My name is David Annarelli, and this is a response to Wren Williams piece in The Washington Examiner.
On February 10, 2025, The Washington Examiner ran a piece by Virginia Delegate Wren Williams. In that piece, Delegate Williams made a number of assertions that are questionable and some of which are flat out false, regarding criminal justice reform in Virginia. While there is room for debate as to whether or not President Donald Trump has criminal justice reform as a “key priority”, citing Virginia as a model to follow is a stretch on the best of days, even more so when compared to the reforms made in other states and prisons. San Quentin comes immediately to mind. Florida gets some credit where mental health diversions programs prevent prisons from becoming mental health warehouses. This was the focus of a PBS Frontline report a couple of years ago.
Virginia, I can tell you from direct experiences, can make no such claims. Even though a bill was passed in 2020 requiring courts to take mental health history into consideration, surveys show that 46% of Virginia’s captives have moderate to severe mental health diagnoses, adding mild and undiagnosed captives into that cohort drives the statistic way up. Mental health is a cursory at best, excuse me — Mental health care is cursory at best within the Virginia DOC and again, I speak from a personal set of experiences. It is also interesting that Delegate Williams chose to also bring up education. Virginia is currently 50th in education nationwide under Governor Youngkin. Dead last.
Meanwhile, the Virginia DOC consumes 1.5 billion per fiscal year. That budget, one of the most expensive in the nation, accounts for 27% of the entire state budget. Similarly, some aspects of vocational training is prevented from being taught because of “security concerns,” leading to incomplete job training. I wonder, is Delegate Williams aware of those readily available facts when he cites?
Delegate Williams also makes some grand overtures about Virginia’s Governor Youngkin and his stance on criminal justice reform. These overtures are, simply put, false. Governor Youngkin’s record speaks for itself, loudly, as he has openly and vocally blocked all attempts to reform Virginia’s criminal justice system, at one point setting a record for the most vetoes by a governor. This has led to a number of suits supported or brought by the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union. Notably, was Governor Youngkin’s attempt to prevent captives from good behavior awards and sentence reductions. This happened in 2022. It was overturned by the courts, and recently, he has made the attempt once again, by a budgetary amendment, at the recent Virginia General Assembly session, January-February, 2025.
Research quickly shows that Virginia is not a model for reforms. It is the ninth highest current incarceration rate with the 13th highest incarcerated population. Its rate of recidivism is actually 67%, cleverly hidden by only reporting on its “A plus students,” and its long history of grossly excessive sentencing, known locally as “football numbers”. Virginia also claims the nation’s highest wrongful conviction rate. It’s 20% according to Pew surveys.
Virginia is also regularly ranked among the five worst DOCs in the country, and far too often found to be a national pariah because of laws and decisions that are decades away from modern, civilized jurisprudence. In Delegate Williams own district, allegations of open corruption have been levied against Commonwealth attorney William Eric Branscom. No investigation has been forthcoming, certainly not an independent one. There are possibly dozens upon dozens of wrongful convictions involved in this one local court, and there’s approximately 4800 statewide across all offices and districts.
Delegate Williams, you need to take a much closer look at the reality in Virginia, and in your own district, especially before the opinions you put forward. While we must agree that reforms are needed with immediacy, so is the truth, sir. So is the truth. My name is David Annarelli. I’m a contributing writing writer with the prisonjournalismproject.org. You can check out my website at davidanarelli.wordpress.com. I’m on Instagram @david _annarelli. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
