A denial of rights
Governor makes it harder for the formerly incarcerated to regain citizenship
Does Virginia believe in second chances? We’ve asked that question before, most recently in relation to the controversy surrounding the Virginia Parole Board. But it must be asked again in light of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s choice to make it harder for those who have served their time to have their rights of citizenship restored.
The numbers suggest the governor’s new standards are incredibly strict. And, as is too often the case with this administration, information about the change affecting thousands of Virginians was shrouded in secrecy, the governor’s office refusing to explain its position.
To fully understand this about-face in how Virginia treats the formerly incarcerated, it’s necessary to review some history.
The commonwealth is one of two states — Kentucky is the other — that permanently disenfranchise anyone convicted of a felony. It is one of only 11 states that requires those who have completed their sentences to either apply for reinstatement or otherwise jump through hoops in order to regain some basic rights.
It is little surprise that this provision of state law emerged in the post-Civil War, Jim Crow era, and was another way to keep Black Virginians from exercising their right to vote. Permanent disenfranchisement — again, exceedingly rare in this country — persisted here even after segregation ended.
But former Gov. Bob McDonell, a Republican, believed in second chances and, to his credit, he held that position prior to his own conviction, later overturned, on felony
charges of corruption.
Throughout his term in office, he championed voting rights and restored full citizenship to more released felons than any Virginia governor before him. In 2013, he waived a two-year waiting period requirement for non-violent felons, allowing them to apply for restoration immediately upon release.
Virginia, at this point, could have made things even easier. Lawmakers could have amended the state Constitution to allow non-violent felons to immediately regain their rights to vote, to serve on juries, to run for office and to serve as notaries
public. That they did not is a mistake that still haunts the commonwealth.
Instead, in 2016 former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, tried unsuccessfully to restore rights to 206,000 people who have served their time and completed parole and/or probation through a blanket order. The Virginia Republican Party sued and won in the state Supreme Court, forcing McAuliffe to approve them on a caseby-case basis, which he did for more than 173,000 people.
His successor, fellow Democrat Ralph Northam, continued that momentum, restoring the rights of more than 111,000 while in office and signing an executive order that made restoration automatic following the completion of their incarceration. That policy was modeled on a constitutional amendment which passed the General Assembly in 2021.
But with Republicans in charge of the state House following elections that November, passage of the amendment in a second conservative session (which is required) never happened.
Now Youngkin has thrown up another obstacle to progress, not that he was eager to mention it. The governor is again requiring the formerly incarcerated to apply for a restoration of rights and reviewing those on a case-by-case basis.
The governor only clarified this abrupt change in state policy last week after inquiries from Democratic lawmakers as to why so few former felons were having their rights restored. But even that grudging explanation from the administration was bare bones, despite the number of people it would affect.
Youngkin is a man who wears his faith on his sleeve, but his policy here is more Old Testament than New. It eschews grace and forgiveness for those who have made mistakes, and paid for them, in favor of further punishment and exclusion from society.
Virginia can do better by those who have paid their debt to society. At the very least, it can be more forthcoming about a substantial shift in policy.
That Youngkin will do neither says all one needs to know as to whether the commonwealth, under his leadership, truly believes in second chances.