“In 1996, Travis Lewis broke into the Snowden family home in Arkansas during a burglary and murdered 75-year-old Sally Snowden McKay and her cousin. He was convicted and imprisoned. Years later, Sally’s daughter Martha McKay chose radical forgiveness. She visited Lewis in prison, advocated for his parole, and after his 2018 release, hired him to work at the same historic house she had converted into a bed and breakfast. In March 2020, after being confronted over suspected theft, Lewis attacked and killed Martha inside that very home.”
Criminals often commit more crimes after being released. Nationally, 81.9% of all state prisoners released in 2008 were subsequently arrested within a decade, including 74.5% of those 40 or older at the time of their release. (See Bureau of Justice Statistics, Recidivism of Prisoners in 24 States Released in 2008: A 10-Year Follow-Up Period (2008-2018), pg. 4, Table 4)).
Yet, the Virginia legislature is passing legislation to make it hard for the parole board to keep some dangerous inmates in prison, by telling the parole board not to deny parole based on factors outside an inmate’s “demonstrated ability to change” if the inmate committed his crime as a juvenile. But what if an inmate remains dangerous due to a personality disorder, and claims he lacks the ability to change that? How does the parole board “demonstrate” that the inmate has the ability to change the dangerous personality trait?
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