Virginia spends, on average, $70,000 a year to provide medical care for prisoners over the age of 55. They suffer from cancer, kidney failure, heart disease and other chronic conditions that require expensive testing and daily medication.
Among them is Brue Estes who went to jail in 2004 – convicted of drug-related crimes. While serving a 12-year sentence, he was accused of brutally attacking another inmate – a charge he denies.
“The court-appointed lawyer says, ‘Look, if you don’t plead guilty you’re going to get life. He scared the **** out of me, Sandy. I just don’t even want to take a chance on getting life, and I still got 36 years on top of the 12 years for stuff I actually did."
Today, at 56, he has survived two heart attacks and serious back trouble.
“As recent as 2022, I was able to jog two miles a couple of times a week, and the pain progressively got worse until I can’t even walk to the yard some days.”
Tests were ordered, and eventually Estes was taken to a community hospital by security guards – making the trips especially expensive. Virginia spends $1.3 million every week for offsite medical care.
X-rays and an MRI showed bulging discs and damage from arthritis causing numbness in his arms, legs, hands and feet.
His doctor prescribed a pain patch, but for some reason, the prison nurse would only approve Tylenol and a painkiller often given for arthritis called Mobic.
“I did try the Mobic. The Mobic tore my stomach all to pieces, and – of course – Tylenol did nothing for the nerve pain.”
It took three years and a lawsuit to finally get the pain patch originally prescribed.
“For the first time in three years, from something as simple as a lidocaine patch, I’m pain free. I sat down and cried.”
Estes is one of about 12,000 prisoners who will soon qualify for geriatric parole. At age 60, having served 27 years of his sentence, he can request early release. Governor Glenn Youngkin’s parole board freed less than 2% of eligible inmates, but the legislature has now approved a measure to expand the five-member board.
“It splits the appointments – five to the governor, six to the General Assembly.”
Shawn Weneta lobbied for that legislation.
“It also gives the General Assembly their picks two years after the governor is inaugurated, so no one red wave or one blue wave captures the entire board.”
He argued people deserve second chances, and from a fiscal standpoint, Virginia has to reduce its inmate population.
“We have two people in our prisons right now that each cost a million dollars a year just in medications. In 2025, there was a hiring freeze – not because they were fully staffed.We know that’s not the case, but because they overran their healthcare budget by tens of millions of dollars, and they actually had to use security dollars to pay the medical bill.”
The parole board expansion now awaits a signature from Governor Abigail Spanberger, and a resolution from Senator David Marsden will mean a detailed study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission on whether Virginia should make all prisoners eligible for consideration by the parole board. Again, prison reform advocate Shawn Weneta.
“They’re sort of the gospel. If they can say this is what the policy should be, and if it’s based on this data, people listen.”
Prisoner Bruce Estes says he doesn’t need a study to make up his mind.
“You know there’s a gentleman walking across this pod right now. He’s 88 years old and has been in for almost 50 years. What good does it do to keep this old man in prison?”
Opponents of parole eligibility for all have warned it could put public safety at risk, but Shawn Weneta says for financial reasons alone, lawmakers must decide why Virginia keeps people who appear to pose no threat locked up – if it’s because we’re afraid of them or just angry about what they have done.
