Letters To The Editor: Report Underestimates Parole-Eligible Inmates

Report Underestimates Parole-Eligible Inmates
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Your news story, "Eligible Inmates Being Held Longer," summarizes the recent report of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission (VCSC). The article indicates that by the end of 2008 more than 21 percent of those eligible for parole in Virginia had already served longer than they would have served under today's no-parole sentencing guidelines regime.

While significant, this number actually understates the problem, because the report overstates the time served under today's guidelines. It relies on the "high end" of those guidelines, even though (according to VCSC's 2008 annual report), "judges, overall, have favored the lower portion" of those guidelines. The report assumes that judges never exercise their discretion to run sentences concurrently rather than consecutively. And it ignores earned sentence credits, by which those sentenced under the guidelines receive (according to that report) on average an 11 percent reduction of their sentence.

In 2008, the Virginia Parole Board continued to have (at 5 percent) what appears to be by far the lowest parole grant rate in the United States. In an overwhelming number of cases, the board justifies repeated annual denials of parole by reference to nothing other than an offense that occurred at least 14 years ago, despite the expectation of sentencing judges (as noted by Del. David Albo in your article) that parole would be a realistic option for those who change course.

The board has also rendered geriatric release a dead letter, by requiring "compelling reasons" for releasing inmates over 60. VCSC's report is further evidence of the need to reform this unnecessary warehousing of inmates, at a time when our budget can no longer afford it. As Sen. Jim Webb has written, "We need leaders who understand that true discipline in a society is measured not by how many people are in jail but by how many people are functioning productively as law-abiding citizens." Carla Peterson, Director, Virginia Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants.


Alexandria.

Can Virginia Qualify For Foreign Aid?
Editor, Times-Dispatch: It is difficult not to remember the last time I drove Interstate 95 or 295 and hit not only a rough road but potholes as well. It is difficult not to remember when the state had all the rest stops open. Because of the lack of federal and state transportation funds, the roads are not repaired and the rest stops remain closed.

In Afghanistan, the United States has built or repaired 932 miles of road at an expense of $372 million. When you hit a pothole on I-295, remember that our government has just approved another expenditure of $3.8 million to build 7.5 miles of additional road in Afghanistan. Don't worry when your automobile's front end has to be repaired because of the damage caused by the bad roads; your tax dollars are being wisely spent on repairing the Afghan roads instead.

Something is wrong with this picture. If our government has the transportation money to spend on foreign road-building, why can't we be first in getting decent roads? Maybe Virginia should enroll in the U.S. Agency for International Development program and receive some of the allocated funds!

Robert L. Vidrick Sr.
Mechanicsville.

They made a public show of chastising corporate executives whose corporations received TARP funds for utilizing private jets for travel. Yet congressmen and -women routinely travel on military aircraft to locations that are readily accessible by commercial air -- to the extent that they have proposed acquiring five more executive aircraft for their use. The speaker of the House routinely reserves military aircraft for travel to and from her district.

The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee received a preferential rate on his personal mortgage, but remains in his post after being gently admonished by his colleagues. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (which writes tax legislation) admitted that he failed to report rental income and that he understated personal assets -- including a checking account with a balance of approximately $250,000. He remains in his post while an ethics investigation is stalled.

These people are routinely re-elected. Have we lost our collective minds? J.B. Williamson. Richmond.