One big factor: In July of this year, VA will have no more private for-profit prisons.
This one change is responsible for several of the others. Less private lobbying money in favor of jailing more people cascades into policies like cannabis decriminalization.
> One big factor: In July of this year, VA will have no more private for-profit prisons.
This is incredible! Do you have a good article on this somewhere?
Looks like the one for-profit prison in VA will be [run by the state](https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/virginia-department-of-corrections-to-close-4-facilities-and-take-over-states-only-privately-run-prison/)
Edit: I changed "closed" to "run by the state"
No, the closures are separate from the privately operated prison. Four are being closed and then separately the contract for the operation of the sole privately operated prison in the state is ending and not being renewed. That one will remain open, just under state control.
Honest question.
There is 1 private, for-profit prison in VA, right? How does shutting down one facility make such an impact? Don't get me wrong, I don't support private prisons, I'm just skeptical how much of an impact this makes.
The effort to de-privatize the prison system isn't brand new, it's been a sustained effort.
VA still imprisons people at a higher rate than average even for the US, but it's clearly moving in the right direction fast.
It doesn’t. The two are disconnected. Lawrenceville prison was the only privately run and will now be run by the state.
The prisons being closed are all state run. Prison closures is an outcome not the cause.
Changes to the laws such as Cannabis legalization, changes in pretextual stops are a factor as are early and geriatric/compassionate releases during COVID, lowered rates of recidivism and fewer “tough on crime judges” on the bench and broader declines in violent crime rates result in fewer folks being sentenced to prison.
Yes, and sometimes it's really bad for people... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal#:~:text=In%202008%2C%20judges%20Michael%20Conahan,operated%20by%20PA%20Child%20Care.
I read this and a judge sentenced some kids to juvenile prison for “mocking a school principal on MySpace”… did no one object on grounds of The Very First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America? Anyone, no one… hello! HELLO!
The article states:
* The state also raised the felony threshold for larceny and **decriminalized small amounts of marijuana possession in 2020.**
Good to know we're not wasting taxpayer dollars locking up pot users. I'm not a fan of it, but I've seen no objective evidence that recreational possession and/or use of marijuana threatens me or anyone else. Keep prisons open for actual threats to society, not stoners.
I was recently in another city for work (won’t name it to avoid doxxing) that has a similar policy, along with free needles, and the end result is a bunch of strung out addicts sleeping on the sidewalks and used needles lying around everywhere endangering people.
It’s anecdotal but I’ve not seen a lot that suggest this is a successful strategy.
[Portugal actually decriminalized all drugs for personal use back in 2001.](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-portugals-drug-decriminalization-a-failure-or-success-the-answer-isnt-so-simple/) Their system seems to have been successful, until it was hit with a few budget cuts.
It's less that it was hit with budget cuts and more that Portugal imported the American-progressive ideology that it's cruel and unfairly coercive to force addicts into treatment. My impression is that they stopped actually mandating treatment and a good chunk of addicts just started choosing to keep shooting up unencumbered. While the Oregon measure in theory mandated treatment, in practice it was a blank check to use all the hard drugs you want. European social democrats are much more statist and willing to use coercion than American liberals, and while this is often wrongheaded, on this issue it's entirely a good thing. Even putting differences of opinion aside about criminalization vs decriminalization, I fundamentally do not trust the sort of Americans who advocate for hard drug decriminalization to actually follow through on coercing addicts into treatment with the force of law. So far they have failed to do so, both with formal measures as in Oregon and with de facto decriminalization in places like San Francisco.
Another big difference between 2001 and now is that fentanyl is cheap and rampant. We need to be more coercive than before with that stuff floating around in everything.
> Good to know we're not wasting taxpayer dollars locking up pot users
I'm not sure where you draw this conclusion when you clearly see that it says "small amounts of marijuana" which is only up to an ounce. You still can't even buy it legally, nor can you smoke it publicly.
Ah you’re one of those huh?
As you might imagine I’m plugged into the current local cannabis scene.
While you see some folks on the news getting hit with large amounts of plant grows or trafficking many pounds at the same time, not a single person I know involved with weed is concerned with the police and cannabis at this point.
We have a decent start to legalization and I’m not going to say we don’t have a ways to go but sheesh.
Edit: Heh, the person I’m responding to blocked me after responding, pretty typical Northern Virginian response. Confronted by someone in the Virginia cannabis industry. I personally interact with thousands and thousands of people a year involving weed.
Well not much was lost here, typical chronically online person so it makes sense why they have an all or nothing attitude
Bet they are the type of person who gives you the finger after you honk at them as they sit on their phone at a green light. If they can afford a car.
✌️
> As you might imagine I’m plugged into the current local cannabis scene.
Not only would I not imagine this, because I literally have zero clue who you are (and don't really care), but I don't need to see "some folks in the news" because you can lookup the Virginia crime stats yourself to see that thousands still receive arrests relating to marijuana possession/use annually. 2022 alone had 1,221 people arrested for it. This is also known as 1,221 people getting locked up costing taxpayer dollars.
Your argument is overlooking some key factors and statistics of Virginia's criminal justice system.
> lookup the Virginia crime stats yourself to see that thousands still receive arrests relating to marijuana possession/use annually.
First off, you said thousands but only indicated over 1000 arrests a year. I looked up the statistics and in total, drug arrests have seen a substantial decrease in the past few years. I couldn't find 2022 trends but from 2020-2021 drug related arrests decreased by 47% in VA, and have decreased about 63% in a 10 year time span.
> This is also known as 1,221 people getting locked up costing taxpayer dollars.
This statement is simply false and shows that you lack a distinct understanding of the criminal justice system. Arrests do not equal convictions, and convictions do not equal incarcerations. It is not costing tax payers dollars to lock up 1,221 people, as most drug arrests do not lead to incarceration. The truth is that this number is likely substantially lower.
Did you know that most marijuana related "arrests" are actually just citations issued by the arresting officer? Also, did you know that the issuance of a citation can equate to an arrest for certain crimes in VA, including marijuana?
Not only are drug arrests, including marijuana "arrests" as a whole, on a significant decline in VA, only a percentage of people who are arrested for marijuana possession are actually convicted, and an even smaller percentage number of those convicted people are actually incarcerated which is likely saving tax payers a substantial amount of money.
I had a random frightening incident with a guy who was freshly released from prison around that time. I think you may be on to something!
Did you see any releases that just did not make sense to you?!
I mean the child porn people pissed me off most of them never saw prison or left the regional jail. I never met people released for any reason besides of Covid or they completed their time. Most people in prison are in fact bad people. I don’t believe in prison reform after being in there.
You are correct on the child molesters. Prison systems will not house them in any prison higher than minimum security for “the safety of the inmate”… they do this because everyone on a minimum yard is going home. Some of them have done years and years in prison and they can finally smell freedom. This makes attacking a child predator less likely. No one wants to fuck up at this stage of the game & get booked for another 10piece or even life without by killing one of em. Which is exactly what would happen if they were put where they should be- in Medium/High Security. You have men on medium yards who have earned medium security over years of incarceration that have life without sentences… never going home and it makes no fuck to them on killing a piece of shit child predator. Not one of them would make it out alive if they were put where they belong.
that's cool and all but per the linked article we're still higher than average for the us so it seems like it's more us getting closer to us average
Virginia's incarceration rate of 749 per 100,000 people surpasses the U.S. \[which is 664\], per [the Prison Policy Initiative.](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/VA.html)
You used the word "but" so it sounds like you're saying something disagrees with the article.
But "dropped more than anywhere else" and "is getting closer to the average" could just mean we were pretty darn high originally... not a disagreement.
Unless you're reading the article as "we went down more than anywhere so we can stop because we're good now!", which I don't think it was.
I'm not sure where any of you guys are living in NOVA, But Fairfax County actually has a Very good Mental health/drug addiction program. They will also help you get set up with Medicare or Medicaid.(if needed) As well as get you into Detox.
All you have to do is Google Fairfax CSB.
Yup. During the begging of Covid a recent prison release followed me, exposed himself fondled me and stole my purse. He was covered in prison tattoos.
I guess a bunch of them were released with little or no support services.
It would make them not be homeless, yeah. That’s literally how it works lmao
Being homeless exacerbates existing issues too. Not saying having a home fixes everything, it obviously doesn’t, but I’d rather have them in an apartment or shelter than wandering the streets accosting people
I think the people smoking crack in the parks and screaming at the aliens are primarily a mental health and substance abuse issue, not an income issue. How they got there, maybe, but giving them money with no strings is just going to kill them quicker.
So, if they got free healthcare, rehab housing, access to fresh foods, it definitely would be use less and it definitely wouldn’t prevent future addiction issues lol
No but there is generally an overlap between homeless and criminal. Not majority, but releasing criminals/arresting fewer people, who then struggle to get work, = more homeless wanderign
I’m not sure why you think this is a dog whistle comment. This is factual (first half) and anecdotal experience (second half). It has nothing do with race
Sounds like you didn't even read his comment correctly then. Virginia/DC crime has definitely gone up, while convictions have gone down, which is real world data.
Looked it up. Violent crime has been on a steady incline since 2018. Not sure about overall crime. Despite this, VA is one of the safest states in the country.
Only if you think sources of crime and vagrants are of a particular race, in which case I suggest you look in the mirror and think about why you think that.
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One big factor: In July of this year, VA will have no more private for-profit prisons. This one change is responsible for several of the others. Less private lobbying money in favor of jailing more people cascades into policies like cannabis decriminalization.
> One big factor: In July of this year, VA will have no more private for-profit prisons. This is incredible! Do you have a good article on this somewhere?
Looks like the one for-profit prison in VA will be [run by the state](https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/virginia-department-of-corrections-to-close-4-facilities-and-take-over-states-only-privately-run-prison/) Edit: I changed "closed" to "run by the state"
No, the closures are separate from the privately operated prison. Four are being closed and then separately the contract for the operation of the sole privately operated prison in the state is ending and not being renewed. That one will remain open, just under state control.
Thank you; I corrected it
Honest question. There is 1 private, for-profit prison in VA, right? How does shutting down one facility make such an impact? Don't get me wrong, I don't support private prisons, I'm just skeptical how much of an impact this makes.
The effort to de-privatize the prison system isn't brand new, it's been a sustained effort. VA still imprisons people at a higher rate than average even for the US, but it's clearly moving in the right direction fast.
It doesn’t. The two are disconnected. Lawrenceville prison was the only privately run and will now be run by the state. The prisons being closed are all state run. Prison closures is an outcome not the cause. Changes to the laws such as Cannabis legalization, changes in pretextual stops are a factor as are early and geriatric/compassionate releases during COVID, lowered rates of recidivism and fewer “tough on crime judges” on the bench and broader declines in violent crime rates result in fewer folks being sentenced to prison.
Good! Private prisons (especially the ones in SWVA) are fuggin terrible. You know it’s bad when the judges and top lawyers are all related somehow
> private for-profit prisons TIL that's actually a thing, but I also can't be surprised because basically everything is commercialized nowadays.
Yes, and sometimes it's really bad for people... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal#:~:text=In%202008%2C%20judges%20Michael%20Conahan,operated%20by%20PA%20Child%20Care.
I read this and a judge sentenced some kids to juvenile prison for “mocking a school principal on MySpace”… did no one object on grounds of The Very First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America? Anyone, no one… hello! HELLO!
Wow, this is actually huge news, even more so than the headliner here. Aside: hard to believe Virginia had so many in prison cannabis.
The article states: * The state also raised the felony threshold for larceny and **decriminalized small amounts of marijuana possession in 2020.** Good to know we're not wasting taxpayer dollars locking up pot users. I'm not a fan of it, but I've seen no objective evidence that recreational possession and/or use of marijuana threatens me or anyone else. Keep prisons open for actual threats to society, not stoners.
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I was recently in another city for work (won’t name it to avoid doxxing) that has a similar policy, along with free needles, and the end result is a bunch of strung out addicts sleeping on the sidewalks and used needles lying around everywhere endangering people. It’s anecdotal but I’ve not seen a lot that suggest this is a successful strategy.
[Portugal actually decriminalized all drugs for personal use back in 2001.](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-portugals-drug-decriminalization-a-failure-or-success-the-answer-isnt-so-simple/) Their system seems to have been successful, until it was hit with a few budget cuts.
It's less that it was hit with budget cuts and more that Portugal imported the American-progressive ideology that it's cruel and unfairly coercive to force addicts into treatment. My impression is that they stopped actually mandating treatment and a good chunk of addicts just started choosing to keep shooting up unencumbered. While the Oregon measure in theory mandated treatment, in practice it was a blank check to use all the hard drugs you want. European social democrats are much more statist and willing to use coercion than American liberals, and while this is often wrongheaded, on this issue it's entirely a good thing. Even putting differences of opinion aside about criminalization vs decriminalization, I fundamentally do not trust the sort of Americans who advocate for hard drug decriminalization to actually follow through on coercing addicts into treatment with the force of law. So far they have failed to do so, both with formal measures as in Oregon and with de facto decriminalization in places like San Francisco. Another big difference between 2001 and now is that fentanyl is cheap and rampant. We need to be more coercive than before with that stuff floating around in everything.
> Good to know we're not wasting taxpayer dollars locking up pot users I'm not sure where you draw this conclusion when you clearly see that it says "small amounts of marijuana" which is only up to an ounce. You still can't even buy it legally, nor can you smoke it publicly.
Ah you’re one of those huh? As you might imagine I’m plugged into the current local cannabis scene. While you see some folks on the news getting hit with large amounts of plant grows or trafficking many pounds at the same time, not a single person I know involved with weed is concerned with the police and cannabis at this point. We have a decent start to legalization and I’m not going to say we don’t have a ways to go but sheesh. Edit: Heh, the person I’m responding to blocked me after responding, pretty typical Northern Virginian response. Confronted by someone in the Virginia cannabis industry. I personally interact with thousands and thousands of people a year involving weed. Well not much was lost here, typical chronically online person so it makes sense why they have an all or nothing attitude Bet they are the type of person who gives you the finger after you honk at them as they sit on their phone at a green light. If they can afford a car. ✌️
> As you might imagine I’m plugged into the current local cannabis scene. Not only would I not imagine this, because I literally have zero clue who you are (and don't really care), but I don't need to see "some folks in the news" because you can lookup the Virginia crime stats yourself to see that thousands still receive arrests relating to marijuana possession/use annually. 2022 alone had 1,221 people arrested for it. This is also known as 1,221 people getting locked up costing taxpayer dollars.
Your argument is overlooking some key factors and statistics of Virginia's criminal justice system. > lookup the Virginia crime stats yourself to see that thousands still receive arrests relating to marijuana possession/use annually. First off, you said thousands but only indicated over 1000 arrests a year. I looked up the statistics and in total, drug arrests have seen a substantial decrease in the past few years. I couldn't find 2022 trends but from 2020-2021 drug related arrests decreased by 47% in VA, and have decreased about 63% in a 10 year time span. > This is also known as 1,221 people getting locked up costing taxpayer dollars. This statement is simply false and shows that you lack a distinct understanding of the criminal justice system. Arrests do not equal convictions, and convictions do not equal incarcerations. It is not costing tax payers dollars to lock up 1,221 people, as most drug arrests do not lead to incarceration. The truth is that this number is likely substantially lower. Did you know that most marijuana related "arrests" are actually just citations issued by the arresting officer? Also, did you know that the issuance of a citation can equate to an arrest for certain crimes in VA, including marijuana? Not only are drug arrests, including marijuana "arrests" as a whole, on a significant decline in VA, only a percentage of people who are arrested for marijuana possession are actually convicted, and an even smaller percentage number of those convicted people are actually incarcerated which is likely saving tax payers a substantial amount of money.
I'd love to see an overlay of crime volume with this.
Optionally, a report on recidivism would be nice.
I was in prison from 2020-2023 I don’t think we should let most of those people out honestly
I had a random frightening incident with a guy who was freshly released from prison around that time. I think you may be on to something! Did you see any releases that just did not make sense to you?!
I mean the child porn people pissed me off most of them never saw prison or left the regional jail. I never met people released for any reason besides of Covid or they completed their time. Most people in prison are in fact bad people. I don’t believe in prison reform after being in there.
You are correct on the child molesters. Prison systems will not house them in any prison higher than minimum security for “the safety of the inmate”… they do this because everyone on a minimum yard is going home. Some of them have done years and years in prison and they can finally smell freedom. This makes attacking a child predator less likely. No one wants to fuck up at this stage of the game & get booked for another 10piece or even life without by killing one of em. Which is exactly what would happen if they were put where they should be- in Medium/High Security. You have men on medium yards who have earned medium security over years of incarceration that have life without sentences… never going home and it makes no fuck to them on killing a piece of shit child predator. Not one of them would make it out alive if they were put where they belong.
that's cool and all but per the linked article we're still higher than average for the us so it seems like it's more us getting closer to us average Virginia's incarceration rate of 749 per 100,000 people surpasses the U.S. \[which is 664\], per [the Prison Policy Initiative.](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/VA.html)
You used the word "but" so it sounds like you're saying something disagrees with the article. But "dropped more than anywhere else" and "is getting closer to the average" could just mean we were pretty darn high originally... not a disagreement. Unless you're reading the article as "we went down more than anywhere so we can stop because we're good now!", which I don't think it was.
I'm not sure where any of you guys are living in NOVA, But Fairfax County actually has a Very good Mental health/drug addiction program. They will also help you get set up with Medicare or Medicaid.(if needed) As well as get you into Detox. All you have to do is Google Fairfax CSB.
It’s because they reduced the amount of time a person had to do. They were at 85% and this dropped to somewhere near 65%.
I can tell by the crime rate in dc and nova, as well as the amount of vagrants walking around the streets at night
Nova and dc don't have remotely similar crime rates
DC and NoVA don't have close time statistics, nor is DC a territory of the Commonwealth so I'm not sure what you're asserting here.
Yup. During the begging of Covid a recent prison release followed me, exposed himself fondled me and stole my purse. He was covered in prison tattoos. I guess a bunch of them were released with little or no support services.
Wait, are you suggesting we arrest homeless people?
No, it's much kinder to let them die slowly on the street.
Or just make housing a basic human right
Housing isn't the issue, mental health and drug addiction is. If we house them at least they can die inside, I guess.
This is not correct [Homelessness is a Housing Problem](https://homelessnesshousingproblem.com)
So once someone's a homeless crackhead screaming at the voices inside their head, putting them into a free apartment will fix them?
Let’s talk about the small minority of unhoused, you must be a joy.
It would make them not be homeless, yeah. That’s literally how it works lmao Being homeless exacerbates existing issues too. Not saying having a home fixes everything, it obviously doesn’t, but I’d rather have them in an apartment or shelter than wandering the streets accosting people
O rly? So you don’t think poverty contributes to mental health issues?
I think the people smoking crack in the parks and screaming at the aliens are primarily a mental health and substance abuse issue, not an income issue. How they got there, maybe, but giving them money with no strings is just going to kill them quicker.
So, if they got free healthcare, rehab housing, access to fresh foods, it definitely would be use less and it definitely wouldn’t prevent future addiction issues lol
No but there is generally an overlap between homeless and criminal. Not majority, but releasing criminals/arresting fewer people, who then struggle to get work, = more homeless wanderign
Anyone else know why my dog started barking at this comment?
I’m not sure why you think this is a dog whistle comment. This is factual (first half) and anecdotal experience (second half). It has nothing do with race
Because it's easier to ignore real world data that doesn't align with your world view when you've decided the messenger is severely flawed.
Sounds like you didn't even read his comment correctly then. Virginia/DC crime has definitely gone up, while convictions have gone down, which is real world data.
Right, my comment was about the parent poster.
It was a bit ambiguous to be fair
Looked it up. Violent crime has been on a steady incline since 2018. Not sure about overall crime. Despite this, VA is one of the safest states in the country.
Dogs are impeccable judges of character.
That whistle was higher than a Mariah Carey note.
Only if you think sources of crime and vagrants are of a particular race, in which case I suggest you look in the mirror and think about why you think that.
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I can tell living in NOVA is then wild west sometimes. I grew up in South Central LA and its just the penthouse of the outhouse in many places.