Hb308 Vote no

This practice is so detrimental to the well-being of all people. It has been studied and confirmed to cause more harm than good and it is well past time to discontinue. We need oversight of the jails and prisons to assure it stops.

This practice is so detrimental to the well-being of all people. It has been studied and confirmed to cause more harm than good and it is well past time to discontinue. We need oversight of the jails and prisons to assure it stops.

The end of solitary confinement must be done My son was murdered in solitary confinement at Red Onion Prison in Pound Va on 1/3/22.

No! Just vote NO!! I do not support this bill!! Most of the men and women in our prisons and jails have been incarcerated since they were juveniles. If they have spent more than 20, 30 plus years in prison, they should be released.....don't make it conditional. If they didn't enter prison as geriatric offenders then VADOC should have rehabilitated them within the 20 plus years they served in prison. If not, then we need to reevaluate our system and start putting pressure on this state to ensure they receive PROPER counseling and drug/substance abuse services as well as education. If we want safer streets, we, as a society and community, will have to offer things that they did not receive in their youth. Geriatric individuals have such a low recidivism rate......just release them! This state is wasting money and the tax payers are sick of it. Clean up your act or let someone else come in and do a better job.

We strongly oppose this bill. If we have an effective Department of Correction we need to recognize those who have demonstrated clear signs of rehabilitation over many years. Or rename the DOC the Department of Perpetual Punishment.

We strongly oppose this bill. If we have an effective Department of Correction we need to recognize those who have demonstrated clear signs of rehabilitation over many years. Or rename the DOC the Department of Perpetual Punishment.

This set of bills came to my attention in an e-mail from King Salim Khalfani who I first met at a summit of leaders noting Harrisonburg's Martin Luther King, Jr. Way street renaming. The renaming and the summit were initiated by the late Stan Maclin, who I assisted with research in the renaming and as secretary in the Harrisonburg Martin Luther King, Jr. Way Coalition. Last Monday, the Coalition celebrated the tenth anniversary of the dedication of that street. Leaders from organizations that had drawn thousands in festivals, advocacy, and service events over the course of the year, braved harsh weather and a pandemic surge to organize and attend this special instance of Harrisonburg's annual celebration known as People's Day. We were led in prayer by the Rabbi from our local congregation on a theme of seeing the humanity of our fellow human beings. The Rabbi's words, in this context, echoed Dr. King's message in his April 4th, 1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam, that to get beyond continually having to protest the brutality of wars over there, our society needed to undergo a radical revolution in values that would lead us to end the systemic brutality to our fellow human beings, starting right here. I thus submit my comments to oppose brutality toward our fellow human beings in our criminal legal system. Harrisonburg's street renaming showed another way. After the street renaming, communities unaccustomed to having a say over their own governance for a time felt represented. Our city bloomed and our incarceration rate plummeted to global levels that neither brutality nor reforms could reach. I tracked these numbers from my position as economic adviser to Judge John Paul's committee on alternatives to incarceration where those results quickly persuaded me that my task was completed: what we were doing, building a better community inspired by the economic vision of Dr. King's final year, was already better than what could be achieved within the criminal legal system. I hope we can reduce the brutality we inflict, and look to reducing incarceration and increasing community resilience to lower the chance of whatever negative events the brutality aspires to counter. I thus write in support of: HB159 and HB726 and in opposition to HB308 .

Yet another appalling bill aimed to continue perpetual punishment! It is bad enough that DOC rations educational opportunities and does not allow the elderly incarcerated to participate, but to further restrict these citizens, some of whom were forced due to extortive plea deals to plead guilty when they were in fact innocent; or, in the alternative, when they have suffered all manner of issues in prison due to aging. Vote AGAINST this bill.

I am a member of the Valley Justice Coalition and we strongly oppose HB308 Ballard Geriatric prisoners; conditional release. Research has shown that people age out of crime and with geriatric prisoners costing the State of VA as much as $50,000 each per year, it is not the time to broaden the warehousing of geriatric people who are no threat to public safety. Please vote NO against this bill.

Comments Document

As a victim who recently dealt with geriatric parole for the first time I ask that you support HB 308. See attached for more information on my experience. Thanks, Paige O'Shaughnessy