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Virginia Will Join 22 States In Abolishing The Death Penalty

VCU CNS | February 26, 2021

Topics: death penalty, death penalty in Virginia, General Assembly 2021, Ralph Northam, Scott Surovell

Bills abolishing the death penalty within the Commonwealth have passed both houses of the General Assembly, and Governor Ralph Northam has already expressed his support. His signature will make Virginia the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty.

Virginia will become the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty after two bills passed both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly on Monday. 

In a release issued earlier this month, Gov. Ralph Northam said he looks forward to signing a legislation that outlaws the death penalty. 

Under current state law, an offender convicted of a Class 1 felony who is at least 18 years of age at the time of the offense and without an intellectual disability faces a sentence of life imprisonment or death. 

The identical House and Senate bills eliminate death from the list of possible punishments for a Class 1 felony. The bills do not allow the possibility of parole, good conduct allowance, or earned sentence credits. The measures will also reclassify capital murders to aggravated murders. 

The move will change the sentence for the two remaining inmates on death row to life imprisonment without eligibility of parole, good conduct allowance, or earned sentence credits. 

House Bill 2263, introduced by Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, passed the Senate Monday on a 22-16 vote following a lengthy floor debate. While both parties reached an agreement on eliminating the death penalty, Republicans argued for a proposed amendment to remove the possibility of a shortened life sentence. 

Under current state law, judges are able to suspend part of life sentences, with the exception of the murder of a law enforcement officer. Neither bill will change this policy.

In Monday’s hearing, Sen. William Stanley, R-Franklin, argued for a floor substitute that would replace capital murder charges with a mandatory minimum life sentence. The government should not have the ability to sentence people to death due to the possibility of false convictions, but those who commit “heinous” crimes should never face the possibility of parole, he said. 

“If you kill multiple people, or under the circumstances under our death penalty statute, you should not see the light of day,” Stanley said. “You should not taste liberty and freedom again.” 

Sen. Scott Surovell

Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, who sponsored the Senate bill that passed the House, said adopting Stanley’s amendment would introduce 14 new mandatory minimum life sentences. 

“I think it’s awfully presumptuous for us to just decide that these 14 situations deserve this one and only punishment,” Surovell said. 

Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Richmond, furthered the argument against the amendment by mentioning a Washington Post article on the recent release of Joe Ligon at age 83. Ligon was sentenced to life imprisonment at 15 years old, pleading guilty under the impression that he would be eligible for parole 10 years later, Morrissey said. He was released from prison after serving 68 years. 

“That seems to be inconsistent,” Morrissey said, referring to Stanley’s argument that while juries can get it wrong, a convicted person sentenced to life imprisonment should never be able to seek parole. “If you get it wrong, and somebody is executed, you can also get it wrong when you sentence somebody to life in prison.” 

Judges currently have the authority to ensure life sentences and will have the same authority with the bill’s passage, Surovell said.

The floor substitute by Stanley was rejected. 

“Prison Bars Jail Cell” by JobsForFelonsHub is licensed with CC BY 2.0

Concluding the hearing, Surovell offered final remarks on the importance of Virginia’s step to abolish the death penalty. He believes the new measure speaks to the commonwealth’s humility and value of human life. 

“It says a lot about how our commonwealth is going to move past some of our darkest moments in terms of how this punishment was applied and who it was applied to,” Surovell said. 

Surovell hopes that the measure’s passage will “send a message to the rest of the world that Virginia is back to leading on criminal justice.”

Northam; House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn and Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw issued a joint statement regarding the legislations’ passages. 

“Thanks to the vote of lawmakers in both chambers, Virginia will join 22 other states that have ended use of the death penalty. This is an important step forward in ensuring that our criminal justice system is fair and equitable to all.”

Written by Christina Amano Dolan, Capital News Service. Top Photo courtesy of the Virginia General Assembly website.

Virginia House and Senate Advance Bills to Abolish Death Penalty

VCU CNS | February 10, 2021

Topics: capital punishment, death penalty, Earl Washington, General Assembly 2021, Michael Mullin, Ralph Northam, Scott Surovell

Governor Northam has voiced his support for abolishing the death penalty in Virginia, and now both houses of the General Assembly have voted in favor of abolishing it as well.

After over 400 years of conducting more executions than any other state, Virginia may become the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty. 

The Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates each passed identical bills this week to abolish the death penalty. Virginia would become the 23rd state to abolish capital punishment if either bill advances in the other’s chamber and is signed by the governor.

Under current state law, an offender convicted of a Class 1 felony who is at least 18 years of age at the time of the offense and without an intellectual disability faces a sentence of life imprisonment or death. 

The House and Senate bills eliminate death from the list of possible punishments for a Class 1 felony. The bills do not allow the possibility of parole, good conduct allowance, or earned sentence credits. Judges are able to suspend part of life sentences, with the exception of the murder of a law enforcement officer. 

Senate Bill 1165, introduced by Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, passed the Senate on a 21-17 vote. House Bill 2263, introduced by Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, passed the House Friday on a 57-41 vote. Three Republicans supported the House measure.

Any person previously sentenced to death by July 1 will have their sentence changed to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole, good conduct allowance, or earned sentence credits. According to the House bill’s impact statement, there are two Virginia inmates on death row, but no execution date has been set for these inmates as of December. 

In a floor hearing earlier this week, Mullin discussed how the measure would ultimately save money, as the death penalty is a “huge financial burden on the commonwealth.” Virginia spends approximately $3.9 million annually to maintain four capital defender offices, which only handles capital cases, according to the House bill’s fiscal impact statement. The measure will likely eliminate the need for these offices. 

“If we keep the death penalty in place, we are prolonging an expensive, ineffective, and flawed system,” Mullin said. 

Del. Michael Mullin

Mullin said Virginia has a dark history of extreme racial bias and occasional false convictions within the judicial system. 

Referencing the 1985 case of Earl Washington, Mullin argued the commonwealth “knows the risks of killing an innocent person very well.” Washington, a wrongfully convicted death row inmate, came within nine days of his execution. 

“Perhaps the strongest argument for abolishing the death penalty is that a justice system without the death penalty allows us the possibility of being wrong,” Mullin said. 

In a debate during Friday’s House vote, defenders of the death penalty called attention to the victims of capital cases. Del. Jason S. Miyares, R-Virginia Beach, told his colleagues that “these victims are begging not to be forgotten.” He argued that executing those who commit the “ultimate crimes” is justice, not vengeance. 

“That’s what the death penalty is … it’s not revenge, it’s not eye for an eye, it’s our society, our civilization, holding someone accountable for their actions, allowing our juries to decide about the ultimate punishment,” Miyares said. 

Del. Mark H. Levine, D-Alexandria, a supporter of the bill, concluded the debate by speaking of his own painful experience. Speaking of his sister’s murder, Levine argued that the bill isn’t about him, his sister, or the victims, but about the state’s potential to kill innocent people. 

“I’ve seen evil, I’ve looked it in the face,” Levine said. “I know evil exists, there is no dispute about that. But taking an innocent person’s life — that’s evil, and it would be evil to be done by this General Assembly.” 

Gov. Ralph Northam said in a press release earlier this week that he looks forward to signing the bill into law. 

“The practice is fundamentally inequitable,” Northam said. “It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent.”

Written by Christina Amano Dolan, Capital News Service. Top Photo courtesy of the Virginia General Assembly website.

Vaccines Are Coming — Now What?

Cassandre Coyer | January 21, 2021

Topics: Amy Popovich, Anthony Fauci, coronavirus, COVID-19, Danny Avula, Lisa M. Lee, Moderna vaccine, Pfizer vaccine, Ralph Northam, Richmond City Health District, vaccines

With Pfizer and Moderna vaccines reaching increasing numbers of Virginians, the commonwealth is eager to be through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it’s become clear in recent weeks that we still have a long road ahead.

As Virginia grapples with record numbers of COVID-19 cases, overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff, and lagging vaccine distribution – there is still a long road ahead before a return to what feels like normal life.

After the FDA authorized the distribution of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in mid-December, a sense of optimism spread throughout the country as the federal government announced 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of the year.

But once again, the pandemic brought its own set of unexpected challenges and by the time the ball dropped on Dec. 31, only a little over 2 million people had received shots. 

Virginia wasn’t exempt from this nationwide lag. As of Jan. 10, the state received about 510,000 vaccine doses from the two manufacturers. But only 177,945 doses were administered to people in the Commonwealth. The significant gap between the doses received and administered has been attributed to a combination of a temporary glitch in the state’s recording system, some facilities holding onto second doses, the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases, and challenges faced by facilities administering the vaccine. 

Despite the lags, Richmond and Henrico Health Director Danny Avula, recently tapped by Governor Ralph Northam to lead the state’s vaccination effort, remains confident that all Virginians should have access to the vaccine by summertime. 

“I think this is probably the most hopeful time that we have seen since the pandemic began last March, because now there’s actually a potential way out,” Dr. Avula says. “If we just get to a place where we have enough of the population vaccinated, we will slow transmission enough to see the pandemic start to subside. Now that question is, can we get enough people vaccinated?”

Systems built by the federal government through the CDC have not worked as smoothly as they needed to, Dr. Avula says, explaining the reasons behind the statewide lags. While the CDC is now revising these systems, so is Virginia.

Right now, the Commonwealth is getting about 110,000 doses of vaccine a week, between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – and that number is expected to increase. 

As the production and delivery of vaccines ramp up, so will the weekly vaccine allocation. At a press conference on Jan. 6, Governor Northam announced a new initial goal of 25,000 vaccinations a day – expecting that goal to increase to 50,000 as they get more supply. If the state manages to reach that goal, all Virginians could have access to the vaccine by summertime. 

“It’s still going to take some time to get everyone who wants the vaccine,” Gov. Northam said, during a virtual co-event featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci on Jan. 8. “We’re committed to getting there as expeditiously and accurately as possible. And I hope the majority of Virginians will get vaccinated. The vaccine is the way to stop this virus. It’s our path forward to recovery. And it’s the clearest way we’re going to get back to something that feels like normal.” 

A staffer at Central State Hospital in Petersburg receives a vaccine. Photo via Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services/Twitter

But there is still a long – social distanced and masked-up – road ahead. The distribution and administration of the vaccine is complex, as both vaccines require two doses, which must be spaced out. The Pfizer vaccine requires a second dose, also called a boost, 21 days after the first shot, while the Moderna vaccine requires a boost 28 days after the first dose. 

Studies show that effectiveness is highest 14 days after the second dose, explains Amy Popovich, nurse manager of the Henrico County and Richmond City Health districts. 

“If you increase that timeline to when the general public will have access to the vaccine … it details how important it will be for everyone to wear masks for some months to come,” Popovich says. 

Many questions remain unanswered. While scientists know the vaccines are effective protecting people from getting sick from COVID-19, Lisa M. Lee, an epidemiologist at Virginia Tech explains, it is still unknown whether it will protect us from getting infected, or from transmitting the virus to others. 

This difference is key as we attempt to reach herd immunity – having at least 70 percent of the population immune from the virus. 

“I think of it kind of like a doughnut. In the middle are people who can’t get vaccinated, and around that middle are all the people in the community who have immunity. They’ve either had the disease or … they got the vaccine, however they got it. But they have immunity,” Dr. Lee says. “And then … if a new infection comes into the community, it bounces off the edge of the doughnut and can’t get to the people in the middle. And that way, it protects them. And that’s the doughnut part, is the 75 to 85 percent.”

As long as that determinant remains unknown, experts are unanimous: continuing to wear masks and social distance will be critical to reach herd immunity. 

“We want you all to get vaccinated for your own protection, for that of your family and for your community,” Dr. Fauci said during the Jan. 8 event with Governor Northam. “However, we must remember that this is not a substitute, because until we get the overwhelming majority of the population in this country … there still will be the danger lurking in the community about transmitting viruses. And for that reason we need to continue to adhere to public health measures, until we get this outbreak completely crushed.”

A return to normalcy feels further and further away as the state attempts to speed up vaccine distribution. As many local health districts still remain focused on vaccinating eligible citizens in Phase 1a, the Virginia Department of Health announced that 11 health districts would begin Phase 1b vaccinations the week of Jan. 11. 

Governor Northam announced that 1.2 million people will be eligible for the vaccine in Phase 1b – a group that will include frontline essential workers, people age 65 and older, and people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters, or migrant labor camps.

“I think people ought to recognize that this is an extraordinarily complex logistical challenge — to do vaccination at this scale across the state, with this many different communities, with different capacities, with different needs, with different philosophies,” Dr. Avula says. 

All areas of the Commonwealth are expected to move to Phase 1b before the end of January, according to VDH. As for a potential beginning date for Phase 1c, which would include 2.5 million Virginians, the timeline becomes blurry. VDH announced it will take between several weeks and multiple months to vaccinate Virginians who fall into Phase 1b. 

Just as Virginia needed some time to hone its testing infrastructure, the trajectory on vaccines is going to follow a similar curve, as the state moves through its phases. In two to three months, we might witness a flip, where the supply of vaccines will exceed the demand, Dr. Avula says.

A Virginia Department of Corrections employee receives a vaccine. Photo via VADOC/Twitter

Then, there will only remain one challenge: overcoming the skepticism toward the vaccine, especially within minority groups. 

“I think it’s important [in] public health to understand that there’s legitimate hesitancy, particularly in our Black and brown communities,” Nurse Manager Popovich says. “And it’s our role as public health to ensure that there is equitable access to facts and to the information that’s coming out from reliable sources.”

To address vaccine hesitancy within her own health district, teams connected with individuals and communities through listening sessions, “vaccine town halls,” where health district staff answer questions.  But Popovich recognizes that to overcome the hesitancy, knowing someone who got the vaccine will be the most efficient to increase trust. 

“Then my hope is that that’s what happens in the general population as we start to open up other phases,” said Dr. Avula. “You’re gonna have people who are just more hesitant, and want to see it and want to make sure that the people they know aren’t harmed. So they’re gonna wait, and they’re gonna watch. And hopefully, as they see that people are having good success with vaccination, they will want to get vaccinated themselves.”

In just a couple of weeks, we can expect to see new vaccines entering the playing field: the Janssen vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, and the AstraZeneca vaccine — which has already been approved in the UK, Mexico, and other countries, but still needs to complete the US approval process.

“There is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel,” Popovich says. “Also, we are in the highest number of cases of COVID-19 across our nation, and we hit the devastating mark of one in 1,000 Americans having passed because of COVID-19. And so [there is] a sense of urgency to continue to be diligent, as exhausting as it is. To wear masks, to social distance, to make the safest choice possible given the situation. Because lives are at stake.”

Top Photo via Schott.com

Northam Hopes To Bring Legal Recreational Marijuana To Virginia In 2021

Anya Sczerzenie | December 7, 2020

Topics: Charniele Herring, General Assembly, Ralph Northam, Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act, Virginia marijuana laws, Virginia Marijuana Legalization Work Group

After signing a bill into law that decriminalized marijuana earlier this year, Governor Ralph Northam formally voiced his support for fully legalizing marijuana in Virginia next year. This is welcome news both for civil rights advocates and cannabis enthusiasts in the Commonwealth.

Recreational marijuana use may be legal in Virginia by 2021 — letting the Commonwealth join states such as Colorado and California, as well as neighboring Washington DC, that allow their residents to freely use cannabis. 

Governor Ralph Northam released a report by the Virginia Marijuana Legalization Work Group on Monday, November 30, which outlines five key principles the governor wants to see in any proposed marijuana legislation. These principles are: social and racial equity, public health efforts to curb substance abuse in schools, age limits and ID checks for marijuana purchasers, upholding the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act — which prohibits cigarette smoking indoors — and ongoing data collection on health, safety, and equity.

House majority leader Charniele Herring sponsored the bill that decriminalized marijuana, which was passed during the 2020 session. Herring is also a sponsor of the studies currently being done on legalization.

“This is a thorough study, so there’s no need to delay. The draft study was 175 pages,” Herring said. 

Herring says that legalization of marijuana will be beneficial for the state.

“It’s a revenue producer, and there are some benefits to its medicinal use,” Herring said. 

Del. Charniele Herring. Photo via Facebook.

Virginia already allows medical marijuana use, but the proposed legislation would legalize it entirely. 

Legalization of marijuana could also be beneficial for communities of color, specifically Black communities, who face harsher penalties for using the drug than white communities. Black Virginians are arrested and convicted for marijuana use at more than three times the rate of white Virginians, according to a report by JLARC. 

“There’s been a disproportionate impact on communities of color when it comes to enforcing marijuana laws,” Herring said. “People of color don’t use it more than white people do, but our prosecutions are disproportionate, and we will certainly combat the issue.”

Herring says that there is little that can be done for those who are currently serving jail sentences for possession of marijuana, but that their sentences can be expunged, or the records sealed, when they get out. Marijuana sentences are generally under one year and are served in jails rather than prisons. Northam’s press release states that sealing or expunging records of past marijuana convictions is one of the initiatives that the legislation should include.

Governor Ralph Northam. RVA Mag file photo.

On November 16, Northam formally voiced his support for the legalization, saying he intended to introduce and support legislation to legalize marijuana for adult use in Virginia. 

“Our Commonwealth has the opportunity to be the first state in the South to take this step, and we will lead with a focus on equity, public health, and public safety,” Northam said in the press release. 

Since 2012, 15 states and the District of Columbia have legalized all marijuana use, while 36 states — including Virginia — have legalized medical use. 

Top Photo by Next Green Wave on Unsplash

In Local and Regional Jails, a Patchwork Response to COVID-19

Henry Clayton Wickham | November 24, 2020

Topics: A Better Day Than Yesterday, Cash Bail, Colette McEachin, coronavirus, COVID-19, General Assembly, Legal Aid Justice Center, Levar Stoney, Nolef Turns, Ralph Northam, Richmond City Justice Center, Richmond Community Bail Fund, Riverside Regional Jail, Virginia Department of Corrections

State and local efforts to keep COVID out of jails have been hobbled by poor oversight and unambitious policy, advocates say.

At the time the Governor announced his early release plan, Letiesha Gordon’s son, Dayon Jones, was serving the final months of a non-violent felony sentence in Riverside Regional Jail, near Petersburg. As soon as the plan took effect, Gordon began a crusade to secure her son’s release. But when she requested an “Offender Appeal for COVID-19 Early Release” form for her son, she says the counselor she spoke with at Riverside did not even know such a form existed. 

In the months that followed, Gordon called the jail repeatedly; she emailed Mayor Levar Stoney, Governor Ralph Northam, and a senator; she sent several letters. “I know that they thought I was crazy but I was just a mother,” said Gordon, who is the founder of the non-profit A Better Day Than Yesterday, which works with incarcerated people after their release. “I didn’t even contact them on behalf of my organization because it was not about business at that point. It was about my son’s safety.”

After Initial Drop, Decarceration Stalls

This past spring the populations of local and regional jails decreased significantly. From March to April, the total population of Virginia’s jails decreased by 17 percent, and the number of people committed for misdemeanors dropped by 67 percent. However this decline was not enough to keep incarcerated people safe from COVID-19, advocates say, and in recent months the rate of releases has stalled. In October, RCJC’s incarcerated population exceeded 700 for the first time since March, rising from a low of 633 in July. Over half of those incarcerated in RCJC are pre-trial detainees, as of October, meaning they are being held prior to conviction.

“It is irresponsible to say that we’re trying to do the best for the people, but we’re placing them in positions where they could potentially die versus getting their day in court,” said Sheba Williams, who directs the non-profit Nolef Turns and serves on Mayor Stoney’s Task Force on Reimagining Public Safety.

On March 19th, as COVID spread through Virginia communities, Governor Northam declined to use his pardon power to release prisoners. Instead, his office issued guidance to local criminal justice officials suggesting they use sentence modifications, issue summonses when possible, and consider incarceration alternatives. Then a month later, in an April special session, the Virginia legislature gave the Department of Corrections (DOC) the power to release inmates with a record of good behavior and less than a year on their sentence: a category that included around 2,000 of the state’s roughly 30,000 prisoners. These statewide release policies impact local and regional jails because people with felony sentences of under three years, including Leteisha Gordon’s son, are usually held under contract in jails. 

Roughly half of those deemed eligible for release by DOC have been released to date.

Lack of Oversight 

Part of the problem, political consultant Jessica Pishko says, is that state and local officials have very little authority over sheriffs, who run local jails and serve on regional jail boards. Beyond the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” and an antiquated state law designed to prevent extra-judicial hangings, Sheriffs have almost full discretion over how, or if, they address the risk of COVID in their jails, according to Pishko. (Danville’s sheriff, for example, only made masks mandatory for jail employees after reports of a 72-person outbreak at his jail last month.)

Sheriffs also appear to have the final say on what COVID-related information is revealed to the public. According to Dr. Danny Avula, Director of the Richmond City Health District (RCHD), RCHD is not allowed to release information about COVID rates in Henrico jails or RCJC without permission from those jails’ sheriffs. This has concerning implications. If the Department of Health must have a sheriffs’ goodwill to understand and address health risks inside of local jails, health officials can hardly serve as effective watchdogs in cases of disease outbreak. “There’s little accountability, little oversight, there is zero transparency when we’re talking about the public,” said Sheba Williams, describing the COVID situation in Virginia prisons and jails.

According to Yohance Whitaker of Legal Aid Justice Center, even with significantly reduced jail populations, it is difficult to maintain social distancing in facilities like RCJC. Many local and regional jails have enforced weeks-long periods of isolation as a result. “Prisons and jails and detention facilities are known amplifiers of infectious disease,” Whitaker said. “Measures to keep the illness from spreading like social distancing [and] washing your hands on a regular basis are nearly impossible in such confining spaces.”

A number of inmates interviewed by RVA Mag also questioned the efficacy of RCJC’s lockdown measuring, claiming poor sanitation in common spaces allowed for transmission of the virus even without extended person-to-person contact. According to RCJC inmate Emanuel Crawford, his pod is cleaned once a day by incarcerated people who are not given COVID-informed sanitation guidelines. 

“You might have a lazy inmate who just say look, I’m’a clean this and it’ll be alright – and then you just jeopardized everybody,” said Crawford. “In a situation like this, you should be making it mandatory that certain things be sanitized properly. Not only at night, but in the afternoon. Give us the equipment to do this two or three times a day.”

Jail deputies frequently interact with people experiencing medical or mental health crises but, beyond a high-school education, there are no training requirements for Sheriff’s deputies in the State of Virginia. How, or whether, employees are trained is left up to each sheriff’s discretion. This leads to a dynamic, Pishko says, where deputies with minimal training and no social-work experience are given power over vulnerable, often mentally unwell individuals. “I sometimes compare jails to a hospital,” said Pishko. “Picture a hospital where none of the staff want to be there. You have a bunch of sick people, but you have nurses who are like, ‘Whatever.’ ‘I don’t feel good.’ ‘Whatever.’ It gets scary, people die.”

Riverside Regional Jail. Photo via Facebook.

Administrative Harm 

Our legal system has long been stacked against the accused, especially Black and brown people and poor people. But, along with new dangers, the pandemic has also brought new legal and administrative barriers in Richmond-area jails and courts, limiting individuals’ access to counsel and gumming up an already slow legal process, according to Richmond’s head public defender, Tracy Paner. 

In response to the pandemic, the State Supreme Court has suspended defendant’s statutory right to a “speedy trial,” eliminating the five-month maximum waiting period between trials for people facing state charges. (“Everybody awaiting trial is in a holding pattern,” Paner said in October. “There’s no way for the defense to require it to go forward.”) Meanwhile, federal jury trials were suspended back in April. In Richmond they resumed, at a much-reduced rate, in October and November. This means that, if you were incarcerated in RCJC and received a federal charge in April, you could still be behind bars awaiting your day in court. 

During this period, your access to confidential legal counsel might also have been significantly limited. Since “contact visiting” ended in March, Paner says, lawyers generally have two options for speaking with their clients: through a glass wall or by video. But if a client is in two-week quarantine, either because they are COVID-positive or have recently arrived, the jail requires lawyers to use confidential video-conferencing. This presents two problems, according to Paner. First, the video is often poor quality, and sometimes the tablets inmates use do not work at all. Second, the confidential video-conferencing may not actually be confidential.

“I have seen it, other attorneys have seen it,” said Paner. “We are exiting from the visiting area and we can hear the speaker on the deputy’s computer. We can hear another attorney’s conversation with the client. We have had deputies who think they are helping us listening because there’s a time limit on the video meetings.”

Paner said that, though the public defender’s office has been “very proactive” in seeing bond motions for people with pre-existing conditions, it has not had much success. “The judges are saying things like, well, I know somebody who had it and it wasn’t that bad,” she said, referring to COVID. Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley B. Cavedo, who blocked the removal of Confederate statues, has referred to the coronavirus in court as “the wuhan flu.”

Cash Bail Is Alive and Well

In 2018, former Commonwealth’s Attorney (CA) Michael Herring announced that prosecutors in Richmond would no longer seek cash bail for defendants awaiting trial. Though the CA’s office also adheres to this policy under Colette McEachin’s leadership, Paner says prosecutors’ actions still perpetuate the cash bail system.

“The attorneys from the commonwealth do not say the word ‘I object’ to releasing someone in the courtroom for low-level felonies,” Paner said. “But what they do is stand there with records and say, ‘In 1992, he was charged with robbery but it was dismissed.’ That means — wasn’t him, didn’t happen, couldn’t prove it. So they would stand there and bring up things, from 20 years ago or more, that weren’t convictions, in an attempt to sway the judges. The letter of the policy might be followed, but certainly not the spirit.”

“Our policy hasn’t changed,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin when asked about cash bail. “We still don’t seek cash bail in most situations. Generally, the only time we do is if the defendant is a threat to himself or others, or is a flight risk, which are the two bond determinations that are supposed to be made by statute. Ultimately, anything we recommend is up to the judge, and sometimes the judge agrees with us, and sometimes he doesn’t.”

Whether the fault lies with judges and magistrates, prosecutors, or some combination of both, Richmond’s cash bail continues apace. In early September, The Richmond Community Bail Fund identified 98 people in four local facilities incarcerated because they could not afford bail. (These numbers, acquired by raking through inmate databases and entering Freedom of Information Act Requests, are not comprehensive.) The combined cost of the bonds for these individuals was about $450,000, according to Luca Suede, co-director of the Richmond Community Bail Fund. 

“That’s about a hundred people that judges across different counties have already determined could be released,” Suede said. “Now, obviously everybody should be released. I don’t give a fuck how a judge feels. But in the State’s rhetoric — who has the kind of power to do these releases — there is already criteria that’s being deployed.”

Northam’s guidance to Virginia jails stops short of recommending bail be waived or discontinued, however. Instead, it asks jails to “consider ways to decrease the number of low-risk offenders being held without bail.” 

Protesters at Richmond City Justice Center, June 2020. Photo by Kegham Hovsepian, via Facebook.

“They can get over it together”

In May, Leteisha Gordon’s fears for her son’s safety were confirmed when Riverside Regional experienced COVID outbreak: 36 people at Riverside tested positive, including Gordon’s son. (Fortunately, Dayon Jones did not end up experiencing any serious symptoms of COVID-19.) When Gordon learned her son had tested positive and was on lockdown with another COVID-positive inmate, she called the jail to express her concerns. A sergeant, she says, told her: “They can get over it together.”

“This is somebody that’s helpless,” said Gordon. “He’s in jail. He can’t get to any kind of emergency assistance to help himself. And you don’t have his mother there, so for them to tell me that it was really heartbreaking. You have no idea.”

Finally in June, weeks after her son had tested positive for COVID-19, his counselor called him into his office with Gordon on the phone. He gave her son the form to sign and said it would take three weeks to be processed. After weeks emailing, phone calling and letter writing, Gordon had finally succeeded. A form her son should have had access to months ago — a form that, she insists, would have secured his release as a non-violent offender with asthma — had finally materialized. By that time though, it hardly mattered: Gordon’s son was scheduled to be released on July 13, three days later. 

All her effort didn’t save her son a single day in jail.

Top Photo via Riverside Regional Jail

Planning A Comeback For The Quarantine Pay Bill

Zachary Klosko | October 7, 2020

Topics: Chris Head, coronavirus, COVID-19, Elizabeth Guzman, General Assembly 2020, paid sick days, quarantine, Ralph Northam, sick leave, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

Del. Elizabeth Guzman hasn’t been able to get her bill mandating paid sick days for Virginia’s workers through the General Assembly. But she’s not going to stop trying.

Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman said she is no stranger to the struggles of low-paying jobs. She immigrated to the United States as a single mother and worked multiple minimum wage jobs just to be able to pay rent and care for her daughter.

Now, as the elected delegate for Virginia’s 31st District, she has a mission to secure better financial benefits for minimum wage workers. But it’s not going as planned.

Guzman plans to introduce a new bill to require Virginia businesses to offer paid sick days to employees during the next legislative session in January 2021. The most recent version of her bill, HB 5116, was just killed in a Senate committee after being passed by the House.

Guzman said she’s frustrated but she’s willing to keep trying.

“Most of the arguments that I heard was because businesses are hurting and it was not the right time,” Guzman said. “We hear a lot about businesses that we don’t hear about the working class, and who’s going to be fighting for them.”

Kim Bobo, the executive director for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP), said she is in favor of Guzman’s bill. Bobo said paid sick days, like getting paid a minimum wage, are basic standards employers should be able to provide for their employees without government assistance.

“We really don’t believe that public funds should be used to subsidize employers providing such a basic core standard as paid sick days,” Bobo said. “We will not include anything like that in a bill going forward.”

Being able to take paid time off can have a larger impact on the community because workers don’t have to choose between their families’ well-being and a paycheck, according to Bobo.

“They will stay home when their children are sick and they won’t send their kids to school sick, which is what happens right now,” Bobo said.

Over half of supporters of all major political parties in Virginia “strongly” or “somewhat” support mandated paid sick days. (YouGov)

Bobo isn’t the only supporter of Guzman’s bill. Eighty-three percent of Virginians support paid time off mandates, according to a September YouGov poll commissioned in part by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. In the Democrat-majority Virginia Congress however, one of the few things the delegates and senators can agree on is that businesses are hurting.

Del. Chris Head, who represents Virginia’s 17th District, voiced his concerns during the legislative special session requested by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

“This bill is going to cause businesses who might hire people to think twice about it,” Head said. “It’s going to raise their expenses for hiring people and it’s going to end up hurting many of the very people that you’re trying to help with this legislation.”

Guzman said she isn’t deterred. After Gov. Northam and First Lady Pamela Northam announced they tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 25, Guzman said she needed to quarantine; Guzman had visited a school with the First Lady just a few days prior. The quarantine is just a reminder of what Guzman is fighting for.

“Listen, there are 1.2 million Virginians out there that, if they were in the same situation that we are today, they would continue to go to work, because they don’t have a dime,” Guzman said firmly. “Please pass the message to the Governor and the First Lady.”

The next regular session of the Virginia General Assembly is scheduled to start on Jan. 13, 2021.

Top Photo: Employees at the Kung Fu Tea on West Grace Street prepare drinks while wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic. (Zachary Klosko/VCU)

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