Critics’ fears about parole abolition fail to materialize

RICHMOND — Opponents of parole abolition in Virginia had argued that longer prison terms would increase the inmate population drastically and lead to an expensive prison-building frenzy.

Ten years later, the state has added seven prisons and about 8,000 inmates — a growth rate substantially lower than critics and even the General Assembly had expected.

The prison population has increased by nearly 30 percent since 1995, when parole abolition took effect, but the 35,429 inmates is far short of the 49,000 the Senate Finance Committee had predicted. Some critics had thought even that forecast was too low.

On an annual basis, the increases appear modest. The inmate census was unchanged in 1997. The biggest increase was 5.4 percent in 2002, according to the most recent Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) annual report.

“Sentencing reform and the abolition of parole did not have the dramatic impact on the prison population that some critics had once feared when the reforms were first enacted,” the report says.

The projected increases in the inmate population prompted a flurry of prison construction. Seven prisons with a total capacity for 8,210 inmates have opened since parole abolition, but none since 1999.

With prison space growing faster than the inmate population, the state leased vacant cells to the overcrowded prison systems of Connecticut and Texas until the number of Virginia prisoners caught up.

Officials say moving more nonviolent offenders into community correctional centers and alternative programs has helped control prison population growth. They also cite a decrease in violent crime as criminals are held behind bars longer.

“It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” Delegate Robert F. McDonnell, Virginia Beach Republican, said of parole abolition. “We’ve seen the recidivism rate go down and the overall crime rate go down.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the violent-crime rate in Virginia went from 361.5 crimes per 100,000 population in 1995 to 291.4 per 100,000 in 2002, the last year for which figures are available.

Mr. McDonnell said a strong economy contributed to the improvement, but he also would like to think parole abolition had an effect. He was a member of the commission that drafted the parole abolition and “truth-in-sentencing” legislation.

“It’s worked well because it was based on a fairly simple premise: Most serious crimes are committed by people between the ages of 18 and 32. If you make the penalties so harsh for a first offense for violent crime that they get taken out of circulation, by the time they get out they are older and less likely to commit a new crime,” Mr. McDonnell said.

Under the old discretionary parole system, many inmates served as little as one-fourth of their sentences. They now are required to serve at least 85 percent, and the average is about 91 percent, according to the DCJS report.

Before 1995, first-degree murderers served an average of 12.4 years if they had no previous violent offense and 14.7 years if they did have a record. Those averages have increased to 32.2 years and 46 years, respectively, the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission said.

Similar increases have occurred for other violent crimes.

Story Continues →