A recent report by JFA Institute in Washington, DC casts new light on Virginia’s criminal justice policy.
A recent report by JFA Institute in Washington, DC explores Virginia’s criminal justice policy over a period of decades.
The report makes the point that Virgina was “one of the first states to adopt voluntary sentencing guidelines, and later, to abolish parole and institute a rigid truth-in-sentencing (85%) sentencing structure.”
As we know this greatly impacted the size of Virginia’s criminal justice system.
The authors argue that one possible solution for Virginia and other states is to reduce the incarceration rate of persons failing probation and parole supervision. They point that it is “currently estimated that as many as two of every three persons admitted to prison in the United States are incarcerated because they have failed either probation or parole supervision. A large proportion of these parole and probation revocations are situations where the person has failed the conditions of supervision.”
The Community Restoration Campaign believes that we need to explore smarter and safer forms of justice that reduce the size of our justice system.