Video: Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Releases Crossover Update on Criminal Justice Reform Agenda

From the VA Legislative Black Caucus: Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Releases Crossover Update on Criminal Justice Reform Agenda The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) remains in profound solidarity with the 122,500 Virginians who are actively trapped in our state’s criminal justice system, nearly half of whom are Black. When slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment, it was qualified with “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” With that, mass incarceration was born and the criminal justice system absorbed the role of dehumanizing, abusing and punishing Black America. Defeated Legislation: The members of this organization are well positioned in both the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees to block harsher penalties and punitive policies which would increase incarceration rates and sentencing lengths. The harmful, regressive policies we are pleased will not make it into state law include the reestablishment of the death penalty; increased larceny penalties including an automatic felony triggered by the third offense; expansions on the length of probation periods and the removal of limitations on the amount of jail time one can receive for probation violations; the elevation of certain drug offenses to the degree of felony homicide; and...