VA- Some prisoners elibible for parole held longer than guidelines suggest

9-5-2009 Virginia:

Some 706 parole-eligible inmates are being been held longer in Virginia prisons, at $24,332 each per year, than recommended under the current no-parole sentencing guidelines.

In a report to the General Assembly on Tuesday, the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission also found that as of the end of last year, there were 575 prison inmates eligible for geriatric release.

However, the report also found that of the parole-eligible inmates still in prison, 88 percent were convicted of violent crimes and nearly 80 percent have not yet served longer than stipulated under the sentencing guidelines.

Inmates who committed crimes before Jan. 1, 1995, are eligible for parole. Those who committed crimes on or after that date are not -- they are sentenced under guidelines based, in part, on the terms actually served by inmates under the old parole system.

Inmates and advocates have complained that because of low parole grant rates, many parole-eligible inmates are being held in prison longer than if they had been sentenced under what are widely perceived to be the tougher, nonparole guidelines.

Jean Auldridge, president of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants-Virginia, said the report "gives us hard data that shows a significant number of prisoners have served longer than the recommendations in the sentencing guidelines."

She said her group had suspected as much and had been urging such a study.

But Helen Fahey, the parole board chairwoman, assisted in the study and said the findings were not surprising.

She said judges sentence within the guidelines in 80 percent of all cases, but when judges impose sentences tougher than recommended by the guidelines, the reasons they give are similar to the concerns of the parole board when it considers releases, she said.

State Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, a lawyer, said that when an attorney reached a plea deal with prosecutors under the old parole law, everyone had an idea of how long someone actually would serve for a given sentence. Ten years might really mean three, he said.

But, he added, when parole ended for new crimes and the parole board's grant rate remained low, there was some concern some of the "old law" inmates "were serving a lot more time than anybody ever intended."

"What the study was looking at was how many people were serving more had they pled under the sentencing guidelines," said Albo, vice chairman of the Virginia State Crime Commission.

State Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax and co-chair of the Virginia State Crime Commission, said a primary reason for seeking the study is "to save every dime we can, consistent with public safety." The state's budget crisis has had officials consider, among other things, the early release of some nonviolent offenders.

Howell said yesterday that she only has skimmed the report and said it will be studied closely by lawmakers.

The study found 3,735 inmates among the state's roughly 38,000 prisoners who are serving time only for parole-eligible crimes (some are in prison under both oldand new-law sentences). The commission was able to assign sentencing-guideline scores to 3,341 of them.

However, the commission report said that not all of the relevant factors could be taken into account. "For offenders serving an unusually long period of time in prison, there may be one or more aggravating circumstances not addressed by the guidelines," the report says.

For example, of the 80 parole-eligible drug offenders serving longer terms than would be required now, three out of four already had been revoked from parole at least once, and one-third had two or more parole revocations.

Other factors that could not be considered in the study included inmate behavior behind bars, victim input, or other crimes for which there are no sentencing guidelines.

Of the 706 parole-eligible inmates held longer than recommended under current guidelines, 58 were given life sentences; seven had two or more life sentences; 10 were sentenced to at least 100 years; and 10 have not reached their earliest parole eligibility date and so cannot yet be considered for parole.

Almost 300 of the 706 had served less than five years longer than guideline-recommended sentences; 246 had served five to 10 years; 125 more than 10 years; and 12 more than 20 years.

The geriatric-release provision was enacted as part of the 1994 reforms that included the end of parole and the creation of the guidelines. An inmate convicted of a noncapital felony who is at least 60 and has served 10 years; or 65, having served five years; is eligible.

However, Fahey said, "they are almost all violent criminals -- they're predominantly murderers and sex offenders. . . . They're not in there for stealing cars or writing bad checks." ..Source.. by Frank Green