Digging deeply into Virginia's crowded prisons and parole paractices

A local public radio station in Virginia now has available at this link a detailed look as corrections practices in the state.  The umbrella title for all the coverage is "Crowded Prisons, Rare Parole: A Five Part Series," and here are the subheadings and introductions for each part of the series:

• Part One: Virginia Has Lowest Parole Rate in the Nation:  It’s been more than 20 years since Virginia abolished parole, and over that time the prison population has grown to more than 30,000 people.  Just over 10% of them committed crimes before the law changed, so they’re still eligible for parole, but few of them are getting out, and the state now spends more than a billion dollars a year on prisons and correctional programs.

• Part Two: Secret Proceedings Offer Little Hope of Parole:  Virginia abolished parole in 1995, but people who committed crimes before then — more than 3,300 of them — are still eligible, and a board of five people decides who gets out.

• Part Three: Why the Parole Board Rarely Paroles: In a survey of 1,000 Virginians, 75% said the prison population is costing too much — nearly $28,000 per inmate per year. Two-thirds thought the correctional system should reinstate parole, allowing early release for those inmates who are unlikely to commit new crimes.  Even people who considered themselves conservative supported that idea by a margin of two to one.  Still, Republicans in the legislature oppose parole, and the board empowered to release people who were convicted before parole was abolished frees only a few inmates each year.

• Part Four: Paring Virginia's Prison Population: Last year, Governor McAuliffe set up a commission to explore the possibility of reinstating parole — a system of early release for prisoners who follow the rules and are unlikely to commit new crimes.  After months of hard work, the group decided not to make a recommendation.  Republicans in the legislature had already made it clear they would not support parole.  Instead, the commission issued a 50-page report on other ways to reduce its prison population.

• Conclusion: Five Years in Prison for Pot: Lawmakers who oppose liberalizing Virginia’s marijuana laws claim no one goes to jail for possessing small amounts of the drug, but a second offense or selling pot does put people in prison.  With four states now allowing businesses to profit from the sale of marijuana — and taxing those transactions, some Virginians now question the wisdom of spending nearly $28,000 a year to lock people up for using or even selling marijuana.