Virginia prison leaders wrongly kept people past release dates, federal lawsuit alleges

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Virginia’s Department of Corrections is facing a federal class-action lawsuit from a man who claims he was imprisoned more than a year past his expected release date because it incorrectly applied a law – a case his attorney says could impact hundreds.

Leslie Puryear was convicted of conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary, use of a firearm in a felony, accessory after the fact and attempted robbery. With his convictions suspended apart from attempted robbery and use of a firearm charge, Puryear was sentenced to 18 years in 2011.

Puryear was initially told he would be released within 60 days of July 1, 2022, after earning credits to reduce his sentence under an amended law that was set to take effect that allowed some incarcerated people to earn credits at a faster rate, the lawsuit alleges.

But he wasn’t released until November 2023, because the department incorrectly interpreted that the law excluded people with the type of charges Puryear had, the suit claims, even after the Supreme Court of Virginia had ruled they weren’t .

“Despite the statute’s unambiguous text and the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, VADOC continued to detain people convicted of inchoate offenses, including the proposed class here: people with inchoate offenses convictions related to robbery and carjacking,” the lawsuit alleges.

Puryear and others with similar convictions “remained in prison for weeks or months after they were entitled to release, separating them from their families, livelihoods, and communities,” the suit claims.

“It was devastating,” Puryear told 8News last year, almost two weeks after his release. “It was devastating to not only me but to my loved ones as well because we had a lot of plans.”

The number of people potentially affected is unclear, but Puryear’s legal team told 8News it could be dozens or hundreds.

Rebecca Livengood, an attorney at the civil rights law firm Relman Colfax representing Puryear, pointed to the corrections department announcing in December 2023 that it released 31 people in similar situations and that over 150 people had similar convictions as Puryear.

Livengood said they “will have to learn through discovery” what the actual size of the class is, but it could be in the thirties on the small end or potentially hundreds.

VADOC’s average daily population dropped by more than 600 between October 2023 and December 2023, per the lawsuit. This number, the lawsuit alleges, potentially reflects the release of people who were previously denied the credits they earned.

Virginia’s earned sentence credit program allows certain incarcerated people to earn credits to trim time off their sentence. They take part in work and educational training programs and must follow prison rules.

To earn his credits, Puryear completed mental health and job readiness programs and more, including mentoring and coaching others on how to resolve disputes, the lawsuit states. He was considered “a leader and exemplar of good behavior” by other incarcerated people and by prison staff and led group discussions between incarcerated individuals and prison staff, per the suit.

A 2020 bill to expand how many credits an incarcerated person can earn was set to take effect in July 2022, but budget language from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) that lawmakers approved limited who was eligible for the enhanced credit program.

How the corrections department interpreted the law with the budget language led to lawsuits challenging its policies towards granting the credits.

This includes a case in which the Virginia Supreme Court ordered the release of a man convicted of attempted aggravated murder after finding his conviction for an attempted crime did not exclude him from earning enhanced credits.

Citing this ruling, Puryear filed a petition challenging his continued imprisonment. At first, VADOC sought to have the petition dismissed by a judge before releasing Puryear on Nov. 9, 2023, before the court weighed in on the motion to dismiss.

“VADOC said it would retroactively credit all such individuals with expanded ESCs and release those eligible,” the lawsuit states. “By this time, however, much damage was done.”

Puryear filed the class-action lawsuit against the department’s current director, Harold Clarke, and former leader, Chadwick Dotson, bringing the case forward on behalf of himself and others.

“VADOC’s policy and practice of over-detention caused class members, including Mr. Puryear, significant injuries, including but not limited to the deprivation of their constitutional rights, emotional distress, and loss of economic opportunity,” the class-action lawsuit claims.

Puryear missed out on his son’s graduation and the birth of his grandson, the lawsuit states. He also had a truck driver job lined up when he was set to get out in July 2022, but it was no longer available when he was out in November 2023, the lawsuit alleges.

“Instead, Mr. Puryear has been forced to work two lower-paying jobs to support his family,” the suit states. “The injury of loss of job opportunities is common to the class members who experience over-detention.”

Clarke asked the then-Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) and current Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) for advisory opinions on how to apply the changes to the earned sentence credit law, per the lawsuit.

“In spite of twice seeking opinions on alleged ambiguities in the statute, Defendant Clarke never sought an opinion about any of the offenses relevant to Mr. Puryear or the class,” the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit accuses VADOC of cruel and unusual punishment, false imprisonment and violating due process for keeping Puryear and others imprisoned and not granting them the sentence credits they earned.

The suit seeks the court to allow the impacted class to collectively sue , compensatory damages to be determined by a jury, attorney fees and a declaratory judgment finding VADOC violated the plaintiff’s rights.

“I think suits like this are really critical for accountability,” Livengood told 8News in an interview. “The Department of Correction failed to implement a clear law that required release. And as a consequence of that many people lost a significant part of the life that they could have lived.”

Spokespeople for VADOC and Attorney General Miyares’ office declined to comment on the pending litigation.

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