One day, while talking about issues with Virginia’s criminal justice system, a group of lawyers at the University of Virginia expressed frustration with the parole board and its reasons for each decision.
“One of the many attorneys in the group said, ‘God, if we could just create a database!’" recalls Professor Deirdre Enrlght. "And then I thought, 'I can’t create a database, but I know some smart people who can.’”
She talked with students who had signed up for the Clinic for Informed Reform – a group hoping to change our legal system by analyzing its problems.
Jace Horvath understood the challenge of taking data from the parole board’s website.
“There were multiple PDF documents to show the reviews that had taken place, but the navigation of those PDFs made it difficult for attorneys and people who would be interested in seeing what happened during these reviews and what the results would be.”
But he and Maya McCollum agreed a detailed database on who was getting parole and why could be good.
“In addition to making it easier for attorneys, inmates, their families, I think it could be very useful for social scientists and anyone who’s interested in studying criminal justice in the state of Virginia," says McCollom. "The ability to create summary statistics that analyze parole rates by race, by type of offense, by the amount of time that they’ve served – those could be really useful.”
Already, Horvath notes that less than one percent of more than 26-hundred people reviewed last year got parole, and most were rejected for reasons inmates could not change.
“The serious nature and circumstance of your offense. That’s probably the most used reason for not granting parole.”
Students hope the new database will be available to the public before they graduate this summer, and the parole board itself has reached out to assist.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
