“Abigail Spanberger.” Today is March 18th. It is a Wednesday.
Affordability. This was and is the hot word these days and in the overtaxed state of Virginia, the new governor, Abigail Spanberger, was and is all over that bandwagon. Predictable? Yes. Clever? Not very. Rote repetition? Absolutely. It was not unexpected, and it was not her only key to sweeping victory. Anti-Trumpism also was not the only key to victory. In fact, one of the biggest keys to her victory was the fact that a majority of Virginia’s 8.7 million citizens have personal experience with, or know someone who has had experiences with, Virginia’s judicial and carceral system, and the fact that these systems, the Virginia Model, are at pariah levels of failure for the state and nationally. It was the desperate hope for an end to despotism that swept Abigail Spanberger and fellow Democrats into office. So if Abigail Spanberger wants to discuss affordability, let’s dig in.
Aside from being well known for excessive taxation, which is ironic, given that the House of Burgesses revolted for far less taxation, Virginia is also well known for its Department of Corrections. That nefarious notoriety stems not only from the abuses that have become legendary and daily; not only for its direct line to 1950s segregation through post Civil War Jim Crow to the genocides and slavery it was founded upon, but also to its modern day excesses. The Virginia DOC costs Virginia taxpayers 1.56 billion annually, or 27% of the entire state budget.
Abigail Spanberger has inherited this disgrace, a state where “shut down a school and build a prison,” is a commonly heard phrase among citizens. Abigail Spanberger now presides over the state that also claims the ninth highest rate of incarceration and the highest rate of wrongful convictions, at 20%, according to a Pew survey in recent years. For its squandered budget, the Virginia DOC makes no one safer, destroys those held captive, and destroys the communities where its thirty-seven franchise-style prisons are located, and spews an endless array of consistently debunked claims of “serving the public good.”
The Virginia DOC provides nothing for this expenditure, and its existence is entirely contrary to all known research into the efficacy of prisons. They create the very problems they claim to prevent, which include substance abuse, compounded complex traumas, debilitating mental health problems, and radicalization of people. Abigail Spanberger and the new General Assembly were hoped and expected to finally address the wholly corrupt and inequitable Virginia judicial and carceral systems. These systems are repeatedly documented as violators of Constitutional and Human Rights. These systems applaud and reward prosecutorial misconduct and open judicial biases. They celebrate laws that are both archaic and inherently flawed. Virginians can no longer afford the Virginia Model and the harm it causes, and the nation can no longer afford it either.
Two separate and unrelated lawsuits docketed in federal courts requested federal investigations into Virginia, its courts, and its DOC. We’re waiting to see what happens. Abigail Spanberger and the Virginia General Assembly must immediately revisit the entire Virginia system of laws and its excessive use of failed punishments and strip it down to bare bones. They must rewrite the laws from a place of modern understandings, including current neuroscience and mental health positions. They must abolish the current Virginia DOC, a slavery cabal, some 200 years old and counting. Virginians cannot afford this waste and abject misery. We expected so much more, and we did not expect to be so quickly ignored. Silence is not going to be our response. Abigail Spanberger, this is about affordability.
My name is David Annarelli, I am a contributing writer at prison journalism project, davidannarelli.wordpress.com. You can find me on Instagram, david_annarelli, and assorted other places through Google. Thank you very much.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio
