The Roanoke Times wrote this weekend that, as one more way of reducing the Fiscal 2011 budget, the five positions on the Virginia Parole Board may become part-time. Currently, the Times points out, the Parole Board turns down applications "94 percent of the time…one of the nation’s lowest parole rates."
But is the low rate pushing some inmates’ punishments too far? A lawsuit filed on behalf of 11 inmates by locally based Legal Aid Justice Center and a Richmond law firm claims that the parole board has committed "an ex post facto enhancement of Plaintiffs’ punishments." The inmates represented in the suit were convicted prior to the General Assembly’s abolition of parole in 1995.
Since parole was abolished, the suit states that "the Board has adopted and implemented practices, policies and procedures…resulting in a drastic reduction in the availability of parole for inmates convicted of violent offenses." Read the suit here, and a recently filed memo outlining plaintiffs’ case here.
