Some Virginia inmates could be released earlier, ACLU says
Some Virginia inmates could get earlier releases following a change in the way state corrections officials award enhanced credits for good behavior amid ongoing litigation and controversy about which inmates should get such benefits, the ACLU of Virginia said.
The Virginia Department of Corrections did not respond to questions about how many inmates may be affected by the change, which it revealed in court papers. But the ACLU of Virginia estimated that it could affect “potentially hundreds.”
The change comes after the civil rights organization sued Virginia’s governor, attorney general and corrections officials on behalf of a handful of inmates in separate suits, claiming its clients and thousands of other inmates were improperly denied enhanced credits promised by a 2020 law.
The inmates claim they were held months or years past when their sentences should have ended.
Advertisement
The VDOC said in a court filing in one of the lawsuits this week that it had released one of the ACLU of Virginia’s clients, Leslie Puryear. The VDOC said it was now awarding the new credits to Puryear and other inmates who had been convicted of attempting to commit aggravated murder, robbery or carjacking, or solicitation or conspiracy to commit those crimes.
The VDOC wrote in its filing that it was making the change following a Virginia Supreme Court ruling this summer in favor of one of the ACLU of Virginia’s other clients, Steven Patrick Prease. The court ordered the VDOC to release Prease, agreeing with the inmate’s argument that he should have been given the enhanced credits. Prease was convicted of attempted aggravated murder. The VDOC did not respond to requests for comment on the filing.
Vishal Agraharkar, a senior attorney with the ACLU of Virginia, wrote in an email that the new policy should have come sooner, but that it was welcome.
Advertisement
“This change represents a very belated recognition by VDOC that there are many people who never should have been excluded from expanded earned sentence credits, even under VDOC’s own faulty reasoning,” Agraharkar wrote. “While we are glad that Mr. Puryear is back with his family, there is no good reason to keep withholding earned sentence credits to many other people in its custody.”
Last year, in a controversial legal opinion, Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R) found that inmates convicted of attempted offenses should not receive the enhanced credits. The move came just weeks before hundreds of inmates were expecting to be released, upsetting them and their families.
Separately, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued a budget amendment to curtail the number of inmates who could take advantage of the benefit. The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled against an inmate who had challenged Youngkin’s move.
Advertisement
Youngkin and Miyares said that releasing the inmates early could lead to a spike in crime and that some inmates convicted of violent crimes should not get the credit. Some victims’ advocates expressed misgivings about the law, too. Miyares said the policy passed by the then-Democratically controlled legislature was misguided.
Miyares’s office declined to comment on the new policy or the filing in Puryear’s lawsuit, because the legal action is ongoing. The office filed a motion arguing that Puryear’s lawsuit, which was filed while he was still incarcerated, was now moot because he has been released.
Advocates for criminal justice reform and lawmakers who passed the new law said it incentivizes inmates to pursue new skills, drug counseling and other forms of rehabilitation. The new law increased the maximum number of days an inmate could earn off their sentence, from 4½ days a month to 15 days.
Earlier this month, another inmate who was denied the enhanced sentencing credit sued Miyares and the former head of corrections, seeking damages and arguing that he was held too long. That suit is ongoing.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLGkecydZK%2BZX2d9c3%2BOamhoamJkw6q%2BxqKlopldqLKvwMSnmqKml2Kws7HDoqusZaKauaat0p5koqadlsGmv44%3D