TLN-6-2-21

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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • June 2, 2021

INSIDE Corruption among prison staff? - 2 Spotlight on early voting in VA - 3 Talk on voting/civil rights issue - 4

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

RVA lacks progressive prosecutor movement NED OLIVER

When a group of prosecutors representing some of Virginia’s biggest localities banded together to pursue criminal justice reform initiatives last year, one large, heavily Democratic city was conspicuously absent.

Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin says she didn’t join the group, called the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice, because she “doesn’t need to join a club” to make change in the system.

But her decision, coupled with her opposition to some of the reforms the group pursued, has emerged as a campaign issue in next month’s Democratic primary, when she faces a primary challenger who promises to fully embrace the movement that now counts 12 Virginia commonwealth’s attorneys as members.

“I’m running as the progressive challenger in this race specifically because Colette McEachin is not a progressive prosecutor,” said Tom Barbour, who served as an adviser to McEachin’s predecessor before leaving to take on defense work and launch a nonprofit initiative.

“She is a 1990s-style prosecutor who came up in a culture where people talked about super predators and measured their success in terms of convictions and incarceration.

She’s not a progressive because she quite simply hasn’t progressed with the criminal justice system in any meaningful way.”

McEachin counters that she

Tom Barbour (left) is challenging Colette McEachin in the Democratic primary. (Contributed photos) does indeed consider herself a progressive prosecutor and presents her long tenure as an asset compared to Barbour’s 13 months working full-time in the office. But her remarks during the campaign also make clear that she’s not entirely on board with the reform agenda that has emerged nationally and in Virginia.

“You have to be balanced,” McEachin said in an interview this week. “There’s a reason that Lady Justice has a scale that she’s holding. It can’t just be about the defendant or offender and making sure that he or she gets resources or is not incarcerated, because on the

other side of that coin is a victim that got harmed.”

Until recently, commonwealth’s attorney races in Virginia have been sleepy affairs, with Democrats and Republicans alike campaigning on tough-on-crime, law-and-order agendas. Only in the past few years have prosecutors in a handful of jurisdictions begun to break from that mold, with two announcing plans to stop prosecuting minor marijuana crimes and others promising to stop requesting defendants be held on cash bonds.

The movement solidified in 2019, when progressive challengers swept longtime Democratic incumbents

from office in Fairfax and Arlington by running on explicitly progressive campaigns. The two races drew national interest and funding, with Democratic mega-donor George Soros’ Justice and Public Safety PAC pumping a million dollars into the campaigns.

With a critical mass of prosecutors suddenly open to criminal justice reform and new Democratic majorities in the General Assembly welcoming the ideas, the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice formed, unrolling an agenda that included ending the death penalty, mandatory minimums and cash

(continued on page 3)

The LEGACY

2 • June 2, 2021

Drugs continued to flow into Virginia prisons amid pandemic, raising concerns about corrupt staff NED OLIVER VM - For years, prison officials in Virginia have focused on visitors as they sought to crack down on the flow of drugs and contraband to incarcerated people.

They strip-searched children, banned menstruating women from wearing tampons and limited the number of people prisoners could put on their visitors list.

So when the coronavirus pandemic hit, halting all in-person visitation for more than a year, did drugs suddenly become scarce behind bars?

Not really, according to data tracked by the Virginia Department of Corrections. The records show the rate of positive drug tests ticked up while the number of drug seizures and overdoses dipped only slightly.

The results of what was effectively an unplanned experiment come as no surprise to prisoners, advocates and employees in the facilities, who say it’s common knowledge within the system that corrupt staffers are largely to blame for the problem.

“The reality is and always has been that the overwhelming majority of contraband that enters prisons comes through staff,” said Shawn Weneta, who served 16 years in Virginia prisons before he was conditionally pardoned last year. “It was just a known fact, part of the everyday thing — like speeding on the highway.”

Three current and former Department of Corrections employees agreed with Weneta’s assessment, pointing to low pay, low morale and lax security screening of staff that makes bringing contraband into facilities both tempting and easy.

“Think about it, basically they send you through a metal detector — a lot of places you don’t have to take off your shoes; it’s just a pat down. People just tape it

somewhere,” said a corrections sergeant, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he feared retaliation by administrators.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Kinney did not respond directly to questions about whether administrators share the view that staff members are largely to blame for contraband entering facilities, saying only that the department takes immediate action if an employee is caught or suspected of bringing in drugs.

“If the introduction of contraband is confirmed, the local commonwealth’s attorney decides whether to bring criminal charges,” Kinney said.

Prosecutors have brought a variety of cases against corrections officers and other staff over the years. A former guard at Red Onion State Prison, a maximum security facility in Wise County, pleaded guilty earlier this year to bringing tobacco, marijuana, suboxone, MDMA and heroin to inmates. A high-profile bust in 2016 saw three guards at Buckingham Correctional Facility accused of working with a multi-state gang to smuggle drugs

into the facility.

Kinney was unable to provide statics showing how often staff are disciplined or dismissed for such misconduct. In a series of emails, she emphasized alternative avenues for drugs to enter facilities in the absence of visitation, including the mail. At most facilities, prisoners are provided photocopies of incoming letters and cards, with the originals destroyed — a change that was implemented in 2017 to prevent drug soaked-papers from reaching prisoners. But Kinney said items that can’t be photocopied, like books, newspapers and magazines, continue to be a problem. She also said corrections officers have been finding drugs dropped at fences.

Prisoners and staff interviewed for this story said that while drugs do enter facilities in the way Kinney describes, they doubted it would account for most of the illegal drugs behind bars, especially given the requirement that all books and subscriptions be mailed directly from publishers. They also noted it would be impossible to use the method to smuggle bulkier drugs like marijuana, which they said is

prevalent enough in some facilities guards turn a blind eye when they smell it among prisoners.

Likewise, everyone interviewed acknowledged that drugs did come into facilities through visitation.

But they said it accounts for a relatively small amount of the contraband that’s available at any given moment, which in addition to drugs includes cell phones, luxury headphones and cash.

Statistics on drug seizures shared by the Department of Corrections back up that account.

Total drug seizures logged by the department went from 967 in 2019 to 871 last year, when visitation was cancelled 10 weeks into the year as the pandemic began. That represents a 10 percent drop, but it also came as the department saw the number of prisoners it was housing fall nearly 20 percent.

Drug overdoses logged by the department fell in 2020, but were still relatively consistent with 2018 numbers, going from 49 in 2018 to 87 in 2019 to 45 last year.

Finally, the percentage of positive drug tests ticked up from 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent in the 12 months since visitation was ended, according to the department, although Kinney noted fewer tests were conducted as a result of the pandemic.

While visitation does not appear to be a significant factor in the trends, it has been the overwhelming focus of the department’s efforts to crack down on drugs. Advocates say the push has come at the expense of incarcerated peoples’ ability to stay connected with family — something studies have found is an important factor in reducing recidivism.

In 2017, the department implemented a new policy that required prisoners to be strip searched and change into state-issued underwear and jumpsuits before entering the

(continued on page 6)

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June 2, 2021 • 3

How many have taken advantage of early voting?

MICHAEL POPE The Democratic primary is one weeks away, although voters can vote early right now if they want.

So far, about 100,000 voters have already cast their ballots for the Democratic primary according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Assuming the turnout for this election is roughly similar to the Democratic primary four years ago, that would be about 20 percent of voters who have already voted.

Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington says that might indicate a lack of enthusiasm.

“You would anticipate a bit more early voting given the looser rules that are in place now than you might be seeing here,” said Farnsworth.

Prosecutors (from page 1) bail, among other things.

It was a striking departure from the advocacy typically seen from prosecutors in the General Assembly, who are represented by the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, which in the past often opposed criminal justice reform initiatives.

The shift has occasionally led groups of prosecutors to come before the General Assembly advocating on opposing sides of proposed reforms.

During a special legislative session, a coalition of 66 prosecutors from mostly Republican jurisdictions co-signed a letter arguing against legislation that will reform the way jury trials are conducted to eliminate what is sometimes called the “jury penalty” — a phenomenon in which defendants who exercise their right to a jury trial often face steeper sentences if they are found guilty.

Among the signatories opposing the change was McEachin. While the progressive prosecutors backed the legislation and it has frequently been called one of the most important legal reforms the General

But David Ramadan at George Mason University's Schar School says it’s still too early to tell if voters have a lack of enthusiasm or not.

“People still have time, and in a primary they’re not worried about long lines on Election Day and there’s a weekend coming and the campaigns don't kick in their GOTV efforts until 10 days before the election,” explained Ramadan.

“Therefore right after Memorial Day, we will see that week, that eight day period, until the June primary is when we are going to see the highest number of pre-voting.”

Voters used to have to give election officials a reason for casting an in-person, absentee ballot. Now the laws have changed and voters no longer need an excuse. They can vote anytime they want between now and the primary on June 8th.

Assembly has adopted, others worried it would lead to an up-tick in jury trials and limit prosecutor’s leverage in plea bargaining.

McEachin says her opposition was grounded in her belief that the jury should have a say in the sentencing portion of the trial, something the legislation would change. And she emphasized her office doesn’t use the threat of a jury trial to pressure defendants to accept plea bargains, noting that in Richmond, defendants request almost all of jury trials that are held.

McEachin, who has worked as a city prosecutor for 25 years, is campaigning for her first full term as commonwealth’s attorney after winning a special election in 2019. In campaign forums, she’s emphasized other areas where she has backed reform, noting she too supported the repeal of the death penalty earlier this year by sending a letter to her local delegate. She also pointed to her office’s use of alternative dockets for people who face drug and mental health problems.

If reelected, she said she plans to launch a program that will teach Richmond Public School students the basics of the legal system and

their rights in traffic stops. And she notes that she has continued her predecessor Mike Herring’s policy of not seeking cash bail in many cases.

Barbour, a former captain in the Marine Corps who after leaving the prosecutor’s office launched a nonprofit aimed at connecting criminal defendants with social services, called those initiatives a drop in the bucket. He noted the diversion dockets amount to at most a few hundred of the thousands of cases that move through the courthouse every year. He promised to address those issues in every case, not just the handful that are diverted.

“If you want fewer thefts, the way to address that to avoid the next theft victim, is to address mental health issue and substance use issue. And that is how you actually reduce crime,” he said.

He also challenges McEachin’s approach to cash bail, noting that while prosecutors might not be explicitly asking a judge to hold a defendant who they don’t consider dangerous, they also don’t support defense motions for release on personal recognizance. The result is that many defendants are held

anyway.

Barbour said he would instruct his employees to actively argue against holding a defendant on a secured bond in cases where public safety isn’t a concern and would track statistics to make sure front-line prosecutors follow through.

In a recent debate, McEachin scoffed at the idea of using metrics to track cases. “The commonwealth’s attorney office cannot be a case study for somebody’s MBA,” she said. “The commonwealth’s attorney office is not based on metrics or calibration or studies, the commonwealth’s attorney office has to be based on the individuals who have offended and the person who has been harmed.”

Barbour also said he would join the Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice to lend the city’s voice to the nascent reform movement in a more deliberate way.

McEachin said she respects the prosecutors in the group, but sees no need to join it herself.

“I am happy that Richmond has been doing progressive criminal justice reform initiatives for 20 years, which certainly predates the formation of their group,” she said.

4 • June 2, 2021

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

D.C. statehood is a voting rights issue… and racial justice issue Washington, D.C. has a higher percentage of Black residents than any state in the country, and they have no voting representation in Congress. This is systemic racism in action. It is long past time to give Washington’s 712,000 residents the representation they deserve by making D.C. our 51st state.

It is shameful that people who live in the nation’s capital have no say in Congress. And it is unacceptable that local laws and budgets passed

by D.C. elected officials can be overturned by members of Congress who decide to meddle in local decision-making. That explains why Washington, D.C.’s license plates include the slogan, “End taxation without representation,” a rallying cry by American colonists against the tyranny of British rule.

The disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of D.C. residents is fundamentally unAmerican and there is no good reason to allow it to continue.

There are bogus reasons to oppose statehood, and some Republicans in Congress have been trotting them out now that legislation to admit The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 7 No. 23 Mailing Address P.O. Box 12474 Richmond, VA 23241 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call: 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

Washington, D.C. as a statehood bill is moving forward in Congress.

Some claim that Washington, D.C. is too small to be a state.

But D.C. has more residents than either Vermont or Wyoming. There are currently six states whose population is less than a million.

D.C. pays more federal taxes than 21 states—and more federal taxes per person than any state.

Some make the false claim that it would require a constitutional amendment to make Washington, D.C. a state. Not true. The Constitution clearly gives Congress the authority to admit new states.

That’s how every one of the 37 states that were not initially part of the U.S. have joined the country.

The original District of Columbia The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions. Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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was created out of land from Maryland and Virginia. In 1846, a good chunk of D.C. was returned to Virginia. No constitutional amendment was required then, and none is required now to admit Washington, D.C. as a new state.

Some objections are so idiotic, frankly, that they must be a cover for pure partisanship or worse.

In March, a Heritage Foundation legal fellow testifying before Congress said that D.C. residents shouldn’t get representation in Congress because they can already influence congressional debates by placing yard signs where members of Congress might see them on their way to work. One Republican congressman said (wrongly) that D.C. would be the only state without a car dealership. Another said that D.C. doesn’t have enough mining, agriculture, or manufacturing.

Mitch McConnell said the plan to make D.C. a state was evidence of “full bore socialism on the march.”

At least some Republicans are honest about their real reason for opposing statehood: they just don’t want to let D.C. voters elect Democratic officials who will support progressive policies

supported by the majority of the American people.

But that is not a principled position. None of the objections to D.C. statehood hold water, especially when weighed against the basic injustice of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of people.

Washingtonians have fought in every U.S. war. About 30,000 D.C. residents are veterans. But D.C.’s mayor does not even have the ability that governors have to mobilize its own National Guard—a fact that proved to be deadly during the Jan. 6 Capitol Insurrection.

The bottom line in this: how can we hold ourselves out as a model of democracy when we are the only democratic country in the world that denies representation and selfgovernance to the people who live in its capital? We can’t.

As the Biden administration recognized in announcing its support for D.C. statehood, it is long past time to correct this injustice.

The House of Representatives voted on April 22, to admit Washington, D.C. as a state. Senate leaders must not allow filibuster rules or Republican resistance to prevent Congress from righting this wrong.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

June 2, 2021 • 5

“Accountability to whom?”

“Unity begins with the truth,” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted on Jan. 13, arguing in favor of the impeachment of then-President Donald Trump, “and the truth demands accountability.”

Warren just loves her some “accountability.”

In 2018, she proposed the “Accountable Capitalism Act.” In 2019, the “Corporate Executive Accountability Act.” In 2020, according to Forbes, she demanded “Accountability From 181 CEOs.” A Google search on her name and the word “accountability” returns 668,000 results.

The relevant question when Senator Warren brings up “accountability” is, of course, “accountability to whom?”

And the feeling one gets, regardless of her claims to be acting on behalf of workers, consumers, or corporate shareholders, is that it's really all about accountability to ... drum roll please ... Warren.

Warren’s not the only politician with such an attitude, of course. She’s just more loudly transparent about it than most, which is why I picked her to pick on here.

Her mask (no, not the COVID-19 mask, the other one) briefly came off on March 25 when she told Amazon that she’s “fight[ing] to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets.”

She means to rule. She thinks she’s ENTITLED to rule. And the peasants (a group she places even Jeff Bezos, at the moment the second wealthiest man in the world, in!)? Our job is to keep our smart-aleck mouths shut and

do as we’re told.

So, to whom is Warren herself accountable?

The easy answer is “the voters of Massachusetts.” But the U.S. has a de facto “Senator for Life” system under which incumbents get re-elected more than 90 percent of the time.

Not so much because their voters love them, as because incumbents rake in a lot of money to hold onto their seats for as long as they like, while challengers tend to struggle.

Perhaps she’s accountable to her campaign

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contributors? But owners or employees of the “Big Tech” firms she says she wants to “break up” rank high on that list (Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, and, yes, Amazon are all in the top 20). Are they trying to buy her off, or maybe change her mind? Either way, it doesn’t seem to be working.

As best I can tell, the only person Warren considers herself accountable to is Warren.

And on that count, Warren is par for the course as American politicians go.

Thomas L. Knapp

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6 • June 2, 2021

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Corrupt

(from page 2) visitation room. After the visit, they change back into their standard prison clothes and undergo another strip search.

The next year, the department began banning women who were menstruating from wearing tampons, a policy that coincided with the use of new body scanning technology aimed at detecting contraband hidden in body cavities.

“There have been many instances in which visitors have attempted to smuggle drugs into our prisons by concealing those drugs in a body cavity, including the vagina,” Kinney said at the time.

Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration quickly walked back the policy after it drew national attention, though prison officials

have since said that if a scanner detects a tampon, the visit is only allowed to continue on a no-contact basis, either through a glass partition or video feed.

Beginning last year, the department began limiting each prisoners’ visitor list to 10 people, citing concerns that incarcerated people were setting up visits with people they didn’t really know with the sole goal of smuggling contraband.

“They’re ingenious,” Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran said when the policy was announced.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Later in the year, The VirginianPilot revealed prison staff had been subjecting people visiting loved ones to strip searches, threatening to permanently ban them from seeing their family members unless they consented. The paper reported minors ranging from infants to

teenagers had been subjected to the practice.

Lawmakers banned the department from strip searching minors last year. Adults can still be strip searched but the department is prohibited from barring people from future visits if they refuse.

Shannon Ellis, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Justice Center who represents women incarcerated at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, said the crackdown on visitation has discouraged prisoners from seeing family members, making it more difficult to maintain relationships she says are critical to her clients’ mental health.

“The searches are sometimes so invasive that people will tell family members not to come because they don’t want them to be subjected to it,” she said, adding, it’s been easy for the state to blame prisoners for the

contraband problem and hopes that the experience during the pandemic leads the Department of Corrections to focus on other avenues that don’t limit family connections.

“It’s a convenient narrative for DOC,” she said. “Once drugs get into prison, it’s hard to say how they got there.

COVID has really changed that.”

Weneta, who helped launch a CPR program in response to overdoses before he was released and now works as a legislative liaison for the criminal justice reform group the Humanization Project, framed it as a life-and-death situation.

“People are dying because this contraband is coming in and officers are trying to turn a buck,” he said. “It’s disappointing and even shameful that DOC isn’t taking steps need to clamp down on staff because they’re embarrassed by the optics.”

June 2, 2021• 7

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