Virginia AG Opposes Sentence Reduction Bill

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has announced his opposition to an amendment to the state’s budget bill which gives sentence reductions to criminals, including violent criminals. Hans Bader of Liberty Unyielding reports that in a letter to the Democrat-controled legislature Miyares wrote,

“Cutting sentences for violent crime, especially in cases identified as a high risk for recidivism, is having a detrimental impact on public safety throughout Virginia,” Miyares wrote in the letter. “Aggressive sentence reductions for violent criminals and those with high risk for recidivism disregards past and future victims. Allowing such a practice is not justice, and it’s not safe.”

The  amendments to the budget proposals SB30 and HB30 expand the previous sentence reduction credits in order to increase the number of offenders who can be released from incarceration earlier than their original sentence.  Rebecca Barnabi, from The August Free Press, notes:

The Attorney General’s brief breaks down recidivism data from the legislation’s first full year, showing that:

• Inmates released under the enhanced earned sentence credits have a significantly higher recidivism rate than those under the previous program.
• In 2023, 2,725 enhanced earned sentence credit offenders were rearrested for new crimes, including three capital murders, eight first degree murders, four second degree murders, 48 abductions, and 28 rapes and other felony sexual assaults.
• 1,334 offenders released on enhanced earned sentence credits in 2023 have been convicted of a new crime or probation violation
  The EESC system forced the early release of 1,598 offenders categorized as a high risk for violent recidivism and 2,369 offenders categorized as a high risk for general recidivism.
• Over 50 percent of the offenders released through EESC and re-convicted had a high or medium risk of general recidivism and close to 50 percent also had a high or medium risk of violent recidivism.

Bader points out that the current biennial budget temporarily prohibits the application of enhanced sentence credits to inmates who were convicted of a mix of violent and nonviolent offenses in the same act or transaction. However, the temporary prohibition expires July 1, 2024, and without further action, 8,300 offenders would qualify to have their sentences reduced and 99.6 percent have been convicted of a violent felony according to Department of Corrections data.

Among the criminals who would benefit from these reductions, one third are serving their third prison term while 8.3% are serving their fourth term. A  U.S. Sentencing Commission study on recidivism released in 2022 exposed the fallacy that releasing habitual offenders early can be done without jeopardizing public safety. The study specifically examined the relationship between length of incarceration and recidivism. It is part of a larger multi-year recidivism study of more than 32,000 federal offenders and also serves as an update to a previously published report on incarceration length and recidivism. The first study examined federal offenders released in 2005, and the newer study replicated the analysis but with a cohort released in 2010. Recidivism was measured by re-arrest within eight years post-release. Results of both studies were almost identical, revealing that lengthier sentences were associated with decreased recidivism rates.

The study found that the odds of re-arrest were lower for offenders sentenced to more than 60 months of incarceration compared with a matched group of offenders who received shorter sentences. For people whose sentences ranged from five to ten years, the odds of re-arrest were 18% lower than comparable offenders who served shorter sentences. For people sentenced to ten years or more, the odds of re-arrest were 29% lower than comparable offenders with shorter sentences. The Sentencing Commission study utilized a large sample over several decades to support its findings, and the methodological framework was strong. This is the definition of good science.

No valid argument justifies releasing the vast majority of criminals early.  This is especially true for habitual offenders. Based upon the data, the only certainty is that when a state does this, more of its law abiding residents become victims.