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There's Bipartisan Support for Criminal Justice Reform in Richmond This Year

AP Photo / Steve Helber

Criminal justice reform is one of the leading issues this year in the Virginia General Assembly, and it’s an issue that has advocates on both sides of the aisle.

Marijuana decriminalization and raising the felony threshold are not the only criminal justice reform efforts moving through the General Assembly this year. Lawmakers are also looking at an effort that would allow defendants who have jury trials to be sentenced by a judge rather than a jury.

Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy is a Democrat from Woodbridge, and she says this may end up being the most important criminal justice reform of the year.

“The judge has a lot more leeway than a jury does," she explains. "And so a judge actually looks at your sentencing guidelines, which determines what a person’s sentence should actually be. A jury does not have access to that.”

Republican Senator David Suetterlein of Roanoke has a bill that would change the threshold for reckless driving.

“Currently, it starts at 80 miles per hour, even if you’re in a 70 mile per hour zone," says Sutterlein. "And so that means that 11 miles per hour could get you up to a year in jail and/or a $2,500 fine, and I’m not aware of any other state in the Union that’s anything like that.”

Some of the more progressive criminal justice reform efforts have already been set aside for the year, bills that would have legalized marijuana, for example, and another bill that would have reinstated the parole system. Both of those have been identified for more study but no action, at least not this year.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Michael Pope is an author and journalist who lives in Old Town Alexandria.