To: The State Responsible Inmate Realignment Work Group
An article recently appeared in the Washington Post about the work being conducted by a General Assembly Committee to return inmates to the jail closest to their point of release thereby freeing up needed bed space in DOC.
I write this to the committee members
(Delegate William J. Howell, Senator Ryan J. McDougle, Delegate Scott Lingamfelter,
Brian Moran, Senator Dave W. Marsden, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, Senator
Janet D. Howell) to seriously reconsider this proposal. First, until you
actually visit your prison system, you have no real idea what goes on here. The
waste and mismanagement is beyond any taxpayer's wildest imagination.
Having said that, as bad as prisons are run, the jails are worse. You claim you want to do this to put inmates closer to their families at release. The problem is, visits with families are terrible at a jail--there is no physical contact; you talk through Plexiglas and then maybe you get a max of 30 minutes per week. While visitation in DOC is heavily regulated (and it is arbitrary from prison to prison, and/or warden to warden) it is better than at the jail.
Programming is virtually nonexistent at a jail. School is limited and there is massive turnover each day with inmates going and coming from court.
Don't get me wrong--prison sucks. The idea that there is "drug treatment and mental health programs” available in here for inmates--please. Mental health consists of guys being drugged up to extreme on high potency antipsychotics and then maybe once a quarter a quick check-in with a DOC psychiatrist via Telemed. Drug treatment and alcohol treatment are taught by counselors who are not thorough and follow rote programming notes--no, the state isn't providing quality drug and alcohol, or psychological care to incarcerated offenders (which is why so many leave here and re-offend).
If you really want to change the dynamic in prisons do the following:
1) visit prisons without giving a big heads up;
2) talk to inmates--there are some of us at least who will tell you what really goes on here;
3) look at the money being spent--this is a rat hole for wasted resources and dollars;
4) ask, "who benefits the most from any change" you make--if it isn't the taxpayers and the incarcerated who are about to be released, it is going to work.
And 5) consider the big picture--Virginia has a major problem with spending over $1.2 billion to keep this system afloat. There is no reason sentences-especially for nonviolent felons--must be so extraordinarily long--no good purpose is served having a man stay in prison for ten or twelve years on a simple drug charge or even--like me--an embezzlement charge; it is a waste of state resources.
And finally, hold DOC accountable. It amazes me that you can send a man to prison for breaking the law, and then you send him to a prison where the law is routinely "ignored"; where "rights" don't matter because security trumps everything.
I ask you, the committee to seriously consider your work.
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