You’ll have to excuse your humble correspondent here if everything Governor McAuliffe proposes isn’t met with a jaundiced eye.
At the end of the day, we have a schmoozer-in-chief, someone more apt to cutting deals and looking for political advantage rather than the hard work of governance.
…at least, so goes the image.
On the other side of the coin, any honest observer has to believe that McAuliffe honestly wants to accomplish something during his tenure in the Executive Mansion, right? Can one truly hope?
We saw some glimmers of hope this weekend with McAuliffe’s push to explore parole again in Virginia, a direct stab at the heart of former Governor George Allen’s reforms during his arguably watershed tenure as governor — one that continues to craft the environment we live in today.
The editorial page of the Free Lance-Star took a look at McAuliffe’s proposals… and weighed their concerns:
Before the change, the Virginia Parole Board could begin to consider supervised release of defendants who had served as little as one-fifth of the prison sentence they’ve been given in court, if they behaved themselves while incarcerated.
That meant that a defendant sentenced to 10 years in prison could at least begin hoping for release after two years were served.
A sentence of life in prison did not mean life in prison. It meant a defendant could be out in a decade.
That fact was largely unknown except to those close to the criminal justice system—prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and probation and parole officers.
The editors at the FLS are willing to wait and see. Obviously, doing something with regards to non-violent criminals needs to be desperately addressed. The prison-for-profit schematic that has members of the judicial system investing in businesses that profit off of the incarceration of others is deplorable at best. Worse still, the fact that Virginia spends more on corrections than on public education is a number that deserves an overwhelming reversal.
Some part of the problem remains in the way Virginia’s government works: resistant to change, allowing governors to ultimately operate on one big idea during their terms.
Prison reform is desperately needed. Education reform and restructuring how Virginia pays for public education is desperately needed as well. More reliable funding and more regional planning with regards to transportation is desperately needed. Building a state exchange for health care that is based on the free market (HSAs + HDIPs) rather than muddling in federal Obamacare expansion would be a project worthy of any reformer. Infrastructure surrounding the Port of Virginia, restoring our flagging business rankings, focusing on the Dulles Tech Corridor as an investment and innovation center, developing and marketing the Piedmont into an agri-tourism showcase (yes — it can be done!), weaning Virginia away from the federal government — these are all things where Virginia can and ought to be capitalizing upon.
In the meantime, Virginians have to wonder whether or not our schmoozer-in-chief is serious about any of these things.
With regards to re-examining Virginia’s parole system, a distinction between non-violent offenders and violent offenders remains the key. Restoring the rights of those who have spent 20 years rotting away in prisons is something else that ought to be examined with regards to recidivism rates and the like. Moreover, if parole is to be discussed, then a total (bi-partisan and mutli-faceted) re-examination of Virginia’s corrections system should be on the table as well — perhaps not for action during the McAuliffe administration, but for the next governor to examine and execute with the input of the General Assembly.
Virginia has an opportunity to lead in so many different areas. One can only hope that Governor McAuliffe will choose at least one.
