Members of the General Assembly are considering a bill that would help people who are incarcerated earn credits to be released early.
Back in 2020, a delegate by the name of Don Scott passed a bill that allows people who are incarcerated to earn credits for early release. Now, that delegate is Speaker of the House, but the law is not working the way advocates expected because pretrial detention is often not counted in calculating the credits.
Here's Delegate Karrie Delaney, a Democrat from Fairfax County.
"Was there confusion over what the intent is? Is there another reason why the policy that we enacted originally isn't being fulfilled," asks Delegate Karrie Delaney, a Democrat from Fairfax County.
"The Attorney General was not in office when this bill took place," Brandon Wrobleski with the AG's office replied. "But the Attorney General disagrees generally with the policy of the enhanced earned sentence credit system and does not support any expansion of it."
Delegate Holly Seibold is a Democrat from Fairfax County who introduced a bill to force the AG to follow the existing law.
"The Attorney General's office can't just disagree with a law and not believe in the policy that was created by this body and decide not to enact the law," Seibold said. "I don't have a law degree, but I'm pretty sure that is not legal."
Seibold's bill clarifies that all periods of incarceration count toward the credits, even pretrial detention. The bill has already passed the House and will soon be considered by the Senate Finance Committee.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
