Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaking with reporters outside the Capitol Building on March 7, 2024. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin is doing an about-face on a budget proposal he agreed to last year that expanded the amount of credits incarcerated people with good behavior can earn to shorten their prison sentences.
Earned sentence credits allow incarcerated people to trim the length of time they serve behind bars by earning the credits through completing various educational and training programs while maintaining good behavior. A 2020 law expanded the program to allow certain inmates to earn 15 days of credits for every 30 days served. The program’s start date was delayed and, once Youngkin became governor in 2022, he blocked it through a previous budget amendment. A few GOP lawmakers also unsuccessfully sought to repeal it.
Groups and families celebrate implementation of law allowing early release for certain inmates
In the summer 2024 amid prolonged budget negotiations, Youngkin finally permitted the measure to take effect.
About 800 people who’d earned credits were released last July, such as Richmond-area resident Jeffrey Joyner. He immediately began looking for work, with hopes to someday own his own landscaping business. In the meantime, he’s enjoyed spending time with his sister and nephews while getting back on his feet. He’s made sure his teenage nephew stays on top of his homework and hopes he can role model hard work for them.
Joyner had spent some of his younger years in jail a few times before eventually landing in prison for armed robbery. Back then, he was addicted to drugs, which he said made him do things he never would have done in order to afford them. During his years in prison, he grew his faith in God and enthusiasm for the world beyond bars.
Now, his nephews get to see him embark on new chapters of life.
“I feel like this is such a restart for me. My way of thinking has changed. I’m not going back,” Joyner told The Virginia Mercury in an interview last fall, a few months after his release.
Criminal justice reform advocates stress that experiences like Joyner’s help reduce prison populations (and taxpayer dollars spent on them), bolster the workforce and reunite families.
Youngkin’s current proposed budget amendments include a provision to reduce the credits from 15 to 4.5 for each 30 days served on a sentence. Youngkin had been able to block the credit expansion from being fully implemented before conceding to it in last year’s budget.
His spokesperson, Christian Martinez, said in a text that Youngkin “continues to express serious concerns about this program and its impact on victims and public safety across the Commonwealth.”
It’s a concern shared by Attorney General Jason Miyares, who has routinely opposed the earned sentence credit expansions and requested the governor block their implementation. As groups celebrated the program taking full effect last summer, he issued a statement that cautioned about the chance for people to re-offend.
“I believe in redemption and am a strong proponent for helping our returning citizens re-enter society to live productive lives,” Miyares wrote. “However, aggressive retroactive sentence reductions for violent criminals with a high risk of recidivism undermines our justice system and disregards victims.”
As Youngkin revives opposition to the program this year, it’s unlikely that the measure will survive budget negotiations. Democrats, who have been more amenable to earned sentence credits, control both the House and Senate chambers.
With Miyares seeking a second term as the state’s top attorney this year, pressing the matter may feature among his campaign promises. As attorney general, he has used the influence of his office to advocate against various other criminal justice reforms in the state legislature.
Virginia’s 2025 legislative session begins Jan. 8 and runs through the end of February. This means that lawmakers will spend the next two months deliberating proposed legislation and eventually collaborating with Youngkin on state budget amendments.
Chris Kaiser, a policy director at Virginia’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter, noted how previous years of “robust debate” over earned sentence credits has already occurred.
“The (legislature) determined that it’s good policy for public safety, it’s good policy for the state’s economy, and we hope it’s a non-starter this year again.”
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