People who are incarcerated might be able to get out of prison earlier now that the Supreme Court of Virginia is weighing in on how earned sentence credits are calculated.
Jose Garcia Vasquez was an inmate at a Virginia prison who spent years earning sentence credits to get out earlier. Credits that can be earned with good behavior or by completing job training classes. But as his release date approached, the Department of Corrections said it had a different way of calculating the credits, and that he had to stay in prison 18 months more.
"The Department of Corrections followed the General Assembly's instructions as articulated in that statute and correctly declined to award Mr. Garcia Vasquez any enhanced earned sentence credits," said Deputy Solicitor General Graham Bryant, who argued the case before the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Justices rejected that argument and sided with the inmate, who was represented by ACLU lawyer Vishal Agraharkar.
"The job of the Attorney General and the Department of Corrections in this case is to apply the law as it is and as the General Assembly deemed to write into law and not to interpret it in a way that keeps people wrongfully incarcerated for months, if not years, just because they wish the law were different," said Agraharkar.
He says Garcia Vasquez is not the only incarcerated person who will benefit from the Supreme Court ruling. Hundreds of people could be released earlier, an approach the Attorney General calls a “criminals first, victims last” policy.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
