by Hans Bader
A progressive Virginia legislator apparently thinks the parole board isn’t releasing enough inmates. So he has introduced a bill, HB318, that would let progressive legislators, rather than the governor, pick many of the parole board’s members. His bill would also make it much easier to parole inmates serving life sentences — which could result in the release of many killers — and make it hard not to parole inmates who committed crimes as juveniles, if their continuing dangerousness is due to “the nature of the offense” they committed or other factors beyond their “demonstrated ability to control.”
Right now, the Virginia Parole Board has five members, all picked by the governor and confirmed by the General Assembly. HB318, sponsored by Delegate Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, would expand the parole board to 10 members, and let individual legislators pick five of them. “Three of” those five would “be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates,” and “two of” them would “be appointed by the Chair of the Senate Committee on Rules.” (The Speaker of the House is Don Scott, who in 2020 proposed a failed bill that would have required the release of many inmates based on their age, leaving the parole board with no discretion to block their release even if they were still dangerous).
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