58-year-old JJ Joyner can spend hours playing with his new best friend – a white poodle mix named Sophie. He now lives with the dog and his sister in a tidy townhouse near Richmond, delighting in small pleasures after 24 years in state prisons.
“Sometimes I just sit back and I just think, ‘I am free!’ The other night I woke up about 3 o’clock, and I went out looked up at the sky and absorbed the scene. All the things I used to take for granted: going into the refrigerator, getting what I want to eat, picking up the phone and calling anyone I want to call. I’m thankful for it, because it can be gone for you just like that. That’s all it takes for somebody to say you did something.”
He lost his freedom in 2000 after robbing a video rental store to feed a dependence on crack cocaine.
“I got caught in Henrico, and they gave me some time for robberies that were similar to mine in Chesterfield that I knew nothing about.”
He was sentenced to 28 years – time he used to get his GED, to learn construction skills and to overcome his addiction.
“I got on my knees, and I asked God to deliver me from crack cocaine, and if I ever touch it again to just take my life, and I have not had any desire for it. With the grace of God I had the strength to say, ‘No, man. I don’t mess with that.'”
On July 1st, his father picked him up from prison, and he made a surprise visit to his mother’s home.
“We just hugged and hugged and cried and cried and laughed and laughed,” Joyner recalls.
Now, he’s adapting to a new world controlled by computers where rent and food are far more expensive than he remembers.
“You’re paying over a thousand dollars for a one bedroom. I went to McDonald’s the other day. I ordered a double cheeseburger with bacon, fries and a soda -- $15.36!”
Soon after his release he landed a part-time job as a janitor, but it’s a long way from his sister’s place and he doesn’t have a car. He wasn’t able to save much behind bars, working jobs that paid less than a dollar an hour. He spent much of his money on food from the commissary to supplement what he says was an awful diet in prison.
"They’ve got something that’s called meat rock, and it’s supposed to be an additive. Like if you’re serving ground beef, you could put a little bit of that meat rock to stretch it. They don’t do that. They use that meat rock for the main course, and it’s nasty – it’s not healthy at all.”
And he hasn’t forgotten the heat at the last prison – Nottoway – where he spent nine years without air conditioning.
“In my cell we had a total of four fans — four fans and we were still sweating!"
Here at his sister’s place he treasures the AC and the comforts of a high-end air mattress.
“I’m telling you, I sleep like a baby.” (laughter)
He thanks the ACLU, the Humanization Project and Virginia Senator Jennifer Boysko for getting state lawmakers to expand the good time program.
“She fought tooth and nail to get this bill passed. This bill is helping a lot of families get back together.”
But Attorney General Jason Miyares is warning that releasing prisoners like Joyner early has put Virginians in danger.
“Roughly 25% of these inmates have been slated as having a high risk of violent recidivism. Some of these crimes include individuals convicted of first degree murder, abduction, rape, manslaughter and robbery.”
In fact, violent crimes were not eligible for sentence reductions, and the claim that one in four of those released might break the law again comes from COMPAS -- a tool for assessing the risk of releasing prisoners.
“A 2016 study by Pro Publica found that the system was no more accurate at predicting recidivism than essentially a person off the street with no background in the criminal justice system,” says Chuck Meire.
The company that markets COMPAS – equivant – disagrees with Pro Publica’s conclusions, noting it does not use race in its calculations. Quoting from a report by the Royal Statistical Society, it says a difference in rates of recidivism by Black and White offenders “might be regarded as an indicator of biases in the wider justice system and society at large,” and is not specific to the COMPAS algorithm. Equivant says it does not identify a person as a recidivist or a non-recidivist, because it’s impossible to know what a person will do in the future, but it does measure “the probability of general recidivism and violent recidivism.”
Chuck Meire is with Julian – a non-profit named for civil rights attorney Julian Bond. He advocates for criminal justice reform and says programs that reward prisoners for taking classes and making positive changes before release have not led to increased criminal activity.
“Incarceration is about more than punishment. It’s fundamentally about keeping society safe and about making sure that if someone committed a crime, that we’re minimizing the chances that that happens again. The easiest way to do that is to help make sure they have the tools and resources to live a successful life.”
Now in his late 50’s, Joyner says he’s a different man than the one who entered prison at 34. His sister, Tiffany Joyner, agrees.
“There are some people who do change their lives while they’re in there, and I think people should be given a second chance," she explains.
They have a surprising ally in that view. In 2018, former President Donald Trump signed the First Step Act, rewarding federal prisoners with good time.
Of the nearly 30,000 people released under that law, just over 12% have been re-arrested or returned to federal prison, and not all arrests resulted in convictions. That 12% is far lower than the general rate of recidivism in the federal system -- 43%.
