Hello All,

Steve Wise has been incarcerated almost 10 years. His family and child need him, he has not seen his  son in over 10 years. Please allow him another chance at life, allow his son a chance to have to father in his life. Lesson has definitely been learned. He works as a barber and wants to be a personal trainer when he come home. Please help support us by signing and sharing. 

I would like to show my support for the reinstatement of parole. Our prisons in VA are overcrowded when they shouldn't be. The VADOC has been focused on treatment and re-entry in recent years. Many of our offenders are returning to our communities. Many others are not simply because they were sentenced after 1995. All of our offenders are taking the same classes and programs and doing the same things to better their lives on the inside. The only difference is the year they were sentenced therefore one is eligible for parole under the “old law” and the other isn't because they were not sentenced until sometime after 1995. It does not make sense to me to put two people through the same programs and then tell one person they have a chance to return to their home and the other that they cannot simply because they were sentenced a few years later. 

HJ644 is an excellent start and it is my hope that the study will move forward and the results will show that the restoration of parole will benefit the Commonwealth of VA. 

Virginia continues to have the lowest recidivism rates in the country. Some would argue it is because no one is ever released since we do not have parole. But that is not true. Offenders leave our facilities and return home every-day. Some who were sentenced prior to 1995 make parole. Some were given short sentences. Some were given long sentences but have completed their time. Regardless, they are going home and not reoffending. Reinstating parole will give more people the chance to go home and they will not likely reoffend. If given the opportunity many of our offenders will take it seriously and commit to not coming back to prison.

Parole is not a get out of jail free card. Just because every offender in VA is eligible for parole does not mean they will all be granted the opportunity. The offender’s behavior during incarceration and how wisely they use their time will play a role in those decisions. Parole boards are only going to grant those who are worthy the second chance to return to society. And as mentioned above the DOC is widely focused on treatment and re-entry. These offenders would go through the same programs and preparation for re-entry into our society as the other offenders who are going home every-day.   

Thank you for your time and hopefully we can move towards reinstating parole in VA! 

Sincerely,

Chanda Madison