse any people. U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, in a 1953 opinion wrote, "Law is at its finest moment when it frees [any person] from the unlimited discretion of [any authority of man]."
Discretionary parole is as fundamental an issue as freedom itself because of its link to freedom. It is law to be administered with the same fairness as any law.
Every day, I face the chance of being victimized. Wisdom tells me that I am more likely to be victimized by one whose leash I have jerked one time too many. It is very much my public safety I am concerned about. The results of misapplication of law are far worse than the alternative.
Mary Sue Terry was not voted into the governor's office, but Terry, former attorney general of Virginia, had it right when she said, "We need to review cases and find those prisoners who are eligible and ready for release and get them out of the system." Virginia has never had perfect government nor will it. Therefore, one of the qualities sought by voters is the willingness to admit mistakes and rectify them, thereby demonstrating the finest in leadership. We are a good, strong citizenry. We can overcome mistakes. We need not apply regressive rationale such as "serious nature and circumstance" to our prison system.
Denial of parole may be allowed by statute, but it is ill-conceived when applied in blanket fashion. Denying parole as we now are is hurting us financially, judicially and morally. Let us move on. Let the eligible prisoners scrounge out here with the rest of us honest workers and pay taxes, instead of bleeding us further. Virginia has an outstanding reputation among the 50 states of this nation. Let us not put that at risk, too. Virginia can do better, starting today.
A. Lee Holton is a literary agent and owns a travel service in Roanoke.
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