WHY THE NEWLY MINTED "PAROLE" LAW--[and I place Parole in quotes] --VIRGINIA CODE 53.1-151.1---ISN'T A STEPPING STONE BUT ANOTHER TIRED BRICK IN THE WALL By William Thorpe

Pictures are taken from the internet and are used for illustrative purposes only

First of all it passed The Virginia House of Delegates as HB-1030 without any dissenting vote, then it passed the Virginia Senate unanimously and anything and I mean anything, that presently can receive consensus, meaning reactionary and supremacist Republicans agreeing with Democrats Nationally or State doesn't bode well, especially when the issue is Prisoner related, as such it clearly fits the bill of that proverbial mouth of a "gift horse".This newly minted Virginia law 53.1-151.1,titled SUITABILITY FOR RELEASE ON PAROLE DISCRETIONARY PAROLE CRITERIA GUIDELINES, is for all purpose practically insidious. It came out of a frame work structured by a couple of Virginia prisoners, Jonathan White and David Carmichael who like a sizable amount of Virginia prisoners, should be exempt from, Virginia's abolishment of parole but are being illegally and slyly subjected to it and violated, by what is for all practical purposes, the Ex Post Facto application of the 1995 abolishment of Parole, even though no one in Virginia's Government has the courage to state such. Their frame work that became 53.1-151.1 SUITABILITY FOR RELEASE ON PAROLE, was presented to the Virginia criminal justice reform advocacy group, VALLEY JUSTICE COALITION, who then pitched it to Virginia Delegate Tony Wilt who relatively agreed and with his assistant Chad Funkhouser, crafted it into HB-1030.Along the way elements of Prison reform advocacy in Virginia, specifically, Kenneth Hunter of VIRGINIA INTERFAITH CENTER FOR PUBLIC SAFETY, David Smith of S.A.L.T, Rob Poggenklass of JUSTICE FORWARD VIRGINIA, Taj Mahoney and Shawn Wanetta of THE HUMANIZATION PROJECT lent their labors to its existence.I BEGIN: The People least culpable for the insidiousness of 53.1-151.1 are THE VALLEY JUSTICE COALITION, who have time and time shown to stand on the side of Parole doing its intent, because they can be excused for the ignorance of not clearly knowing and factoring in that Virginia prisoners as Jonathan White and David Carmichael along with all those others who still have the legal right to parole in Virginia are being illegally subjected to the dynamics of its1995 abolishment. The issue with Virginia prisoners legally eligible for parole, yet denied it under political gambits, particularly those of Virginia Republicans, isn't about a set of statutory guidelines, which were not in existence during the circumstances of imprisonment as such,(and here is where we find the insidiousness of 53.1-151.1) cannot be applied retroactively and the only implied justification for 53.1-151.1,is its retroactivity which is no where to be found in the law, because the only class of Virginia prisoners 53.1-151.1 applies to are those still legally eligible,yet it cannot.So it isn't any surprise and wonder why Virginia legislators, both reactionary and supremacist Republicans along with Democrats unanimously Ayed it, because its a win win for all of them to then claim Bonafide's on prison and criminal justice reform, knowing perfectly well that not only wouldn't it enable paroling Virginia prisoners, but it will now impede it as another unstated and undeclared ex post facto application. The issues with the games played by Virginia's Government over Parole as function of imprisonment is simply that of impunity and extra-judicial presumptions, which is where the debate should be. Because the status quo or the beneficiaries of Social Contract narratives want to exist outside of law and its imperatives which the People are subjected to, as such what we encounter are the conveniences of contradictions.

The flaw and it is a dehumanizing one, in the base animating logic of 53.1-151.1, is it continues that mindless argument, that the issue and problem is the very fact and existence of the Virginia Prisoner, as such the onus and purpose of the imprisonment is the prisoner's responsibility. Well this line of thinking stands without opposition and scrutiny, because the Virginia prisoner is mute in its formulation, yet its object. In other words whether or not the intellectual intent of its proponents is misanthropic is besides the point, the reality nonetheless is a defacto universal misanthropic stance with all of the Virginia People. Due to the history of Virginia's imprisonment scheme and the fact that it hasn't been challenged and required to defend, its logic, what we have is that existence of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and 53.1-151.1 is another cobblestone. Because what we find in Virginia's imprisonment scheme is the imprisoned Virginian is not human simply on account of the condition. If Virginia's imprisonment scheme stands on the position that behavior is defined by dehumanization, then we should see The Commonwealth's Educational system as it prepares Virginia's youth for adulthood (because that's where we find its quintessential value) plying and practicing "dehumanization", and for certain Virginia demographics that is exactly what we see. But I make a more fundamental point, which is the people of the Commonwealth speaking as and through Government, are not simply sequestering the imprisoned Virginian but implying that the imprisoned Virginian is something less than the non-imprisoned and as such most be brought in line. Whether or not Virginians are prescient of this reality is irrelevant, the fact of the matter is the imprisoned Virginian due to the imposition of sentence will explicitly return to Society, which is implicit of the Commonwealth's pursuit of " bringing the prisoner in line", as such Virginia's imprisonment scheme has to defend only this one objective of realizing the imprisoned and returning Virginian into Society as a full and all around mature participant, anything less takes away any and all claims of legitimacy. Yet this isn't what we see, what we instead see is the Virginia prisoner is confronted with an existence that assumes and presumes humanness, because the humanness cannot be denied, yet abjectly and unconditionally is dehumanized in the most socially idealistic and speculative manner and we see this for example in 53.1-151.1with this.....["IF A PRISONER'S SCORE IS WITHIN THE TIER 1 RANGE, SUCH PRISONER SHALL RECEIVE FAVORABLE CONSIDERATION FOR PAROLE.IF A PRISONER'S SCORE IS WITHIN THE TIER 2 RANGE,SUCH PRISONER MAY BE CONSIDERED A SUITABLE CANDIDATE FOR PAROLE.IF A PRISONER'S SCORE IS WITHIN THE TIER 3 RANGE SUCH PRISONER IS PRESUMED TO BE UNSUITABLE FOR PAROLE. IF THE PAROLE BOARD DEVIATES FROM THE RECOMMENDATION BASED ON THE DISCRETIONARY PAROLE CRITERIA WORKSHEET SCORE FOR A PRISONER SCORED AT TIER 1 OR TIER 3, THE BOARD SHALL PROVIDE A WRITTEN EXPLANATION FOR SUCH DEVIATION. NOTHING IN THIS SECTION SHALL PROHIBIT THE BOARD FROM MAKING IT'S FINAL DETERMINATION ON WHETHER OR NOT TO GRANT DISCRETIONARY PAROLE BASED ON THE INDIVIDUAL FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PRISONER".] (and I challenge any lawyer or legal scholar to show whether the pronouncements of 53.1-151.1 are worthy of its print paper).This is the crux, the exercise of imprisonment by the authority of organized violence in all its various forms, is a base antagonism of the human condition, as such is what we have to confront and wrangle accountability on. Accordingly it is the work of prison reform in Virginia and without confronting it what we end up with is a farce.

By William Thorpe

I'm William Thorpe Virginia exiled me to the Texas prison system. I'm solitary confined at the Wainwright Unit and if you feel any kinda way about this work contact me by Securus email using the Texas prison number #2261982