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Rethinking Richmond’s Criminal Justice System

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Under the Virginia Holistic Justice Initiative, nonviolent criminals get a chance to fix the problems that led them to crime in the first place. 

For Richmond Public Defender Tracy Paner, going to work every day is about much more than just winning cases. 

“This is Richmond. This is the capital of the confederacy,” she said. “We have such a concentrated population of people who are living so far below the poverty line. We have multi-generations coming up through the projects.” 

But with a job description that doesn’t leave room for more than simply defending clients in court, it can be difficult to make sure that the people she represents feel taken care of, and don’t end up back in the criminal justice system again. 

“The old way of being a public defender was focusing on the criminal charge,” Paner said. She noted that it’s typically hard for public defenders to help their clients succeed, in simple ways such as getting them connected to services that will improve their lives and prevent them from re-offending. 

That’s where the Virginia Holistic Justice Initiative (VAHJI) comes in. Founded by former prosecutor Tom Barbour and public defender Jerald Hess, the VAHJI seeks to reduce recidivism, and make Virginia a safer place by providing what they call “holistic justice services” for clients referred to the initiative by public defenders. 

“Our intention is to work on the underlying problems to reduce the chance that people will have to come back to us,” Barbour explained. For the VAHJI, working on those problems means efforts like sitting with clients through substance abuse programs, or helping them find healthcare. 

“[We’re not trying to] recreate the wheel of social services that already exists — we’re trying to be the grease for that wheel,” Barbour said. The VAHJI intends to continue working with clients even after the completion of their cases to ensure that their needs are taken care of. 

United States District Court Eastern District in Richmond, Virginia.

The logic of the VAHJI is that if the problems that lead a person to commit a crime are addressed and fixed, the person will be less likely to commit a crime in the future. This helps keep people out of the criminal justice system, treat those currently in the system more humanely, and ultimately keep communities safer. 

“Right now the justice system doesn’t really ask why people get into these situations,” Barbour said. “It only asks ‘Did you do this?’ and ‘What should our response to this be?’ The Virginia Holistic Justice Initiative is interested in asking why this person is coming into the justice system, because we think the answer to that question will allow us to create outcomes that send them back into a productive life, without over-incarcerating nonviolent people.” 

Although the VAHJI is still in its pilot phase, its ultimate aim is to be so successful that the need for it to exist diminishes. 

In our best case, we don’t exist,” Barbour said. “The public defenders will be staffed and budgeted to do holistic justice, and there will be a legislative mechanism to determine whether someone is an actual, unmanageable risk.

Rather than simply asserting that their method of criminal justice is best, the VAHJI is collecting data to show, with numbers, that holistic justice is the right path for both individuals and their communities. Collecting data is also important to the VAHJI, in that it is a way for them to illustrate the results of the work they are doing in order to secure funding. 

“If you want federal grants, if you want state grants, you need to have the numbers,” Paner said. “Everyone is data driven these days, and you’ve got to be able to measure your results to tell us what you’ve got.” 

Once the VAHJI finishes its pilot phase in early August, efforts to secure fundraising will begin. Barbour anticipates that the VAHJI will fully launch in early 2020. 

With its emphasis on collecting data, the VAHJI has the potential to illustrate that a more humane, effective criminal justice system is possible. Paner said that the holistic approach to criminal justice was a “godsend” and that programs like the VAHJI are the future of defense for low-income people. 

Echoing Paner’s sentiment, Barbour underscored just how important criminal justice reform is. 

“Criminal justice reform is the social issue for my generation,” he said. “It’s our slavery, it’s our Vietnam war, it’s our civil rights litigation, it’s our apartheid. It is the most obvious problem in our country that still hasn’t been fixed.” 

With programs like the VAHJI seeking to help people rather than punish them, the criminal justice system in the United States could witness a tremendous positive change. 

Virginia’s Immigration Court Backlog Among Largest in Nation

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The first thing Abbie Arevalo Herrera is going to do when she eventually leaves sanctuary is thank God.

“He’s the one who’s allowed me to have this experience, and I feel like I’m learning a lot, things I never imagined,” Arevalo Herrera said in Spanish.

And then, she said with a pause, she’s going to the beach with her children. She finished the sentence with laughter and a smile in the basement of the Richmond church where she has lived in sanctuary since last June, when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that survivors of domestic violence no longer qualified for asylum. Arevalo Herrera was then ordered deported to Honduras, her home country that she fled after years of domestic violence at the hands of her ex-partner.

“I never imagined or dreamed of going to this country, I came because of how desperate I was,” Arevalo Herrera said. “I thought this was the farthest I could go. At least I was going to be protected from him.”

She never imagined how difficult the immigration process would be when she made the decision in 2013. She said she thought the U.S. would protect her and her daughter because they were fleeing violence.

Arevalo Herrera spent days in an “hielera” — a term meaning “icebox” that refers to immigration detention centers because of how cold they are — and was given a notice to appear in immigration court. The problem was, the notice didn’t indicate what date or time, and she missed her hearing after she was released.

PHOTO: by Carlos Bernate. Abbie Arevalo-Herrera making soy-milk while her son is peeking through the sink at the basement of the First Unitarian Universalist Church.

That, compounded with what her current lawyer Alina Kilpatrick called “one of the worst cases of legal work I’d ever seen” from previous attorneys, put Arevalo Herrera in a precarious legal situation.

Arevalo Herrera said that at one point, a lawyer simply told her he didn’t know what to do.

“Pero igual yo había pagado,” she said. But either way, she had already paid.

“We’re people, we’re human beings. I have children, and he isn’t looking at the case as a family that he’s saving — he’s just looking at it in terms of money,” Arevalo Herrera said. “I just ask that people look at us as human beings; that’s what we are.”

The problems Arevalo Herrera experienced, such as low-quality legal services and not being notified of her court date, are common, Kilpatrick said. They are symptoms of broader issues within the U.S. immigration system, which has undergone dramatic changes and seen an increasing backlog since the beginning of the Trump administration.

Most immigration judges are booked until 2022, Kilpatrick said, and though new hires have been made to alleviate the years-long wait times, that means some hearings are rescheduled for earlier dates.

“And if in your mind, you have a certain period of time to gather your evidence, maybe you haven’t done it, maybe your attorney doesn’t have time to do it when it was just set [further in the future],” Kilpatrick said. “So it becomes a very big problem.”

For three and a half years, Arevalo Herrera had check-ins with the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program — an alternative to detention for people in immigration proceedings operated by the electronic monitoring company BI Inc. — every Monday, which sometimes ate up the entire day. The same thing happened with weekly home visits, she said.

The office, located in Midlothian, was far from Arevalo Herrera’s home. She needed $40 saved by every Monday to pay for a ride to her appointment because as an undocumented immigrant living in Virginia, she can’t have a driver’s license. During this year’s General Assembly session, several legislators introduced bills that would have given undocumented immigrants driving privileges, but all of them failed.

The time commitment required by the check-ins also made finding work difficult, she said.

“You get depressed, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what to do,’” Arevalo Herrera said.

Being under supervision affected Arevalo Herrera in other ways, too. The ankle bracelet she has to wear as part of being under supervision brings unwanted attention and stigma.

“It was absolutely horrible,” Arevalo Herrera said. “I didn’t wear shorts or dresses or anything that showed the ankle bracelet because people from here, from the U.S., are afraid of people when they see they have the ankle bracelet.”

Once, in the grocery store, a mother grabbed her son and ran away when she saw Arevalo Herrera had an ankle bracelet.

“People have asked me a lot of times why I have the ankle bracelet and what it was that I did. I haven’t done anything, and I’ve tried to follow this country’s rules. I haven’t been able to resolve anything,” Arevalo Herrera said. “I just told [the people who asked], ‘Because I crossed the border.’”

The longer wait times in immigration courts mean immigrants are under supervision, and subject to the problems Arevalo Herrera faced, for longer periods of time, Kilpatrick said. According to a Syracuse University database, the average case in Virginia in 2019 has been pending for 936 days, making it the state with the third-longest wait times in the country.

Behind the backlog: Judicial changes overwhelm system

PHOTO: by Carlos Bernate. Immigration lawyer Alina Kilpatrick, Abbie Arevalo-Herrera and community organizer Flor Lopez during Sunday service at the First Unitarian Universalist Church. 

In the wake of sweeping changes to the U.S. immigration system, attorney Sarah Milad heard something from a judge that stuck with her.

“I was in court with a judge one day who said, ‘It would be really nice if there was one week where immigration law didn’t change as I’d known it for the last 20 years,’” Milad said.

Those changes include factors that Milad and other experts on immigration say have caused an immense backlog in the immigration system, including in the courts — which adjudicates immigration cases, determining whether an immigrant can remain in the U.S. — and in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which issues visas.

Virginia has the sixth-largest immigration court backlog in the nation, behind states like New York, Texas and California. As of this year, 44,779 pending cases await a hearing in the state’s sole federal immigration court in Arlington.

Of those cases, 96% are based on immigration alone, encompassing things like asylum cases and immigration violations, such as having entered the country without authorization or not leaving the U.S. after a visa expires. The remainder of the cases are based on charges related to national security or terrorism.

Though the Arlington court’s total number of cases processed annually increased by 78% from 1998 to 2019, that jump pales in comparison to the skyrocketing backlog in its docket. The number of pending cases increased by almost 1,900% from that time to now. While the backlog started increasing in Virginia’s federal immigration court in the mid-2000s, the number has doubled since 2015, and much of the increase occurred after President Donald Trump took office.

The president has repeatedly criticized the immigration courts for the backlog, even suggesting the courts be abolished. Some groups, such as the Center for Immigration Studies, have said Trump’s proposed policy changes would help reduce the number of pending cases by hiring more immigration judges and reducing incentives for undocumented immigrants to remain in the country and fight their cases. But others cite the president’s policies as reasons for the backlog.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, the director of immigration advocacy at Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, says the reason for the dramatic increase is clear: When Sessions was U.S. attorney general, he ended a process that allowed immigration judges to close a large number of cases. Administrative closure allowed judges to suspend proceedings, though it didn’t give an undocumented immigrant any legal status.

“The No. 1 sort of ‘off-ramp’ for removal proceedings is now completely closed,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “And a large number of people — supposedly every single person who’s been given that off-ramp — is going to be put back on the docket.”

Similar in effect was another Trump administration policy change, rolled out around the time of the January 2017 travel ban. While previously not all undocumented immigrants, especially those who had never had run-ins with the law, were prioritized for deportation, the change now means no group is exempt from enforcement.

Sandoval-Moshenberg and other advocates say the change has led to an increased number of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, resulting in a greater number of cases in the courts. He disagrees strongly with the measure.

“It is simply not the case, neither is it a matter of law or a matter of good public policy, that every single undocumented person that ICE comes across has to be put in deportation proceedings,” he said.

As of 2018, Virginia had the 12th-highest number of ICE arrests in the country and the eighth-largest number of removals under the Secure Communities program, under which the FBI provides fingerprints to the Department of Homeland Security to identify noncitizens. Local police departments share fingerprints with the FBI, meaning DHS has access to fingerprints from those departments. In Virginia, more than 12,000 people have been deported as a result of the program.

Before ICE’s priorities were changed by the Trump administration, most of the cases heard in immigration courts were the result of an immigrant being convicted of a crime and put in deportation proceedings, said Kevin Cope, an immigration law professor at the University of Virginia.

“[Criminal cases] tend to be simpler than many other cases because the predicate event is this criminal conviction, which is a matter of fact, it’s in the record,” Cope said.

But as a result of the end of prosecutorial discretion two years ago, which means all removable immigrants are targeted for deportation, Cope said, the courts are hearing more complex cases that take longer.

An increase in asylum applications, from migrants arriving at the southern border and from other regions, is another factor in the backlog, Cope said.

“A lot of the outcomes of asylum cases depend on what happened in a place that may be thousands of miles away,” Cope said. “It may not be easy to get access to records or get witnesses there.”

Trump recently directed his administration to tighten restrictions on asylum seekers, including introducing fees, barring anyone who crosses the border illegally from obtaining a work permit and requiring asylum applications to be adjudicated within 180 days, a drastic shift from the years-long wait times applicants currently experience. While the Department of Justice and DHS have not yet made the changes, they would serve to reduce the overall number of asylum applicants.

The rise in immigrants seeking asylum occurred during Barack Obama’s presidency, as did an increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border. Cope says that administration’s reaction to their arrival is cited by some as a reason for the increase in pending cases.

PHOTO: by Carlos Bernate. Immigration Lawyer Alina Kilpatrick sharing some words about her client Abbie Arevalo-Herrera in her birthday surrounded by family members and community advocates at the basement of the First Unitarian Universalist Church. 

When the Obama administration prioritized cases involving unaccompanied minors and families, it moved those groups to the front of the “front of the line,” Cope said, requiring judges to shift their dockets.

“It creates some amount of inefficiency when cases are shifted around like that,” Cope said.

Solutions: ‘Tremendous need’ for more resources

In a report released last month, the American Bar Association wrote that the U.S. immigration system is “on the brink of collapse.” It said there is a “tremendous need” for more resources.

Immigration attorney Sarah Milad — who is part of Northern Virginia’s Just Families, an organization that aids immigrants — agrees. She said hiring more judges, which the Trump administration paused in March days before outlining a plan to hire 100 more, would help alleviate the issue.

Better access to attorneys would also help, she said. When immigrants are unable to afford a lawyer, they sometimes have to ask for continuances to prolong their cases while they search for representation, pro bono or otherwise.

“They’re often asking questions of the judge who’s trying to help them navigate their legal rights without an attorney,” Milad said. “There is some effort to do universal representation in certain localities, so when there is funding available for non-profit attorneys, pro bono attorneys to provide services, then more staff can be hired and more people can be helped.”

But a number of experts, and the American Bar Association, agree that the very structure of the immigration courts, which fall under the control of the attorney general and DHS, needs to change. That would mean making them Article I courts, in line with bankruptcy courts, or creating a new executive agency under which they would operate.

“I think we have to start being very radical about how we look at this problem,” said Alina Kilpatrick, Abbie Arevalo Herrera’s lawyer. “We have bankruptcy courts that have independent judges — we can make immigration courts independent and have a smoother process.”

According to Cope, working under a political appointee like the attorney general reduces the independence of judges. An independent judiciary would “improve the quality of justice” for many immigrants.

“It’s hard to have faith in a system when the person who decides your case works for” a political appointee, Kilpatrick said. “An independent judiciary would be much better equipped to handle this problem because I think a lot of the judges are very intelligent people and have great ideas on how to fix this — or at least make it better.”

For Arevalo Herrera, fixing the immigration system would be a step toward equality for immigrants.

“How can we change this, to truly have equality among human beings?” Arevalo Herrera asked. “We came here in search of better opportunities, for a better quality of life, to be safe. That’s all we ask for, safety. And they don’t see us like that — they see us as criminals.”

Written by Georgia Geen, Capital News Service.

Prison Reform Advocates Call for Change to Solitary Confinement in Virginia 

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David Smith doesn’t cut the figure of a man who’s been to prison, let alone one who spent more than a year in solitary confinement.

Dressed in a button-up white shirt, with tan khakis and a blue blazer, the impression Smith gives is more of a white collar worker. This impression isn’t out of place in the homely lower level of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, which served as the setting for a forum on Virginia solitary confinement on October 27. For Smith, this misconception is one of many aspects of a long-standing issue that prison-reform advocates want the state to address. 

“When I meet with a Senator or Delegate, and I say ‘Yeah, hey, my name’s David, I spent sixteen-and-a-half months in solitary,’ the jaws drop,” Smith said. “And all of a sudden, it’s no longer that guy from the bad side — it’s ‘This could be my son, this could be my brother right here.’ So that begins to change the conversation.” 

For Virginia, one of the most recent shifts in that conversation came in May with a 67-page report from the ACLU of Virginia. The report detailed the extent of “the negative impacts of solitary confinement as practiced in Virginia, the systemic difficulties prisoners have in escaping it and returning to the general population, and the State’s failure to exclude individuals with serious mental health problems from solitary confinement.” 

The report was preceded by a letter to Governor Ralph Northam calling on him to sign an executive order that would limit the practice in Virginia. This request was joined by more, urging for state action from multiple advocacy and religious groups in the weeks following the report’s publication. These came largely through the Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR), a coalition whose member organizations reside in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, and for which Smith serves as a representative. 

As detailed by Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass, Vice-chairperson of the IAHR, the lack of forward movement on this matter from state officials leaves many prisoners subject to a system of incarceration that includes “putting inmates in a cell that’s basically the size of a parking space.” 

“When an individual is put into solitary confinement, they are participating in an illegal court,” Snodgrass said. “You have security guards with a high-school education looking at inmates, giving them time — in some instances, more time than a judge gives them in a courtroom. And this is the issue.” 

On October 27, Smith moderated a panel of speakers that included former inmate, author, and community advocate Tommy Cox; Jenkins-Snodgrass; and Bill Farrar and Mateo Gasparotto of ACLU-VA. Jenkins-Snodgrass was open about effects that “the United States’ best-kept secret” had for her son, Kevin D. Snodgrass Jr., his health, and a loving family. 

“When we say ‘stop solitary confinement,’ we’re not saying open the floodgates and let everybody out of jail,” Snodgrass said. “We’re just saying to treat them like human beings while they’re in there.” 

The details of the years Snodgrass says her son spent in solitary confinement are a far cry from the statements that the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) has given in the past. They also contrast heavily with VADOC’s recent attempts to better the treatment of its prisoners. These include a 21-month initiative started in early 2017 with the Vera Institute of Justice, focused on reducing the use of what officials call “restrictive housing,” among other efforts. 

“When it comes to state prisons, Virginia stands out for operating a corrections system without the use of solitary confinement,” VADOC wrote in a press release posted the same day the ACLU report documenting widespread use of the practice was released. VADOC’s press release noted the praise it’s received from Governor Ralph Northam and the U.S. Department of Justice. “The Virginia Department of Corrections serves as a national model for the limited use of restrictive housing.” 

These statements and measures constitute some of the few pieces of public information available about the experiences of Virginia’s prisoners, something the panel repeatedly emphasized during the discussion. 

“This is a completely unregulated practice,” said Farrar, who serves as ACLU-VA’s communications director. “There’s nothing in the Virginia Code that even says what solitary confinement is, and that allows the Department of Corrections to lie about it.” 

“They say they don’t do it. They do.” 

In the absence of more accessible research or data on the state of Virginia’s prisons and their treatment of offenders, groups like ACLU-VA & IAHR and individuals like Tommy Cox are more than willing to fill in the gaps. 

“The people that came to the cell were nasty. They talk to you any kind of way, you took one shower once a week, and it was living hell,” said Cox, who described the physical degradation he suffered as the result of the conditions in solitary across two incarcerations, totaling almost 40 years. Cox’s time included one confinement which lasted three consecutive years during a stint in a New Mexico prison as a Virginia offender, which made him the very first inmate in the Commonwealth to be shipped out of state. 

Other testimonies and criticisms ranged from the withholding of food by guards to the mental effects solitary confinement has on inmates and the lack of accountability present in the VADOC and other agencies. Even the measures taken by the VADOC to create easier pathways out of “restrictive housing,” namely the Administrative Step-Down Program instituted in 2012, were sharply criticized for resulting in harsher treatments for Hispanic and African-American inmates. 

“Their treatment is completely arbitrary, there’s no sense of cohesion, and there’s no sense of fairness or justice,” said Gasparotto, who has spoken with several inmates at the Wallens Ridge and Red Onion State Prisons. The latter was the focus of a hunger strike by prisoners in 2012 as well as an HBO documentary released in February. It is part of an investigation into prison abuse by Attorney General Claude Walker of the Virgin Islands. 

“Ultimately, their goal is institutional control,” said Gasparotto, who works in ACLU-VA’s Legal and Public Policy departments, of the VADOC. “It’s not about rehabilitation, it’s not about building you back as a human being, it’s about you serving your time, keeping quiet, and getting out the door. And when you step out of line… solitary confinement is used.” 

The solutions the panel recommended to help in solving this problem proved to be the same method that defined much of the discussion — speaking up against solitary confinement, and championing the humanity of those incarcerated. 

Audience members were asked to call their representatives. Lobbying by the ACLU-VA has already led to the introduction of a “reporting bill” into the Virginia House of Delegates ahead of the 2019 General Assembly by Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, that would, according to Farrar, “help us understand who is being held in solitary confinement, why, for what reason, for how long,” and lead to further legislative action. Efforts are underway to introduce similar a similar bill in the Senate, in addition to continued advocacy work focused on the Northam Administration. 

Delegate Hope was one of several people the speakers mentioned as “interested” in tackling the issue of solitary confinement — including legislators in both the Democrat and Republican parties — who “are waiting to see who will move first,” said Snodgrass. 

“Not everybody in the state government is turning a blind eye to this. There are advocates within the system,” Smith said. 

One of those advocates, Peter Wells, who ran as a Libertarian against A. Donald McEachin and Ryan McAdams in Virginia’s 4th District, was present to share his thoughts. Touting the prominence of criminal justice reform as part of his platform, Wells impressed on the audience the potential attention this issue would receive if his campaign made a strong impact in the midterms. 

While McEachin eventually claimed a sizable victory in last Tuesday’s midterms elections, with Wells pulling in around 1% of the overall vote, the then-Senatorial candidate was optimistic he would have the chance to bring the topic into a wider spotlight. 

“I’ve already had one offer to sit down after the election and talk about some issues,” Wells said. “So I’m going to get some logging time with whoever wins just by coming out of this.”

As for Smith, he and other advocates are already looking ahead to next year’s local elections to establish connections with politicians sympathetic to their goals, regardless of party affiliation. 

“Because you need to have that across the board,” Smith said. “It’s not a left issue, it’s not a right issue. This is a human rights issue.” 

Photos by George Copeland

Mayoral Candidate Ben Davenport’s Millennial Vision for Virginia’s Largest City

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If Ben Davenport is elected Mayor of Virginia Beach, the 38-year-old city councilor and mayoral candidate will join the fast-growing ranks of millennial officeholders in Virginia. The surge of young politicians has changed the focus of elected governments, and outside impressions of the areas they serve. Perhaps the most comparable figure to Davenport is Richmond’s Mayor Levar Stoney, 37, who he credits as inspiring his run.

“Levar Stoney has been an inspiration to me. I want to emulate what he’s done down here,” Davenport said. “Look at the success he has had. When people look at Richmond now, they see a young, vibrant city with a great future ahead of it. That’s what I think I can do, not only for Virginia Beach but for the whole region of Hampton Roads.”

At the crux of Davenport’s sales pitch to voters is a promise to extend the work he’s already done as a city councilor, bringing new jobs in the technology industry to an economy that currently relies on defense, tourism, and agriculture. On city council, Davenport established a technology initiative council that helped bring “the two most powerful subsea cables in the world, in partnership with Microsoft, Facebook, and Telefonica, and now we are finalizing a deal with Google to build a third and a fourth cable.” These cables carry internet traffic from America to Europe, and the upcoming cables will connect Virginia Beach to Africa and South America. While he sees places to expand and strengthen the existing industries, he stressed the importance of adding technology as a fourth, all part of “creating a 21st-century economy for the region.”

At the national technology conferences he attends, seeking to lure major employers to his city, he said he’s already seeing results. “The transatlantic cables have created a buzz around the nation about Virginia Beach,” Davenport said. In the past, he found himself having to start conversations with an explanation of where Virginia Beach is located. Now, he says the companies come to him, reciting a litany of technological advancements the region has made that brought it to their attention.

Virginia Beach has the potential to be the major East Coast digital port for data cables, an industry that requires the support of data centers and high-tech jobs, and Davenport is banking on the fast-growing technology industry to combat one of the major problems he sees for the area: the “brain drain” of talented young people leaving for college and never coming back. “We’re creating a technology cradle that is going to be very beneficial to our younger generation, creating the type of opportunities that keep our youngest from leaving for Denver, Los Angeles, and New York. We want to keep our best and brightest,” he said.

Pointing to the Equinix data center in Ashburn, Virginia, and the data cable plans he has for his city, Davenport said southeast Virginia has the potential to lead the nation on technology. Mostly, he plans to use tax structure incentives to bring large technology firms to the area, but said the cables alone will pull in firms who want to use the data cables. He said, “One of the reasons that Facebook went to the White Oak technical park [in Henrico] was because of the latency range to the cable landing station, in Virginia Beach.” The potential is high; the city currently has four cables built or in the works, and is close to launching a first-of-its-kind cable landing protected zone, which would leave space for 18 additional transatlantic cables. Davenport points to aging cables in Boca Raton, Florida, and New Jersey, and predicts the major carriers will make the leap to Virginia Beach because of its better natural environment for the cables and its proximity to the data center in Ashburn.

Building out the region requires better transportation to Richmond, Davenport said, invoking again his admiration for the mayorship of Stoney. With the I-64 project and Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel projects completed or in their final planning stages, he said high-speed rail would be the next investment.

Ben Davenport. Photo by Landon Shroder

While Davenport sees a bright future for Virginia Beach, he’s also watching the challenges the municipality faces. Chief among those is climate change, which threatens the United States Navy base and the tourism economy that’s developed since the ’70s when Virginia Beach was mostly known for soybean fields. “Sea level rise is something that everybody on the East Coast is dealing with right now,” he said, stressing that he’d combat the problem with a focus on regional collaboration. He said the status quo was “one city going at it alone,” despite Virginia Beach’s shared borders with the largest cities in the commonwealth. “You have the three largest independent cities that share a border, we need to be working in unison on this. Former administrations have seen the borders … but those days are over.”

In the long-term, even a regional solution isn’t enough, Davenport said. He learned about engineering solutions in the Netherlands, while taking a detour from a trip to look at data operations last year. In particular, he came back with an appreciation for the tide gates and dams created in Holland, “the gold standard” in engineering solutions for sea level change. “These are enormous undertakings, and they weren’t taken on by the local municipalities. They were taken on by the entire country and the European Union, because they realized the importance the Netherlands has. The largest ports in Europe are there.” Like the Netherlands, Hampton Roads is low-lying and will be particularly hard-hit by rising sea levels. Also like the Netherlands, Hampton Roads is home to a major port, and Davenport hopes that as Virginia Beach’s mayor, he can turn the region into an economic zone that will motivate a similar scale response from the state and the nation.

For the safety and future of the region, he said, “That’s what’s going to have to happen here.”

Self-Confessed Pedophile and White Supremacist Running for Congress in Virginia

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In what can only be described as one of the most disturbing political interviews ever, The Huffington Post recently spoke with a congressional candidate for Virginia’s 10th District who confessed to being a pedophile. When asked about being a pedophile and writing about pedophilia, he readily admitted, “It’s a mix of both. When people go over the top there’s a grain of truth to what they say.”

Nathan Larson, a 37-year-old accountant from Charlottesville, is apparently running to replace incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock, whose district includes, Clarke, Frederick, Loudoun, Manassas, Winchester, and parts of Fairfax, and Prince William County.

Running as an independent, Larson’s campaign platform is apparently that of a “quasi-neoreactionary libertarian”. Among the litany of bat-shit issues he is running on, is “benevolent white supremacy”, patriarchy, “putting an end to U.S. involvement in foreign wars arising from our country’s alliance with Israel”, (a blatant anti-semitic dog-whistle), and freedom from age restrictions – an endorsement of sexual relations with minors.

Nathan Larson

According to the Huffington Post, Larson has participated in multiple websites and messaging boards for pedophiles and talked extensively about child rape and other forms of gratuitous sexual assault. One such post made under the pseudonym “Lysander”, which identifies him as the administrator, not only directly referenced relations with his daughter, but also said, “Once sex with kids is legalized, I imagine the competition to get in their pants will be fierce.”

Image by Huff Post

In the interview, Larson thankfully acknowledged that he does not have custody of his daughter, relinquishing custody rights in 2015, right before his ex-wife committed suicide. He has also made posts on the now defunct website called Incelocalypse, titled, “Here’s how to psyche yourself up to feel entitled to rape”. The post, reflective of the misogyny and potential violence surrounding incel culture and sub-culture, provides advice for men who believe they should remain celibate due to how they perceive their own physical appearance.  “Why not establish a claim to rape any and all girls,” the post finished by saying, “If it weren’t a disproportionate reward for taking risk…then no one would bother to take risks, and humanity would stagnate.”

Image by Huff Post

The potential for violence surrounding incel culture and sub-culture came about recently after Alex Minassian drove a van into a crowd of people in Toronto killing 10 and wounding 15. On his Facebook page before the incident, he left a message on his feed that said, “The incel rebellion has begun!”.

Larson’s campaign platform “manifesto” is also littered with anti-Semitic language including praise for Adolph Hitler and saying things like, “Jews will cite the Holocaust as an example of the dangers of white supremacist movements. But Jewish supremacists have also brought about the deaths of Gentiles for millennia…it is in the best interests of all races that whites defeat the Jews in the fight for supremacy in America.” This is followed by a call for “benevolent white supremacy” saying, “Like every other human being, I am indeed racist…What makes whites (or at least, the more highly-evolved whites) different from other races is our cultural creativeness.”

Anti-Semitic Imagery Accompanying Larson’s Manifesto

Larson’s pedophilia is woven together with an ideology that fuses a hatred of feminism with a need for upholding the patriarchy by doing away with age restrictions which govern things like the age in which someone can consent to marry. He states that women who marry “the man to whom she gives her virginity is more likely to have a successful marriage than a woman who has had other sexual relationships prior to marriage.” He goes on to state that the average marriageable age should be 17.5 years old. More reprehensibly, he claims pedophilia and “adult-child” sex is only prohibited because of the “Overton window” – a political theory which states that the public will only entertain a certain kind of discourse publically – based on a scale of extremes – and how the issues fit within this scale.   

This is not the first time Larson has run for office, in 2008, he ran for the House of Delegates. According to Ballotpedia, his campaign website claimed his platform was running on the single issue of legalizing “Dignitas-style assisted suicide clinics in Virginia.”

In 2008, Larson was also arrested for sending a letter to the Secret Service saying he was going to kill then President Obama, landing him in prison for 14 months. In 2016, then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored civil rights to thousands of felons throughout the Commonwealth, including Larson, allowing him to run for Congress.

Grim.

The Revolution Is Female

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“I believe that women are running for office–I’m sorry, I’m working and just…”

I heard a scuffling of papers in the background while Delegate Hala Ayala paused, early in our conversation about a wave of women candidates elected to the Virginia House of Delegates this past November.

“…Doing a lot. This surge of women are finding out that after this election, and after the Women’s March, we have to have a seat at the table, versus being on the menu. Women are stepping up and striking out against those injustices. We’re saying this is no longer acceptable.”

The scuffling continued, but Ayala, focused, finished our interview and her paperwork without further distraction.

Originally printed in RVA #32 Spring 2018, you can check out the issue HERE or pick it up around Richmond now. 

Multitasking is just one of her many strengths. She’s a single mother of two who served on former Gov. McAuliffe’s Council of Women. She’s a cybersecurity specialist who worked for the Department of Homeland Security and founded the Prince William County chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She helped organize the Women’s March in Washington this past year and now she’s the delegate for the 51st District in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

And she’s just the beginning.

In the 2017 election cycle, 11 new female Democratic delegates were voted into the General Assembly. This made the total number of women in the General Assembly (GA) rise from 17 to 27, including four Republican delegates – the highest we’ve ever had.

Delegate Vivian Watts described the recent election as a tipping point, saying, “Critical mass is when you reach about a third, so at 27 [women] we’re pretty close to critical mass.” In social dynamics, critical mass means there is a large enough number of independent changes in the innovation of a social system that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth. It creates a tradition of collective action, meaning enough people have committed to a cause that they devote themselves to that common cause.

Watts represents the 39th House District, a seat she has held intermittently since 1982. “I really do find some element of that critical mass” after the recent election, she said. “I know for myself, that I’m much more willing, or I feel much more comfortable speaking out on some issues because I know [there is] a better understanding of the issue around me. There’s only one thing worse than just enduring in silence, and that is to say something and have it absolutely dismissed.”

Watts has had a distinguished career, including service on over 35 boards and citizen task forces, and is the author of two books on criminal justice. She’s been a state legislative aide, president of the Fairfax League of Voters, and has two children and four grandchildren. She remembers when the few women who were in the House simply did not appear after hours at social functions.

“You can’t do business that way, especially when we have such short six and eight-week sessions,” Watts said. “You’ve got to get to know each other. That was one of the things I was determined, when I got elected, [that] I would be sure and participate as much as I possibly could. [I was determined] to also make sure that I kept relaxed and kept a sense of humor. Just try to be more part of a collegial setting, rather than assuming that there wasn’t a place for me.”

Watts says it’s far more common for women to have real connections with the other female members of the General Assembly. The shared experience among the women in the GA allows for a larger conversation than the male-dominated discussions of the past, and Watts knows she can stand up, talk about an issue pertinent to women, and have it understood by at least one-third of the room. “I look to ever greater influence, in the years to come, of this shared experience being a part of the legislative considerations about what really is in the best interest of all involved,” she said.

The number of women in office is just one of many significant firsts from the November elections, especially for the Democratic delegates.

Kathy Tran, who represents the 42nd district, is the first Asian-American to serve in the GA. She fled from Vietnam with her parents at just seven months old, on a perilous sea journey. Delegates Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzman are the first Latino women in the GA. Local journalist Danica Roem became the first transgender person to ever be elected to a state legislature, and Dawn Adams, a nurse practitioner who also works for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, is the first openly lesbian delegate.

In total, 43 Democratic women, nine Republican women, and one independent ran in House races in 2017. Those numbers are record-breaking.

Emily Brewer (R), a small business owner and delegate representing the 64th House District, attributes the change to modern technologies and abilities, which she says make it easier for women to juggle their lives and also feel empowered to bolster change. “There are a lot of women now that are small business owners and leaders, entrepreneurs, and it’s a different time for women to really lead. And I think that’s led to having more women in politics,” Brewer said. “I don’t see a marked difference [in the GA]. What I do see is a sense of excitement, especially since women have more representation on both sides of the aisle.”

Ayala, along with several other women who ran for office this past year, sees the change as a direct result of dissatisfaction with the current president. “I left everything I knew and my blanket of security because I was unwilling to sit on the sideline and watch this leader that we have, of the free world that I honor and am so proud of, implement the policies in my backyard that he plans to implement,” Ayala said. “He comes with every attribute I don’t believe a leader should have.”

Another debut this election cycle was the #MeToo movement, which Watts sees as a major factor in women running for office and winning elections. She sees the movement as a way to not only address predatory sexual behavior but to go farther and tackle the systematic patriarchal power structure that has oppressed women, including herself, for centuries.

“It’s the fact that women in a professional setting are so often put into a no-win situation,” Watts said. “What you have in the Me Too movement is also that expression of, ‘I want to be the whole person that I am professionally as well as be a woman. I don’t want to have to be in a situation where that is compromised or dismissed.’ The Me Too movement I see is far more than just the issue of broadly stated sexual harassment.”

Not only are women sitting at the table, they’re bringing their experiences to it. Delegate Brewer, who was adopted, has already passed a new bill supporting and amending foster parent adoption. As many new mothers and women bring their dynamic life roles to the House, they are swaying the conversation.

“My interest is in looking at policy from a holistic lens that takes into account the interconnectedness of life experience and how we make policy that supports quality outcomes in our lives,”  said Dawn Adams, who represents the 68th House District. “I put forward a bill to create the Commission for a Healthy Virginia. I think that’s a different kind of suggestion than male counterparts make, in that it’s a really broad lens on how we get to where we want to go, looking at it from an all-encompassing perspective, rather than just piecemeal and trying to put out fires from a policy perspective.”

Social movements like #MeToo are not lost on these women. They talk about community fears with empathy and foresight, where those concerns were previously dismissed as unimportant or matters of personal weakness. One policy, in particular, stands out to Delegate Watts as vital.  

“We need to have a comprehensive workplace harassment policy so that the public feels very comfortable about what the procedures are, should they be concerned about anything that they are experiencing or that happened to them,” Watts said. “It needs to be broadly defined to include all of the public, not just employees of the GA, and I believe strongly that it needs to include our activities year-round. It’s not just walking in here for eight weeks in the building that has my desk in my office, but it is the entire interface with the public. They need to have that comfort level where there is full protection as well as proper procedures to make sure there is nothing where people might use their position of power inappropriately.”

Small changes have been enacted at the GA already, such as the addition of two nursing rooms, but some delegates say the changes don’t address systemic issues and hurdles.

“We cannot let up over the next couple of years, and we need to have that voice of diverse women jumping in,” Adams said. “If we’re just sitting in seats and we’re not able to make effective policy, we haven’t helped anyone. We have to stay engaged and I hope that more women with more diverse life experience will get in and support each other.”

Adams worries that because of the influx of Democratic Party members to a GA still dominated by Republicans, a vein of contention has been sliced open, driven by a fear of losing control. “My personal perception is that nothing has changed,” she said. “It may even not be as Democratic-friendly because of the big shift in people who are now in the GA.”

She says most bills proposed by Democrats are killed at the subcommittee level, often moving to pass by them indefinitely. “It kind of doesn’t matter how strong the policy, or what the policy might have to say,” Adams said. “There seems to be a very regimented process where you can almost tick the boxes. It’s prescriptive.”

Despite the challenge, Adams says this is exactly why women, or anyone with new ideas to tackle patriarchy, cannot back down. Critical mass has just begun. It’s time to create further growth.

Our vision of a typical politician is changing because of these women. They’re delegates, but they are also mothers, grandmothers, small business owners, advocates, nurses, cybersecurity analysts, authors, artists, humans. And they’re angry. And they’re doing something about it.

“Women are no longer willing to remain silent or on the sidelines,” Ayala said. “We’re grabbing our clipboards, we’re grabbing our sneakers, and we’re knocking the hell out of a lot of doors to make a lot of change.” And that’s all before lunch.