Virginia's prison population has racial disparities, according to a new report.
Black people in Virginia are incarcerated at a rate that is four times the rate for white people. That's according to a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative.
Wanda Bertram at the Initiative says part of the reason for that is decisions in the 80s and 90s to abolish parole and institute mandatory minimum sentences.
"We know that there were a lot of policies that were pursued during the 80s and 90s that were particularly harsh towards Black people," Bertram says. "And if you want to rectify the mistakes and the injustices of that time, you're going to have to release people."
Monica Smith at the Vera Institute says the disparity is just as shocking in Virginia jails because of how neighborhoods are policed and how bail is set.
"Black people are more likely to have harsher sentences than white people, which means that they’re going to end up spending longer periods of time in those state prisons on the back end," says Smith. "So, that is why we see this kind of mirroring populations in the pretrial system as well as in the prison systems."
Advocates for reducing mass incarceration in Virginia say state lawmakers should consider compassionate release and reinstituting a system for parole.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
