Give Them an Opportunity to Be Heard: Support Virginia’s Youthful Parole Bill

We are calling on the Virginia General Assembly to enact Virginia’s Youthful Parole Bill, legislation that would provide a meaningful opportunity for parole consideration to qualifying individuals who committed offenses at age 18, 19, or 20 and have served decades in prison.

We are not asking for automatic release. We are asking for an opportunity for review.

Parole eligibility does not mean parole approval.

The Virginia Parole Board would still evaluate each individual case, including the seriousness of the original offense, harm to victims, institutional conduct, rehabilitation, maturity, accountability, public safety, community support, and other relevant circumstances.

Why Young Adulthood Matters

Modern neuroscience provides important context for this legislation.

Brain development does not simply stop when someone reaches the legal age of adulthood at 18. Significant neurological development continues through young adulthood and into the mid-to-late twenties.

The prefrontal cortex—one of the last areas of the brain to mature—plays an important role in planning, prioritizing, decision-making, impulse regulation, and evaluating consequences.

This science does not excuse criminal behavior or diminish the harm experienced by victims.

It does recognize that a person at 18, 19, or 20 can be developmentally very different from the mature adult that same person may become after decades of incarceration.

Accountability and Redemption Can Coexist

People should be held accountable for their actions.

But accountability and rehabilitation are not mutually exclusive.

A person who committed a serious offense as a young adult may spend the next 20, 25, or 30 years demonstrating maturity, accepting responsibility, pursuing education, developing vocational skills, mentoring others, maintaining positive institutional conduct, and preparing to become a productive member of society.

Virginia should have a mechanism to consider that transformation.

If an individual continues to present an unacceptable risk to public safety, the Parole Board can deny release.

But if someone has demonstrated genuine rehabilitation after decades of incarceration, that person should have an opportunity to present that evidence for individualized review.

A second look is not an automatic second chance. It is an opportunity to demonstrate that one has been earned.

What We Are Asking Virginia to Do

We respectfully urge members of the Virginia Senate and Virginia House of Delegates to enact Virginia’s Youthful Parole Bill and provide meaningful parole consideration to eligible individuals who committed qualifying offenses at age 18, 19, or 20 and have served decades of incarceration.

This is not about forgetting the past.

It is about allowing the Commonwealth to consider the present.

Parole eligibility is not release. It is an opportunity for review.

Please sign this petition and stand with us in asking Virginia lawmakers to give these individuals an opportunity to be heard.