RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia's enhanced earned sentence credits program is facing scrutiny as victims' families join Attorney General Jason Miyares in calling for reform, while supporters defend the initiative as an effective rehabilitation tool.
Before 2020, offenders in Virginia were required to serve 85% of their sentences. However, a law passed by the General Assembly and signed by former Governor Ralph Northam changed this requirement, allowing inmates to earn up to 180 days off their sentence for each year served, effectively reducing their time to about 66% of the original sentence.
Democratic lawmakers note they modeled this approach after similar initiatives in conservative states like Texas, believing it provides important incentives for rehabilitation.
"While you're in prison, you do everything you're told, you also engage in certain programs to show that you're trying to get yourself educated and prove yourself," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax. "You don't violate any rules, then you can earn credit towards getting time off."
At a press conference Tuesday, Attorney General Miyares stood alongside family members of crime victims, expressing strong opposition to the program.
"We got rid of truth in sentencing for the early release of violent offenders," Miyares said, arguing that statistics support keeping violent offenders in prison for their full sentences.
Among those speaking was Mindy Applewhite. Her daughter Lindsey Braun, a nurse practitioner at VCU Health System, was killed in South Richmond by a reckless driver in July 2023. The driver had been released from prison early and had pending felonies at the time of the crash but was free on supervision.
"On July 31st this violent felon chose to drive in a reckless manner and hit my daughter as she was pulling out of her street. It ultimately took our daughter's life and changed our family's lives forever," Applewhite said. "I worked for the system. I said it couldn't be me. I protected everybody but it came home and it took my daughter. So until somebody in the General Assembly, whether Democrat or Republican, until they lose a loved one and understand what we are going through, I don't know what else can happen."
Defenders of the program acknowledge the tragedy but maintain the system works overall.
"The Attorney General likes to pick one-off situations and I'm sorry if the woman's family suffered injury because someone got let out, not everyone that comes out obeys the law, but earned sentence on balance is shown to work," said Surovell.
According to Virginia statistics, in 2023, 9,638 inmates were released early, with 49.8% rearrested that same year. For the first half of 2024, over 7,000 early releases have occurred with a 35.5% reoffending rate.
Miyares characterized these figures as a "reprehensible recidivism rate."
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