• The annual taxpayer cost for Virginia of increasing incarceration rates exceeds $125 million, after adjusting for inflation. Total incarceration costs have increased by over $1 billion since 2000, after adjusting for inflation and population growth.
• At the end of 2007, Virginia was fourth in the country in the percentage of the corrections population behind bars and 46th in the use of lower cost community supervision alternatives.
• Virginia was eighth highest in the country in the growth of the incarceration rate between 2000 and 2008.
• Virginia’s imprisonment rate in 2008 of 489 per 100,000 residents was thirteenth nationally and nine percent higher than the national average of 445 for all states. Virginia’s crime rates per 100,000 residents in 2008 ranked 42nd in violent crimes and 40th in property crimes.
• Average crime rates declined by 12 percent between 2000 and 2008 for 25 states that decreased or only slightly increased incarceration rates. In Virginia crime rates declined nine percent between 2000 and 2008. During the same period the 25 highest incarcerating states showed a decline of ten percent. Initiatives including effective programs by local police forces, local citizens and communities appear to have reduced crime rates across the country regardless of incarceration trends.
• Virginia CURE suggests that sentencing reform with less reliance on incarceration and more investment in community based programs and alternative methods of punishment would result in more effective criminal justice policies, lower taxpayer costs and maintain, or even improve public, safety.

Good News! Both the Crack Cocaine bill and the National Criminal Justice Commission Act Passed!

From the Sentencing Project:

HISTORIC REFORM: Congress Lowers Penalties for Crack Cocaine

• House approves Senate compromise on suspension calendar

• 3,000 defendants would benefit from sentencing changes each year

After decades of debate, research and recommendations, the United States Congress has approved legislation to increase fairness in sentences for crack cocaine offenses. The House of Representatives today passed, under a suspension of the rules, a bill passed by the Senate in March which would reduce the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. The bill now awaits the President's signature.

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 would raise the minimum quantity of crack cocaine that triggers a 5-year mandatory minimum from 5 grams to 28 grams, and from 50 grams to 280 grams to trigger a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence. The amount of powder cocaine required to trigger the 5 and 10-year mandatory minimums remains the same, at 500 grams and 5 kilograms respectively. The legislation also eliminates the mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack cocaine. The quantity disparity between crack and powder cocaine would move from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1.

The Sentencing Project has long advocated for the complete elimination of the sentencing disparity that has doled out excessive and harsh penalties, and created unwarranted racial disparity in federal prisons. Currently, 80% of crack cocaine defendants are African American, and possession of as little as 5 grams of crack cocaine subject defendants to a mandatory five-year prison term. For decades the controversial cocaine sentencing law has exemplified the disparate treatment felt in communities of color and the harshness of mandatory minimum sentences.

According to estimates from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the approved changes to the current penalties for crack cocaine offenses could impact nearly 3,000 defendants a year by reducing their average sentence 27 months. The Commission projects that 10 years after enactment the changes could produce a prison population reduction of about 3,800.

For people currently serving time for low-level crack cocaine offenses, the bill's passage will not impact their fate. The Sentencing Project urges Congress, the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the President to apply the sentencing adjustments mandated in the Fair Sentencing Act retroactively.

House Approves National Criminal Justice Commission Act

• Nation's Entire Criminal Justice System One Step Closer to Getting Comprehensive Review

The House of Representatives today passed legislation that would establish a national commission to conduct a thorough evaluation of the nation's justice system and offer recommendations for reform in a range of areas, including sentencing policy, rates of incarceration, law enforcement, crime prevention, substance abuse, corrections and reentry.

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010, H.R. 5143, passed by voice vote under a suspension of the rules. The bipartisan legislation, introduced by Reps. William Delahunt (D-MA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Tom Rooney (R-FL) and Robert "Bobby" Scott (D-VA), now awaits passage in the Senate where it was introduced by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA).

The bipartisan commission created by this legislation would establish an organized and proactive approach to studying and advancing programs and policies that promote public safety, while overhauling those practices that are found to be fundamentally flawed. The "blue-ribbon" commission would be charged with conducting an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the nation's entire criminal justice system and offer concrete recommendations for reform.

With 2.3 million people in prisons and jails, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The Sentencing Project is concerned about overly punitive approaches to non-violent and low-level offenses that have overcrowded U.S. prisons and jails. Too often, men, women and youth suffering from drug addiction and/or mental illness find themselves incarcerated because of inadequate levels of community-based services.

 

 

Thanks to the Sentencing Project for this Notice and thanks to all who contacted their congresspersons!

Governor Bob McDonnell has granted restoration of civil rights for 506 of 574 felons who submitted eligible applications. There were over a thousand applicants but many were ineligible for various reasons.

The full story is reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Carla Peterson and Josephine Starks represented Virginia CURE by attending Gov. McDonnell's bill signing and press conference today. Other CURE members attended this and the hearing on the class action suit against the Parole Board.

The Governor's program is described in an article in the Richmond Times Dispatch