RICHMOND, Va. -- Governor Youngkin signed a biennial budget yesterday that will go into effect for the Commonwealth of Virginia on July 1, 2024. In response to the budget’s exclusion of Gov. Youngkin’s latest attempt to roll back the earned sentence credit program, allowing the program to finally be implemented as lawmakers intended, ACLU of Virginia Policy Director Chris Kaiser released the following statement:
“This administration broke countless families’ hearts two years ago when it reneged on Virginia lawmakers’ promise that hard work in prison would pay off. It's an enormous victory for potentially thousands of families – and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s bottom line – that the new budget finally allows the full earned sentence program to go into effect.
“Now, thanks to the new biennial budget, thousands of people will finally receive the credits they have worked for years to earn while in prison. Virginia is safer because we give incarcerated people an incentive to rehabilitate themselves, and we’ll keep pushing to make sure every single person who should benefit from this significant policy reform can finally be reunited with their loved ones at home.”
