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ROR 170: The Virginia Parole Board · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello, this is a prebate call from and if the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: present Department of Correction read an in state prison to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: accept this call, crass zero.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: This is Randall bob Aka read on you, Randy. I'm
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: currently serving one thousand, two hundred and fourteen years for
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: capital murder and arm robbery now and finally at a
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: level three fucking Air Correctional Center sowa's throw from where
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: I grew up. If you have any questions or comments
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and want to leave a message or whatever, I've got
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: a voicemail line. That number is one eight eight eight
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: five Zuit four one nine three suit. You can also
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: visit my website which is new and improved and got
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: different features and whatnot at deput deft red on your
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Randy dot com. I hope you do. Let's get started
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: with the podcast. Oo key so here in Virginia, and
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  Speaker 2: I've spoken on this a little bit briefly here and
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: that I'm going to go into a little bit more
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  Speaker 2: detail today because I received something just some guys in
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  Speaker 2: here wire passing out and it really uh well, I'm
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  Speaker 2: just gonna simply read it to you and then just
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  Speaker 2: going into what I say. So the hitting of it
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  Speaker 2: is only one parole release in January, none, in February none.
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  Speaker 2: In March, the Parole Board Chair Patricia West, in a
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  Speaker 2: recent visit to Lawrenceville Correctional Center, made it clear she
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  Speaker 2: will never ever agreed to grant parole in cases where
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  Speaker 2: individuals have committed serious violent crimes period, This in spite
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  Speaker 2: of its mission to do so for those whose release
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  Speaker 2: is compatible with public safety. This could lead one to
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  Speaker 2: believe that the Virginia Department of Corrections is incapable of
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  Speaker 2: correcting the individuals in its charge, and that the Virginia
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  Speaker 2: doc is primarily a department of punishment. So there's an
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  Speaker 2: inmate there and a friend of his named Jonathan White
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  Speaker 2: at Lawrenceville to a proposing legislation that will require the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: board to base their decisions on clearly defined criteria, as
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  Speaker 2: outlined in a fourteen point inmate parole criteria scoresheet. This
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  Speaker 2: following is just a little section of it. I don't
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  Speaker 2: have the whole thing. I'm just simply going to read
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  Speaker 2: what I have in front of it. In Virginia, parole
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  Speaker 2: has always been recognized as a societal good by all
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  Speaker 2: political parties for prisoners who have demonstrated rehabilitation and pro social,
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  Speaker 2: positive behavior. The parole system is a reflection of the
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  Speaker 2: penal system, functioning as an institution of reform and transformation
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  Speaker 2: of individuals. However, the current board's decision making has resulted
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  Speaker 2: in the lowest parole grant in the history of Virginia,
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  Speaker 2: not a mark of distinction. For the year twenty twenty four,
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  Speaker 2: the grant rate was a scant zero zero point five percent,
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  Speaker 2: a mere sixteen of the approximately three thousand, two hundred
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  Speaker 2: incarcerated women and men who are parole eligible under existing law. Note,
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  Speaker 2: with parole having been abolished in nineteen ninety five, most
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  Speaker 2: of the twenty four thousand men and women in the
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  Speaker 2: Virginia doc and institutions are not parole eligible. The main
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  Speaker 2: reason for the abysmal parole rate, contrary to most people's beliefs,
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  Speaker 2: is that the board has no standard criteria for paroles.
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  Speaker 2: Each member has their own voting concepts, so for the
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  Speaker 2: five members, there are five unknown criteria each prison has
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  Speaker 2: to meet. So how can the General Assembly fix the
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  Speaker 2: current parole voting system and ensure public safety? The answer
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  Speaker 2: is to release individuals who have demonstrated rehabilitation, transform their lives,
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  Speaker 2: and have proven they will be successful returning citizens. We
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  Speaker 2: need elected officials to radically change the Board's decision making
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  Speaker 2: process by passing a law that establishes a viable voting criteria.
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  Speaker 2: The board must adhere to one that establishes justice with
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  Speaker 2: FAI fairness. The current board's modest operende was established in
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  Speaker 2: the nineteen forties as in it and is akin to
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  Speaker 2: boilerplate language, not grant seriousness of crime, et cetera. All
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  Speaker 2: crimes are serious, but these continuous decisions undermine the idea
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  Speaker 2: of true criminal justice, reform, rehabilitation, and fairness. The common
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  Speaker 2: sense attached Amendment CoV fifty three point one Dash one
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  Speaker 2: three four point two establishes a compulsory parole criteria of
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  Speaker 2: the board must follow. And that's basically all it really says. Now,
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  Speaker 2: this lady who is the head of the Parole Board
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  Speaker 2: went to Lawrenceville, the incentive prison that I came up
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  Speaker 2: with years ago when I was still a red onion.
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  Speaker 2: The Lawrenceville I never got sent to, even though it's
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  Speaker 2: been open for over a year, even though I've been
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  Speaker 2: nineteen and a half years. Stargery and so on and
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  Speaker 2: so forth is what it is. But this lady went
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  Speaker 2: to the Virginia Doc's incentive prison and told the guys there,
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  Speaker 2: the guys that are busting their ass, to stay there,
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  Speaker 2: to rehabilitate themselves, to change, to transform who they are,
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  Speaker 2: to change the way they think, to change the way
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  Speaker 2: they feel, to change the way they were. You know,
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  Speaker 2: they react into you know, responding. They're going to schools,
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  Speaker 2: they're taking college courses, they're taking trades, they're doing all
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  Speaker 2: of these things. Literally, it is literally Lawrenceville is probably
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  Speaker 2: the most positive prison, if not the single only positive
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  Speaker 2: prison in America. Like, I've never heard of any other
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  Speaker 2: facility in any other state, from any other interstate compact
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  Speaker 2: inmate or so on and so forth, where they talk
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  Speaker 2: about their state has an actual incentive prison. This is
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  Speaker 2: kind of groundbreaking. And the lady who's making the decision
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  Speaker 2: on whether they go home or not says, look, if
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  Speaker 2: you got locked up for stealing a piece of bubblegum,
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  Speaker 2: I might, I might let you go. But if you
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  Speaker 2: did something when you were young and stupid like I did, well,
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  Speaker 2: fuck you, buddy. I don't care what you do. I
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  Speaker 2: don't care how you change, I don't care how you've
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  Speaker 2: grown up and matured. I don't care what trades you get,
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  Speaker 2: what kind of education you get in it is any
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  Speaker 2: irrelevant to me if you have anything considering slightly violenced,
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  Speaker 2: you're not getting out. She's not going to release you,
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  Speaker 2: and ask the head of the parole board. Well, let's
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  Speaker 2: face it, the other four members are going to do
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  Speaker 2: what she says, because if they don't, she's simply going
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  Speaker 2: to pick the phone up and call the governor. Hey,
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  Speaker 2: we got to get rid of them. They're way, way
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  Speaker 2: to progressive. They're they want to let somebody out who
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  Speaker 2: actually got into a bar fight, hit somebody over the
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  Speaker 2: head with a beer bottle, split their scalp open, they
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  Speaker 2: had to get four stitches and was charged with a
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  Speaker 2: malicious wounding, and they're just saying, no, I will not
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  Speaker 2: let them go home. How a thane is this? How
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  Speaker 2: is the state of Virginia? We come to prison some
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  Speaker 2: of us, not all of us. Let's listen. Let me
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  Speaker 2: make that distinctly clear, you know, and it's not even
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  Speaker 2: a very very large portion of the population. You know,
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  Speaker 2: have actually rehabilitated themselves, turning their lives around, and you
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  Speaker 2: know they're actually model citizens. But even those that have
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  Speaker 2: done that, they've literally done everything you've asked them to do,
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  Speaker 2: You're still not going to release them. You're still not
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  Speaker 2: going to give them a shot. And then the governor
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  Speaker 2: wants to go on social media, he wants to go
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  Speaker 2: in front of actual media. Well, spinish my time in office,
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  Speaker 2: we have the lowest recidivism rate in the country. That's
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  Speaker 2: really easy to have when you're not letting anybody out
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  Speaker 2: of prison. This is the problem with the parole board,
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  Speaker 2: not just in this state, but in other states. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm actually quite familiar with the parole board system and
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  Speaker 2: other states through my editor Michael, because he watches a
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: lot of those videos. He posts them online on prison audio.
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  Speaker 2: You have people in other states that have submitted the
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  Speaker 2: exact same crimes I have. They've done fifteen years and
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  Speaker 2: got out of prison. I'm done twenty seven, and yeah,
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  Speaker 2: no parole for me, even if I was eligible work,
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  Speaker 2: even if the laws changed. When Abigail Spamburger becomes the
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  Speaker 2: next governor of Virginia, barring some unforeseen miracle, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if she puts her foot in her mouth
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  Speaker 2: like Terry mccaulus dead against Gleanny Young Kenning, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I could see win some serious winning. But as of
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  Speaker 2: right now. I just I do not see Wain some
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  Speaker 2: serious winning at all. What is she going to do?
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  Speaker 2: That's the topic of conversation every single day I hit
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  Speaker 2: that yard. I'm working, now, I'm running, I'm doing the
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  Speaker 2: things I need to do to keep my mental health
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  Speaker 2: and then check, you know, keep the frustration up off me,
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  Speaker 2: stay healthy, stay strong, stay ready, you know, so on
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  Speaker 2: and so forth. And I hear guys constantly, constantly talking
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  Speaker 2: about this over and over and over again from every
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: single angle you can possibly think of. I heard a
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  Speaker 2: story about a guy. Now, whether it's true or not,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm just simply going to repeat the
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  Speaker 2: story as I heard it, and I advise you to
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  Speaker 2: simply take it with a grain of salt. But I
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  Speaker 2: was talking to somebody and they told me that they
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  Speaker 2: had a buddy. And this was like last year. Sometime
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  Speaker 2: he went up for parole. He never once spoke to
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  Speaker 2: any member on the actual parole board. He spoke to
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  Speaker 2: some assistance and the assistant they took him over to
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  Speaker 2: a room an the administration building and they put him
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  Speaker 2: on a computer and he did a little face to
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  Speaker 2: face zoom meeting, and the assistant was standing there or
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  Speaker 2: sitting there and he had his cell phone in his hand,
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  Speaker 2: and he was sitting there looking at what was on
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  Speaker 2: a cell phone, and he was like, oh yeah, so
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  Speaker 2: what about this? And he just asked him questions that
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  Speaker 2: this guy had on his social media page. You know
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  Speaker 2: that he has his family do for him, like a
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  Speaker 2: lot of prisoners do nowadays, you know, with us trying
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  Speaker 2: to stay in touch with the world and everything. Every
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  Speaker 2: single question this guy asked came from this guy's social media.
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  Speaker 2: Not a single question had to do with how long
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  Speaker 2: have you been charged for it? How many programs do
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  Speaker 2: you have, have you gotten a trade, have you gotten
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  Speaker 2: a ged, have you, you know, taken college courses for you?
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  Speaker 2: What have you done to make me think you deserve
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  Speaker 2: early release from prison? No, every single question this assistant
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  Speaker 2: asked came from this cat social media. And when he
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  Speaker 2: and when he got back, he was telling his buddy
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  Speaker 2: like the kind of questions that the dude was asking him,
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  Speaker 2: and like because he didn't even realize this at the time.
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  Speaker 2: So let's face it. Sometimes, you know, guys in prison
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  Speaker 2: get their hands on cell phones. So they went they
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  Speaker 2: paid a guy that they knew had won, and he
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  Speaker 2: rented it out. I'm not sure how much they gave him,
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  Speaker 2: probably fifteen twenty bucks, but they literally went on a
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  Speaker 2: guy's social media. Patron was actually looking at all this stuff,
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  Speaker 2: and sure enough, every single question the parole board assistant asked,
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  Speaker 2: was it? That was it? And of course the guy
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  Speaker 2: got shot down. Never mind that this cat's been in
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  Speaker 2: prison almost forty years for a crime he committed when
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: he was a juvenile. I think he was eighteen. I
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: could be wrong, but he committed to krim when he
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: was eighteen years old. To give or take, he's done
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  Speaker 2: almost forty years in the system. He actually has his ged,
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  Speaker 2: he actually has a couple of trades, He's taken a
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  Speaker 2: whole bunch of programs, and he still was denied parole
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  Speaker 2: because of people like this. Because the people who are
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  Speaker 2: actually being hired for the Parole Board, every last one
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  Speaker 2: of them, are former commonwealth attorneys, or they're former share
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  Speaker 2: or what have you. They are always members of law enforcement.
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  Speaker 2: Why can't you get a retired doctor, Why can't you
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  Speaker 2: get a retired school teacher, a retired businessman or woman.
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  Speaker 2: Why can't you get someone who's been an upstanding member
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  Speaker 2: of society for forty fifty some years. But they've never
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  Speaker 2: had nothing to do with law enforcement one way or
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  Speaker 2: the other, for good or bad. They haven't worked for
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  Speaker 2: them and they haven't been arrested bomb They've just they've
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: got a college degree. They you know, done what they
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: were supposed to do. They raised the family, they're raising grandchildren,
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  Speaker 2: all of these things. Why can't you have members like
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  Speaker 2: that on the parole board making the decisions whether a
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  Speaker 2: guy actually deserves parole or not? And why is it
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  Speaker 2: up to each individual? Why do they have their own
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  Speaker 2: criteria that you have to meet. I actually like what
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  Speaker 2: Jonathan White and his friend in Lawrenceville are doing. They
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: actually set down and I guess just wrote out, you know,
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  Speaker 2: their own little version. And of course the General Assembly
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: can you know, add to it, change it, delete whatever
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: they want to do with the actually passed this law
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  Speaker 2: and the governor sciences. There should be specific criteria in
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: order to get early released. In order to grant, you know,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: be given parole, you have to have achieved for a
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: high school diploma. You have to have done this, done this,
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  Speaker 2: and done that. Like. There should be actual rules and
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: if you if you check off every single one, then
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: you will automatically granted paroles if you miss two or three. So,
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  Speaker 2: for example, I have been putting in for electrical trades
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  Speaker 2: and any other trade I can think of, but I'll
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  Speaker 2: always get denied because I have one two hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fourteen years. Every time my name makes it to the
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  Speaker 2: top of the list, I'll always get bumped right back
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  Speaker 2: to the very bottom of it because they skip over
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  Speaker 2: me to get the god behind me who goes home
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  Speaker 2: in five years or fifteen years or twenty years. So
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: I'm actually not eligible for the four trade. I can't
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: take a trade here in the state of Virginia because
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: of that reason. So they need to make, you know,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: put an actress beside having a trade, because I can't
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: get a trade if they won't let me in the class.
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  Speaker 2: But yet, clam Yankin, you've got the lowest recidivism rate.
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  Speaker 2: How is this? How do these people get away with these?
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  Speaker 2: And it's because nobody cares. If you don't have an
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: inmate that is related to you, nine times out of ten,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: you just you don't care. You have better things to do.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you can get a lightsaber in
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Fortnite you have one minute remaining. It's insane. It's just
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: insane that this lady would actually go to prison and
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: tell guys, I don't care what you do if you
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: have what I consider a violent crime, no matter what
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: you've done to rehabilitate yourself and turn your life around,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not letting you go to you and your family.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what else to say. I guess
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: us all the time we have for now. I appreciate
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: you listening to me more than you'll probably ever know.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: I just want to let you know. You know, don't
• 20:10
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• 20:13
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• 20:18
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