APPROVE this bill. It is much needed addition to 19.2-306.1 which disallows the CW of VA to play games with incarceration while holding people for idiotic 'violations' often caused by megalomaniac probation officers wielding outsized power. One judge in Loudoun County actually declared this law unconstitutional! He was a former prosecutor. The "legal" system is already skewed badly in favor of the CW and no evidence has ever been offered that making things worse for probationers improves public safety. Instead, we have three years where the law seems to be working.
In my case, my probation officer had me arrested TWICE. Once, on the word of vigilantes who were upset that I wasn't yet serving my time (for a crime I did not, would not, commit) who claimed I was attempting to meet up with a child. Second time - I was arrested because I was in a hotel lobby near me accessing the computer to find a job at 6 am before VEC opened. The probation officer tracked me there with my ankle bracelet, and even though I was approved to use a computer, she ASSUMED I must be there to meet a child, and arrested me anyhow -- because, as she said, children stay at hotels. Another time, she threatened me because I had a house guest trapped in USA during covid, and then called my relatives in another state and got them to put a protective order against me so I could not see my mother as she slipped into dementia. When I finally got to see my mother five years later, she no longer recognized me.
Holding people in prison or jail merely feeds the already bloated prison-industrial complex.
APPROVE this bill. It is much needed addition to 19.2-306.1 which disallows the CW of VA to play games with incarceration while holding people for idiotic 'violations' often caused by megalomaniac probation officers wielding outsized power. One judge in Loudoun County actually declared this law unconstitutional! He was a former prosecutor. The "legal" system is already skewed badly in favor of the CW and no evidence has ever been offered that making things worse for probationers improves public safety. Instead, we have three years where the law seems to be working. In my case, my probation officer had me arrested TWICE. Once, on the word of vigilantes who were upset that I wasn't yet serving my time (for a crime I did not, would not, commit) who claimed I was attempting to meet up with a child. Second time - I was arrested because I was in a hotel lobby near me accessing the computer to find a job at 6 am before VEC opened. The probation officer tracked me there with my ankle bracelet, and even though I was approved to use a computer, she ASSUMED I must be there to meet a child, and arrested me anyhow -- because, as she said, children stay at hotels. Another time, she threatened me because I had a house guest trapped in USA during covid, and then called my relatives in another state and got them to put a protective order against me so I could not see my mother as she slipped into dementia. When I finally got to see my mother five years later, she no longer recognized me. Holding people in prison or jail merely feeds the already bloated prison-industrial complex.