Policy Adjustment to Reduce the Growing Populations in Virginia’s Prisons and Jails

In recent years, Virginia’s jail population has grown at an unprecedented rate. The ineffective laws that punish drug offenders harshly with lengthy jail sentences are the main reason for population growth. While marijuana abuse, in particular, has been increasing in Virginia, many jails are now accepting many prisoners each day. It has been observed that the 2006 Code of Virginia section 18.2-248, which focuses on drug prisoners’ condemnation, is ineffective. Even low-level drug offenders must serve lengthy prison sentences under the legislation, which hastens the annual increase in the prison population. The pre-existing laws should, therefore, be amended and new laws enacted to help reduce the prison population while still enabling the prisons to realize their correctional objectives. In particular, the new laws should focus on devising alternative punishment modes while reducing the current jail terms to a maximum of five years for the most severe offenses. The reduction of the imprisonment years and elimination of all possible causes of long-term imprisonment will assist Virginia’s justice system to reduce the prison populations.

Policy Change Towards the Reduction of Increasing Populations in Virginia’s Jails and Prisons

Within the last few years, Virginia’s criminal justice system has witnessed a dramatic increase in the jail and prison population as a result of mounting illegal activities. The purpose of this policy brief is to establish the primary cause of increasing populations within Virginia’s jails and prisons and then to develop policy recommendations towards the reduction of the increasing number of prisoners within the jails. The situation needs urgent correction because the large population is becoming unmanageable to the state’s government regarding financial and human resources. Besides, increasing number of prisoners undermines the primary objective of the prisons which is behavior change. The current policies on drugs in Virginia are remarkably harsh and therefore should be amended since they have been the most contributing factor towards the increasing populations in the jails and prisons.

Pre-Existing Policies

The current and previous laws regulating the drug use have been extremely harsh leading to many arrests and incarceration of many victims. In particular, the 2006 Code of Virginia § 18.2-248 prohibits any distribution, transmission, and the possession of controlled substances with an objective of selling to other people. Section 18.2-248.01 expressly focuses on the circulation of drugs within Virginia. The law prohibits selling as little as one ounce of cocaine would attract a felony conviction under which the victim may be charged up to a fine of $1 million as well as being jailed for a period ranging from five to forty years (Jaquith, 2013). Besides, the offender would be subjected to a mandatory minimum verdict of three years. The laws have led to increased prison populations as a large number of criminals are serving up to forty years term thereby leading to an increase in population in the jails.

An even harsher Section 18.2-255 targets people who distribute controlled substances to minors. When a person aged above 18 years intentionally sells drugs to children or influences an underage to participate in the distribution of drugs; such a person is guilty of a felony and faces a fine that may sum to $100,000 together with fifteen years imprisonment. Direct distribution of marijuana to minors further attracts a mandatory of five years in jail (Jaquith, 2013). On the other hand, the distribution of marijuana weighing below an ounce to children also attracts an enhanced penalty to the culprits in which not less than two years imprisonment may be given. As noted by Jaquith, children have been actively taking part in drug use and distribution in Virginia thereby pointing to a large number of underage children currently serving jail terms across the state’s prisons. Worse still, any conspiracy to commit particular offenses relating to drugs also attracts similar charges as someone who has taken an active part in such transgressions, thereby receiving the same number of years and financial penalties. Consequently, these laws require a comprehensive overhaul aimed at making them less punitive so that citizens are not haphazardly jailed in Virginia.

Policy Options and Research

The laws may be changed so that the convicted drug felons are jailed for a maximum of five years for those who have committed dangerous criminal activities. The prison population has been increasing because the judges have been using the current laws to impose harsher punishment that requires convicts to serve for the unreasonable number of years. Given the rising number of people engaging in the drug use in Virginia, the jails have therefore continued to harbor a more substantial number of prisoners. Accordingly, light offenses attract between one to two years with other forms of punishment like forced labor being given minimal consideration. While evaluating the participation of prisoners in the California fire camps, Goodman (2012) noted the positive impact of involving the prisoners in manual labor and firefighting activities. The study found out that such punishments are essential because they assist prisoners to gain various skills while also helping the community. Such skills would be useful once the inmates leave the prisons. Hence, it is not necessarily true that many years of imprisonment would help in changing the characters of prisoners.

The new laws should also reduce the jail term because many years in prison do not positively change the conducts of the prisoners but influence them negatively. While one of the most important reasons for imprisonment is always to deter the offenders from committing further crimes in the future, over-imprisonment may worsen the convicts’ behaviors. According to Woodall (2012), prisoners who have become acquainted with prison environments always find ways of engaging in criminal activities even within the jails. Some of the vices practiced by prisoners include drug use. It is therefore imperative that other forms of correctional measures be devised to help change the characters of prisoners instead of overreliance on continued and long-term incarceration. In fact, confining the detainees in prisons for many years has been the leading cause of difficulty in the community re-entry by the prisoners once they are released from prisons.

The existence of harsher punishment technique has done little to prevent drug abuse in Virginia, therefore, raising doubts about the effectiveness of severe retribution methods being applied in prisons. There has been an increase in drug users in the state and their presence within the jails makes them one of the largest groups there. A study conducted by Kuehn (2013) established a prevalent use of marijuana even by the underage students aged 13. While most of the students studied acknowledged knowing the negative impacts of using the drugs and the possible punishments that would follow; they illustrated the simplicity of obtaining marijuana within the state. It would, therefore, be true that the massive effort the government is placing in the development of prisons is doing little to help change people’s perceptions. As a result, given they care less towards the harsh punishment they may obtain once they are arrested, a new method of dealing with the offenders is, therefore, necessary if the prisons’ population is to be reduced.

Imprisonment for many years further facilitates drug trade in prisons hence maintaining the prison population higher. Some prisoners have discovered that they may continue selling drugs even in prisons (Connor & Tewksbury, 2016). Jailing such prisoners for many years is a sure way of supporting them takes an active part in drug trade within the prisons. When such prisoners are released, they are more likely to commit other offenses so that they are brought back to prisons to continue their business. Hence, continuous confinement of such prisoners would only help increase the jail population while supporting some of them to get richer. It is thus necessary to jail such prisoners for shorter periods. Such a strategy would help make it difficult to smuggle drugs into the prisons while also stopping any trade and relationships that prisoners would develop while serving their jail terms.

Virginia’s government should focus on reducing the jail term by changing prisoners’ behaviors so that they are freed after a short period. The importance of educating and empowering prisoners regarding the dangers of drug abuse cannot be underestimated as observed by Behan (2014), who emphasized the importance of assisting young prisoners and enabling them to realize behavior change within the Irish prisons. Similarly, most of the prisons in Virginia are full of young prisoners who form the most significant population within the state prisons (Goodman, 2012). Given the importance of personal empowerment, it is likely that prisoners will be willing to change their characters and become better citizens as their knowledge increases. Indeed, increased number of years in jail without a comprehensive behavior change leading to quick discharge may not significantly change a prisoner to be a well-behaved individual. Instead, many people will just be contained within prisons thus further increasing the population which is even more expensive for the government to feed and maintain.

The policy change should focus on the communities and discourage people from engaging in drugs by advocating for dangers of imprisonment. Such a strategy will help reduce drug use thus few people being jailed instead of the current law that only focuses on apprehending the drug suspects and taking them to court for prolonged confinement. The law should aim to advocate for the disadvantages of drug abuse, particularly among the African American neighborhoods. Wide racial disparities have been noted within Virginia’s prisons in recent years. According to Nellis (2016), the rate of incarceration of the African Americans in several states including Virginia is five times more than that of the whites. In particular, the population within Virginia’s prisons is composed of 72% African Americans, thus indicating the extreme levels of possible racial disparities. Therefore, the new policy should be developed in a way that it focuses on changing the societal values and behaviors towards the African Americans so that they are not imprisoned in large numbers as it is currently happening. It is equally unfortunate that African Americans have been widely engaging in drug trade thereby further leading to their increased population in the prisons. Increasing jail terms to such a group may not considerably help solve the situation of growing jail population but worsen it.

Conclusion

Prisons within the Virginia state are experiencing population increase on a daily basis. This phenomenon may be blamed on improper laws that aim to put harsh verdicts on non-violent crimes particularly drug abuse. Virginia’s legal system is harshly punishing minor legal offenses involving drugs with exceptionally lengthy jail terms. Such decisions have insignificantly contributed towards the state’s prisoners’ correctional efforts. In fact, the current laws have worsened the criminal justice system with prisons sheltering more criminals with drug felonies than normal. Besides, the grueling laws have occasioned wide racial disparities in the prison whereby the African Americans are making a comparatively larger population of the lawbreakers in prisons than the whites. Consequently, the extraordinary increase in the jail population may be directly attributed to Virginia’s war on drugs. Jailing drug convicts for many years has been one of the major contributors to the emergence of drug cartels and gangs operating within the prisons. Hence, there is need to change the law relating to specific punishments that drug offenders can get. It is essential to reduce the maximum jail terms for the grave drug transgressions so that few years to be adopted for proper character change and the reduction of prison populations.

Recommendations

Virginia’s criminal justice system should focus on the amendment of the current legislation and enact additional practical laws that shall help in drug felons’ behavior change while giving less severe legislation meant to reduce the increasing prison population. Therefore, it is recommended that any law regulating unlawful drug use should be amended so that a five-year jail term is offered as the most prolonged period of imprisonment for the convicts.

The reduction in the jail term should be altered by imposing higher financial penalties. For instance, in cases where people who sold drugs to minors would get a ten-year jail term and a sum of $100,000; the new law should subject such felons to five years and a financial penalty of $200,000. The reduction in the number of years shall help reduce the prison population while increased monetary penalty will help deter people from committing similar crimes.

Corporal punishment should be introduced to prisoners who engage in drug trade within the prison premises. The new law should render any prisoner found selling drugs liable for thorough flogging on a weekly basis. Such prisoners should not be subjected to further years in the jails because such decisions further lead to the increased prison population.

The much focus should be given to communities with large populations of the African Americans. The new law should require people from such regions to be empowered on a regular basis to help teach positive values, decent behaviors, and deterrence on the drug trade.

References

Behan, C. (2014). Learning to escape: Prison education, rehabilitation and the potential for transformation. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry, 1(1), 20. doi:10.15845/jper.v1i1.594

Connor, D. P., & Tewksbury, R. (2016). Inmates and prison involvement with drugs. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 32(4), 426-445. doi:10.1177/1043986216672770

Goodman, P. (2012). Hero and inmate: work, prisons, and punishment in California’s fire camps. Working USA, 15(3), 353-376. doi:10.1111/j.1743-4580.2012.00398.x

Jaquith, W. (2013). Prohibiting the sale or manufacture of drugs on or near certain properties; penalty (§ 18.2-255.2)-Virginia decoded. Retrieved from https://vacode.org/2016/18.2/7/1/18.2-255.2/

Kuehn, B. M. (2013). Teen perceptions of marijuana risks shift. JAMA, 309(5), 429. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.211240

Mowen, T. J., & Visher, C. A. (2013). Drug use and crime after incarceration: The role of family support and family conflict. Justice Quarterly, 32(2), 337-359. doi:10.1080/07418825.2013.771207

Nellis, A. (2016). The color of justice: Racial and ethnic disparity in state prisons. The Sentencing Project, 1-21. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/

Woodall, J. (2012). Social and environmental factors influencing in‐prison drug use. Health Education, 112(1), 31-46. doi:10.1108/09654281211190245