O Governor, Where Art Thou - Again

Once again Governor McDonnell has been busy writing Op-ed pieces touting his “prison re-entry” initiative.  All the while, his administration is imploding with wholesale staff changes.  And, states near and far have recognized and aggressively pursued real prison reform.  Not Virginia; not on Governor Bob’s watch.

In one of my favorite scenes from the classic comedy movie “O Brother Where Art Thou”, George Clooney has finally tracked down his ex-wife and children.  “Kids, your daddy’s home”, he announces to a beautiful little girl in an over the top southern drawl.  “You can’t be our daddy; he got hit by a train.”  Clooney quick looks at his ex and asks “You told our children I was dead?”  Holly Hunter replies, “I certainly couldn’t tell them you were at the prison farm.  That isn’t respectable.”

That scene summarizes Governor McDonnell’s approach to the crisis that exists in corrections today.  Don’t tell the truth about the absolute failure of Virginia DOC.  Instead, write “respectable” Op-eds, long on clichés, yet short on accuracy.

This past week, the Governor published another Op-ed (this one in the Newport News Daily Press) discussing his commitment to re-entry.  As he does every time he reminds the readers “as a former prosecutor and attorney general I strongly support truth-in-sentencing (he apparently didn’t support prosecuting his political friend Steve Forbes back when he was the AG however)…and believe that those who commit a crime must take complete responsibility and fully repay their debt to society.”  I agree Governor.  Problem is, as I’ve pointed out dozens of times in this blog, “truth in sentencing” is an oxymoron.  Sentences for the same crime vary significantly around the Commonwealth and there is no statistical correlation between the length of sentence and either remorse or repayment of debt.  In fact, sentences decrease an inmate’s ability to repay his/her debt (Virginia is spending in excess of $25,000 per year to keep me here instead of me paying taxes and restitution to the victim of my embezzlement).

As Veronique de Rugy so clearly put it in the July 2011 issue of Reason.com:

“Housing nonviolent offenders with violent criminals for years on end can’t possibly help them reintegrate into society, which helps explain why 4 out of 10 prisoners end up back in jail within three years of their release.”

In other words Governor Bob, re-entry ain’t worth diddly if you keep your nonviolent offenders locked up long-term.  Truth in sentencing does not work!  As Sarah Van Gelder noted in a recent Op-ed promoting the summer issue of Yes! Magazine (aptly titled “Beyond Prisons”),

“A smarter and more compassionate criminal justice system could not only save lives and restore communities especially hard hit by imprisonments, it could save us from fiscal meltdown.”

That’s the billion dollar decision this Governor and the people of Virginia have to make.  Are they willing to admit the abolishment of parole and “truth in sentencing” has done nothing to curb recidivism rates and instead has led to an explosion in incarceration costs?

The Governor could be candid and truthful with the voters and call for sentencing reform and tie re-entry programs in with good time credits (in other words, let inmate performance direct their release date).  Or he can continue the same tired, failed approach that has led to an almost 400% increase in the inmate population in the past 15 years and a bloated DOC bureaucracy spending in excess of $1 billion annually.

And his re-entry program?  Please.  He’s put the people at DOC – the same people who have job security based on the increased inmate population – in charge.  And, it’s the exact same “transition out” nonsense that was in place before he took office.

You want meaningful re-entry programs?  Increase college offerings in prison; offer more educational and vocational programs; create meaningful drug and alcohol treatment and mental health services directed by people who believe a person can be rehabilitated.  Education, job training, treatment and above all hope that a person who commits to changing will be restored to society as soon as possible.  That’s a real re-entry program.  Not just the same political Op-ed mumbo jumbo that keeps getting generated by this administration.

Other states get it.  Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed legislation to overhaul prison sentences and send nonviolent felons to rehab facilities with significantly earlier release dates.  Kasich isn’t some liberal Governor.  He’s a staunch conservative and a GOP darling.

North Carolina has tripled the number of criminal record expungements granted allowing erasure of many nonviolent felonies.

And, in Kansas, as part of their early release program, Republican Governor Brownback is signing up a volunteer mentor for each released inmate.

Good, creative ideas.  Unfortunately, none of these are included in Governor McDonnell’s prison “re-entry” initiative.

Instead, the Governor travels.  Recently he was in Europe where people there don’t understand why America locks so many people up when other alternatives work better.  And, the Governor returns and finds wholesale resignations from his staff. 

As the Washington Post reported June 25^th, “Less than 18 months into his term, Virginia Governor McDonnell has been forced to revamp the office that develops and drives his policy agenda as he looks toward the most significant legislative session of his tenure….  Virtually the entire policy office has turned over – a rare occurrence for any governor in such a short period of time.”

It takes more than Op-eds to lead a state.  Governor McDonnell is approaching the half-way point in his sentence; er I mean term of office.  It’s time for real transformative policies.  Where are you Governor Bob?

Prison Stories

A couple of recent newspaper and magazine pieces about the current state of “corrections” around the country jumped out at me. I recently read “Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul” and was deeply moved by so many of the stories represented there. But, I found the following cautionary quote each of us must consider when we approve of the status quo with incarceration:



“Does society understand what they create in the men they wear down by time? The whole concept of punishment seems to teach offenders how to effectively not be part of society, the unmaking of a man.”


Prisons do more to perpetuate crime than they do to rehabilitate. Money is spent on housing and holding instead of educating and rehabilitating.


Ohio recently began exploring an overhaul of its criminal justice system. As the Columbus Dispatch recently reported, Ohio’s 1996 enactment of “Truth in Sentencing Law” led to an exponential growth in the number of inmates and the cost to hold them. Ohio is now 33% over capacity and unable to sustain current prison funding requirements. In 2008, 10,000 convicted felons went to prison in Ohio on property and drug offenses at a cost of $189 million. “Few received rehabilitative treatment while in prison.” As the chief sponsor of a bill calling for sentence reform, Republican Bill Seitz said:


“You can’t fit 10 pounds in a 5 pound bag. That’s what we’ve been trying to do in Ohio. The time for talk is over. No more sticking our heads in the sand.”


Supporters of the change are as varied as Conservative Republican John Kasich and the ACLU.


Virginia, at 164% capacity according to DOC’s own spokesman (here’s a hint: if DOC finally admits to a capacity problem, it is probably higher than what they’ve admitted), has the same “Truth in Sentencing Law” as Ohio. Where is Virginia’s courageous conservative Republican Governor on this? Governor McDonnell talks a great deal about his faith. Perhaps now is the time for him to put his faith in action.


The San Francisco Chronicle reported that California, in a move to close its $60 billion budget deficit, slashed rehabilitation programs for prisoners. The budget cuts included planned layoffs of 850 academic and vocational instructors in the prison system. At the same time, California continues to violate a court mandated release of inmates from its prisons due to the unconstitutional conditions inmates have been living under.


And, in another case involving California’s Corrections Department, it was reported corrections officers are the primary conduit for up to 10,000 cell phones finding their way into inmates’ hands. Even Charles Manson has had two cell phones in the last four years.


So, the people employed to watch the “criminals” are themselves lawbreakers, being paid up to $1000 by inmates for a phone. One officer made $150,000 in cash in one year transporting phones into the prison. His punishment? He was terminated from employment. California does not prosecute guards who bring phones in for a fee.


It was reported Governor McDonnell and the Virginia General Assembly failed to properly fund regional jails (coincidentally, it is by using the regional jails that DOC keeps 3800 inmates housed rather than further taxing its already overcrowded prisons by moving them to DOC facilities).


McDonnell assured Sheriffs who are facing staff layoffs themselves that the shortfall will be addressed. Governor McDonnell, in the words of the Ohio Representative, “you can’t fit 10 pounds in a 5 pound bag.”


And finally, Mike Vick visited a Florida prison the other day with his mentor, Tony Dungy, to speak with the inmates. While there he said one of the most profound things I’ve ever read:


“If I was standing outside a prison two years ago with what I know now, and you gave me the choice of going in and changing my life or staying out and continuing to live the life I was living, I’d go in…I needed the change. God gave me a timeout.”


I thought about Mike Vick’s words a great deal. Sometimes we don’t realize how blessed we are in our trials. It’s something I have to remind myself of every day. I’m not sure where I’d be right now if God hadn’t given me a timeout. The losses I’ve sustained have, at times, been unbearable. But learning to live righteously in this environment has been worth it. Mike Vick was right.