Murky Information and Blurred Lines Cloud Early Release Reoffender Data, Color Attorney General Race

A cohort of Virginia lawmakers is seeking an investigation into whether or not Attorney General Jason Miyares used confidential information provided by the state Department of Corrections in his reelection campaign advertising this year.

The lawmakers’ request, sent in a letter to the Virginia Office of the State Inspector General on Sept. 29, stems from campaign ads for Miyares and public events that seek to tie specific reoffenders to Democratic opponent Jay Jones’ past vote in favor of a law that allows inmates to trim their time behind bars.

The letter was signed by Sens. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and Dels. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, and Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria. Together, they expressed a series of concerns: whether Miyares had access to confidential information and if it violated laws to disclose the details, whether the information sharing was a “use of state resources” for campaign activities, and whether public confidence could be undermined that release decisions and sentence credits are determined by law, “not by political convenience.”

The inclusion of a particular offender’s status, “coupled with the Attorney General’s claims regarding earned sentence credits, suggests information not otherwise available to the public,” the lawmakers wrote. “This position clearly indicated that the information could not be disclosed under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.”

Dubbed Enhanced Earned Sentence Credits, the five-year-old law has allowed inmates with good behavior the ability to be released early. Though it passed in 2020 — when Miyares and Jones were both members of the legislature — its implementation was blocked for years by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, at Miyares’ request. With last year’s reconviction rate at 19% and reincarceration rate at 5%, the program is under fresh scrutiny this year amid the Miyares and Jones matchup.

Despite the lawmakers’ request, OSIG said that it can’t investigate the data sharing between VADOC and Miyares because Miyares, the governor or a grand jury would have to request such an inquiry, per state code.

“We were trying to get them to investigate the VADOC side of it,” Simon said in a recent call.

Inconsistent information

In ads and on the campaign trail, Miyares claimed that 70 Virginians had died as a result of the program, but a Cardinal News analysis of data from his office refutes that claim.

Miyares spokesperson Shaun Kenney told Cardinal that, absent a state-directed study, “VADOC remains partially equipped with the tools or resources to accurately measure the full impact of EESC and is only able to offer a fractional view by which the public can ascertain its impact.”

What data has been shared with Miyares and the media offers some insights, however.

VADOC data shared with The Mercury by House Republican Caucus communications director Garren Shipley shows percentages of EESC recipients who reoffended, broken down by different types and whether or not they were reincarcerated — but it does not identify specific offenders by name. In that data, reoffenses for murder or manslaughter were minimal, much like the Cardinal inquiry found.

Records requested by The Richmond Times-Dispatch — which prompted lawmakers’ letter to OSIG — yielded a response from VADOC that qualification for EESC was a “protected record” and that a list of recipients’ names “does not exist.”

The Times-Dispatch had been looking into reoffender Tabias McClain, who should have been disqualified from using EESC due to a malicious wounding charge from when he was a minor, but was able to use the program because the charge didn’t transfer over when he aged out of the Department of Juvenile Justice and into VADOC. Miyares singled McClain out during a July press conference hosted with the family of a woman McClain hit and killed with his car while speeding through a residential neighborhood after his release.

Meanwhile, The Mercury had asked for information about serial sex offender Daniel Vanover, a man also mentioned at Miyares’ conference and the subject of advertisements for Miyares’ re-election campaign. The ad claimed that Vanover was able to rape a minor “because of Jay Jones’ law.”

When asked by The Mercury, VADOC confirmed that Vanover received EESC while serving a 2022 sentence for a probation violation — the year the sex crimes happened after his release. However, court sentencing records indicate the rapes occurred between May 9, 2022, and Dec. 8, 2022 — over two months before VADOC confirmed his Aug. 17, 2022, release date in emails.

Additional court records that are available in an online database also indicate Vanover’s sexual assaults of a minor began on May 9, 2022.

Spokespeople for VADOC did not further elaborate when asked about the discrepancy in the dates, but said that the record “reflects the data of the offense for all 11 counts of rape as a range” for those dates. No additional documentation was provided, and calls to VADOC director Chad Dotson went unanswered. Multiple calls to Vanover’s defense attorney from that time also went unanswered.

While further details about the discrepancy could not be gleaned by the time of this publication, there still may have been a reason, American University professor TaLisa Carter explained.

She said “the first and last dates don’t necessarily sync with the first and last incidents” and noted how the criminal justice system is “inclusive rather than exclusive.”

Politics vs. people

Though questions have lingered among journalists and lawmakers alike, the highly politicized early release program still stands as campaign fodder — to the dismay of EESC beneficiaries who have successfully reformed their lives and worry the door they walked through could eventually be closed behind them.

Lynchburg-area resident and former inmate Reece Neenan, who used EESC, previously described the new chapter of life as a “whirlwind of goodness” as he’s landed a stable job, reconnected with family, and started college.

“Of course,” there are fellow EESC beneficiaries who have reoffended, Neenan said.

“But for the most part, people I know out here are staying out of trouble because it’s easy now.”

Hampton Roads resident Sam Harris, who started a nonprofit and was recently hired in Suffolk’s public defender office to counsel people navigating the criminal justice system, told The Mercury that he wants to “be a face for second chances.”

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, has previously suggested Miyares and the governor may have tried to “undermine the effectiveness of the program” to fit political narratives.

When The Mercury recently examined the program’s effectiveness since it was fully implemented in the past year, neither Jones nor Miyares followed through on requests for interviews.

In his own letter to Dotson earlier this summer, Surovell suggested the legislature explore ways to ensure EESC functions appropriately rather than dismantle it. As courts have previously ruled that VADOC unlawfully kept certain inmates behind bars in violation of EESC, paired with Miyares’ and Youngkin’s previous blocking of the program, Surovell posited that the “whipsawing” had made it difficult for VADOC to “plan and implement the existing system.”

Democratic colleagues Simon, Ebbin, Watts, Bennett-Parker and Locke wrote in their letter to OSIG that they are “deeply concerned” Miyares may have pressured VADOC “to adjust its practices in ways that advantage” his campaign.

“If true, this would represent a profound breach of the public trust,” they wrote.

by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

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