by Tyler Arnold
A Virginia Senate committee advanced legislation that would increase parole board transparency by making their votes on whether someone receives parole available to the public upon request.
Senate Bill 5, sponsored by Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke, advanced through the General Laws and Technology Committee on a 14-1 vote with substantial bipartisan support. Current law does not prohibit the parole board from disclosing information regarding parole votes, but does not give them any obligation to do so.
Speaking to the committee, Suetterlein said his legislation would simply make the votes public, which is similar to almost every other action undertaken by the state government.
“When we pass a law, everyone knows how we voted on it,” Suetterlein said. “They know who the governor who signed it into law is. If someone is accused of violating that law, everyone gets to know who made the arrest. If they’re then prosecuted in our courts, everyone gets to know the name of the prosecutor and the judge that oversaw the case and if it goes to appeal, everyone gets to know the name of the appellate judge that upheld … the conviction. And then if it goes to the parole board and the parole board decides to grant parole, this is the first time in the entire process where it’s not clear who’s making the decision.”
Megan Rhyne, the executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, spoke in favor of the bill. She said the bill should not add a lot of work for the parole board because it does not force the board to proactively disclose the votes or create a database, but instead just makes the information public upon request.
A fiscal impact statement estimated the new law would require the board to hire two full-time employees and would cost the state about $66,555 annually. Neither Suetterlein nor Rhyne believed it would require new employees or cost the board that much money to ensure compliance.
“There is just simply no reason why it would take two full-time employees, as the fiscal impact statement suggests, just to respond to requests for the vote tallies on a particular incident,” Rhyne said.
Identical legislation passed the Senate with bipartisan support during the 2021 regular session and a prior special session, but was ultimately halted by House Democrats. Following the 2021 elections, Republicans took control of the House of Delegates, which will make it easier for the chamber to secure the votes to pass the bill.
Republican lawmakers introduced the legislation after the Office of the Inspector General accused the board of violating its policies and state laws so it could more easily release offenders into parole, including a man convicted of killing a police officer about 40 years ago. The parole board denied the allegations and an investigation commissioned by the attorney general’s office alleged that the investigator was likely biased. This review, however, did not make any determinations on whether the OSIG report contained errors.
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Tyler Arnold reports on Virginia and West Virginia for The Center Square. He previously worked for the Cause of Action Institute and has been published in Business Insider, USA TODAY College, National Review Online and the Washington Free Beacon.
Photo “David Suetterlein” by David Suetterlein.
