laurence.hammack@roanoke.com 981-3239

Ten years after parole was abolished in Virginia, the system remains in effect for nearly a third of the prison population.

But that doesn't mean early release is likely for the approximately 10,500 inmates still locked up for crimes that happened before the state's new sentencing system took effect.

The Virginia Parole Board granted parole in just 8 percent of the cases it considered last year under the old law, reflecting the same tough-on-crime perspective that lawmakers showed 10 years ago when they abolished parole. Under laws that took effect Jan. 1, 1995, criminals must serve at least 85 percent of their sentences for crimes committed after that date, with no chance of parole.

The 8 percent parole rate is one of the lowest in the nation, according to figures compiled by the Association of Paroling Authorities International.

Critics say the current and previous parole boards do the political bidding of the governor who appointed them: Repeatedly denying parole, sometimes to inmates who are deserving of release, as part of a foregone conclusion.

"I think it's really the political agenda, and if you want to keep your job, you need to follow the political agenda," said Jane Alford, a former parole officer who now works as a rehabilitation specialist in Richmond, representing inmates before the parole board.

In 1993, the year before the General Assembly abolished parole, the parole board granted early release in 40 percent of the cases it considered. After that, the rate fluctuated between 14 percent and 25 percent before remaining steady at about 8 percent over the past five years, according to figures compiled by the board.

Helen Fahey, a former federal prosecutor who now heads the parole board, said the rate has gone down as first-time and nonviolent offenders have gradually been moved out of the system.

"What has been left after that are people in essentially two categories: The most serious offenders who received very long sentences, and people who were repeat offenders who come back for new crimes or violations of parole," Fahey said. Of the 10,500 parole-eligible inmates, about 7,200 - 68 percent - are violent offenders. Of the rest, 2,500 are nonviolent offenders and 780 are drug offenders.

Fahey rejected claims that the board is affected by politics, noting that the parole rate has remained as low during Democrat Mark Warner's administration as it was during that of his predecessor, Republican Jim Gilmore.

"We review the cases individually," she said. "We look at the sentence they were given to serve. We don't look at them assuming they are going to make parole when they come up for the first time on a violent offense."

Many times, inmates are turned down repeatedly until they reach a mandatory release date, usually after they have served between 50 and 60 percent of their sentences. Of the nearly 10,000 parole-eligible inmates released between 2001 and 2003, about 80 percent were denied discretionary parole by the parole board until they reached their mandatory release dates.

By then, many inmates have lost all hope and motivation to start life anew, said Sandra Vicars-Fitzgerald, coordinator of the Roanoke chapter of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants.

"It just tears you down," said Vicars-Fitzgerald, who spent three years in prison on a forgery charge. "You feel like you've done everything in the world to make up for what you've done. You just need someone to give you a chance, and that chance is not given to a lot of people. So it breaks you."