Over a a dark green background of the Virginia state capitol is a person embracing a recently returned Virginian in a hug. To the right of the graphics is a black gavel. In the middle of the graphic is text, "Earned sentence credits."

Earned Sentence Credits in Virginia

June 26, 2024
Here's what you need to know about earned sentence credits (ESCs) and our work to guarantee their promise in Virginia.

The earned sentence credit program sets a high bar: to earn credits towards an earlier release, people who are incarcerated have to follow prison rules, work, educate themselves, and participate in programming that has helped at the federal level to reduce recidivism by 37 percent.

In 2020, the General Assembly passed a law increasing how many credits incarcerated people can earn. But in 2022, the Youngkin administration undermined lawmakers’ plan to incentivize rehabilitation in prison.

The amendment the Youngkin administration inserted into Virginia’s budget yanked the rug out from under hundreds of people and their loved ones just weeks before they had been told they would be released.

Ever since, we’ve been hard at work in every forum available to us – from the General Assembly to the Supreme Court of Virginia – to get incarcerated people’s hard work recognized.

In 2024, the new state budget finally allows the earned sentence credit program to be fully implemented.

People who earned their release should get it – and now, they finally will.