Formerly incarcerated people, advocates hail change that allows for earlier Virginia prison releases

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – A little more than a week out of prison, Quadaire Patterson took the podium in a crowded room in Richmond and spoke about his experience and the change in Virginia that allowed him and hundreds of others to earn their early releases in July.

Patterson decided not to read the statement he prepared, he said when he got in front of others recently freed with enhanced earned sentence credits , criminal justice advocates and Democratic state lawmakers in the General Assembly building on Tuesday.

They were all there to celebrate the full implementation of a law passed in 2020 that increased the credits some incarcerated people can earn to reduce their sentences. People earn the credits by working, participating in programs and courses and following prison rules.

The change to the system that allows reduced sentences in Virginia — proposed by Democrats — increased how much time someone can trim off their prison sentence from 4.5 days of credits per 30 days served to 15 days for every 30 days served.

Patterson said the change gave him and others serving time in Lawrenceville Correctional Center “hope” — but a late budget change in 2022 changed that.

“Hope is what we need when incarcerated,” Patterson said Tuesday. “Opportunity is nothing without hope.”

The law’s full implementation – and people’s early releases — was delayed after lawmakers approved a budget with an amendment from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that stopped it from taking effect in 2022 as scheduled.

The amendment, which excluded those serving time for violent and nonviolent crimes, kept incarcerated people from using the credits they earned to be released in July 2022, which Patterson called “tragic” and others described as having the rug pulled from under them.

Gov. Youngkin again tried to stop the full implementation of the law this year with his budget amendments , but lawmakers and the governor agreed to a bipartisan budget deal without language that prohibited the law’s full implementation.

“We’re here to celebrate home. And that’s what I’ve been doing since I’ve been here,” Patterson said Tuesday.

Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) denounced the full implementation of the enhanced program on Monday and after Tuesday’s press conference .

Miyares posted a video on social media saying that he believes “in redemption, but reducing sentences for violent criminals is not justice” and releasing data he claims shows the enhanced program “poses a serious risk to Virginians.”

In a press release, Miyares’ office said with the credits applied retroactively, 445 people became eligible for immediate release on July 1, including people convicted of first-degree murder, rape, and abduction. However, the law says people with those convictions are not allowed to earn credits at the faster rate permitted under the change.

Miyares claims that 25% of the more than 7,000 eligible people for sentence reductions “have been identified as high-risk for violent recidivism, meaning they have a high likelihood of reoffending violently.”

State Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax), one of the Democrats who proposed the initial 2020 legislation, and advocates pointed to data that shows such programs reduce recidivism and claimed Miyares was sharing misleading claims about earned sentence credits.

Sen. Boysko also noted that people eligible for reduced sentences “already had an end date” for their times in prison and said Miyares was trying to “get everyone wiped up in a frenzy” for the election year.

“He’s going to do what he’s going to do because he doesn’t have much else to talk about,” she said Tuesday.

Loved ones who advocated for the expansion of the earned sentence credit program also spoke at Tuesday’s press conference about the work done to make it a reality. Gin Carter, co-founder of The Humanization Project, spoke about her partner getting released with enhanced earned sentence credits and how her grassroots group pushed for change.

“The campaign to expand earned sentence credits began with us, loved ones amplifying and elevating justice-impacted voices and experiences,” Carter said Tuesday.

The Virginia Department of Corrections population, Carter said, went down over 3.5% on July 1 with the full implementation of the law and decreased by 10% over the past two years because of the program.

Per the state’s latest records from May, 23,398 people are incarcerated by the Virginia Department of Corrections.

The ACLU of Virginia — which organized Tuesday’s press conference along with Sistas in Prison Reform, The Humanization Project and Nolef Turns — sued over the Department of Corrections’ implementation and interpretation of the enhanced earned sentence credit program — winning cases against that led to early releases for its clients.

Jared Rose was released before the 2022 budget amendment nullified the enhanced system, earning credits to get nine months of his sentence.

Since getting out, Rose told 8News he’s a voting member of the Roanoke Gun Violence Prevention Commission, working to shape policies that aim to reduce gun violence in the Roanoke Valley.

Rose said his day job is running a re-enter program to help those who just were released from prison get on their feet with employment, housing and more.

“It’s one thing to let people out, if there’s no opportunity, it makes it really hard to reintegrate,” Rose said Tuesday.

He said it’s his way of giving back to those who faced similar situations to get an opportunity.

“I left prison with nothing. I had a bag of paperwork, some shoes that didn’t fit and that’s what I left prison with. No family. No resources. No support,” Rose told 8News. “So, to be that support for those same individuals, it’s my driving force every day.”

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