RICHMOND – In the film “The Shawshank Redemption,” Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, appeared in front of the parole board and explained why he should be released from prison after serving 40 years of a life sentence for killing a man:

“There’s not a day goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, and this old man is all that’s left.”

In the movie, Red gets parole. In real-life Virginia, the system could not be any different: Even old men – prisoners in their 70s and 80s who have served decades behind bars – are routinely denied parole.

“My husband has been in jail for 25 years. He was told he would be eligible for parole 12 years ago, which means for the past 12 years, we have gotten our hopes up and have been let down time and time again. He is in his 70s, and he just wants to come home,” said the wife of 73-year-old prisoner. She asked that her name not be published.

The Virginia General Assembly abolished parole in 1995 under then-Gov. George Allen. So criminal defendants sentenced to prison after 1995 have no opportunity for parole at all.

But more than 3,500 people in Virginia’s prison system committed their crime before 1995, and they are eligible for parole under the old system, according to William W. Muse, chairman of the Virginia Parole Board.

At least, those prisoners are theoretically eligible for parole. In practice, they rarely get it. In 2012, the Parole Board decided 3,156 cases and granted parole to just 116 prisoners, according to Virginia CURE, an advocacy group for criminal justice reforms.

In other words, prisoners up for parole had just a 3.7 percent chance of getting it. In 2011, the odds were even worse – 3.5 percent.

The Parole Board members are appointed by the governor and serve terms of four years. Muse said the board itself does not interview inmates.

“The parole examiners do the interviews in person or by video conference. We look at the examiner’s as well as Department of Corrections’ data on the original offense and how he has acted since he was incarcerated. After that, the decision is basically done by the computer,” Muse said.

An inmate goes up for parole once a year; if denied, he (the vast majority of prisoners are men) gets a list of reasons based on data entered into computers by the Parole Board.

In January, for example, the board denied parole to an 82-year-old man. The reasons: “Serious disregard for property rights” and “Serious nature and circumstances of offense.” (The documents on the Parole Board’s website do not indicate the crime.)

That same month, a 75-year-old man was also denied parole. The board gave four reasons:

• “Considering all of the offender’s records, the Board concludes that the offender should serve more of the sentence prior to release on parole”

• “History of violence – indicates serious risk to the community”

• “Risk to the community”

• “Serious nature and circumstances of offense”

The inmate’s wife said the reasons for denial are overly vague and serve no constructive purposes.

“The inmates get trapped with ‘Serious nature of the offense’ quite often, which essentially means in the eyes of the Parole Board, you haven’t served enough time. There is no clear knowledge of what these inmates need to do to have their parole granted. They need a definite goal,” she said.

She also said the Parole Board’s five-member staff may not be large enough to process the near 4,000 inmates eligible for parole.

“With only two full-time members, it is impossible for the board to personally meet with every prisoner. It would be nice if they could meet with the prisoners themselves so they could at least know who they are talking to rather than base their decisions off of words on a computer screen,” the woman said.

Capital News Service examined the Parole Board’s decisions for December and January. During those two months, the board denied parole in 536 of 547 cases – 98 percent. Parole was denied to every prisoner over age 51, including 21 prisoners over 70.

Muse said the high number of elderly denials in that stretch was a coincidence.

During this year’s legislative session, Delegate Mark Sickles, D-Alexandria, proposed a bill requiring the Parole Board to give inmates “specific reasons” why they have been denied granted parole. The General Assembly unanimously passed House Bill 2103, and Gov. Bob McDonnell signed it into law.

“It is an unjust situation. It is hard to move any legislation on this topic in Virginia, but small steps are still celebrated. This bill was a no-brainer,” Sickles said. “How are these prisoners supposed to know what to do and what they are doing wrong with no clear insight at all?”

In Virginia, being tough on criminals is a popular, easy stance for politicians to take, Sickles noted. But in reality, there are flaws in the way the criminal justice system processes criminals.

“In politics, if it takes time to explain an issue, you are losing. No one takes the time to learn the facts. Saying you are tough on crime may go over well on the campaign trail, but in reality, crime isn’t lower now than in 1995 before parole was abolished. In many cases, new prisoners are committing the same crimes as old prisoners, and are getting out of jail faster than the pre-1995 inmates,” Sickles said.

Virginia CURE, a non-profit group, supports inmates and families in the criminal justice and prison system. Carla Peterson, the organization’s director, said Sickles’ bill is a step, albeit a small one, in the right direction.

“A previous bill required the parole board to put grant rates on the Internet. Once that happened, we started to see the same three or four reasons,” Peterson said.

“What Delegate Sickles’ bill will hopefully do is provide a more individualized look into why an inmate has not been granted parole. Bills related to parole have to be small in scale, because there is no way a powerful bill would ever pass in Virginia.”

Stephen Northup, the executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and a retired lawyer, dedicated a portion of his career to parole reform

“I have represented a number of prisoners before the Parole Board with some success. At one point, I was asked to work on the problem with parole in Virginia. We filed a class action lawsuit in February of 2010 in an attempt to open up the process. Unfortunately, the case was thrown out by the District Court in a 2-1 decision,” Northup said.

He said the high denial rate for parole in Virginia has an effect on more than just the inmates and their families.

“Many model prisoners are getting turned down for ‘Nature of the crime.’ The door has been slammed on ‘old law’ prisoners. Many of them have good records but are made to rot in prison at the taxpayer’s expense. It isn’t cheap to keep a 70-year-old in jail. It has gotten to the point where the governor is the only person that can change this,” he said.

HB 2103 wasn’t the only criminal justice reform bill before the General Assembly this year.

McDonnell called on legislators to pass a law to automatically restore the civil rights of nonviolent felons who have served their prison sentences. Democrats and some prominent Republicans, including Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, supported the idea; however, House Republicans killed it.

Sickles, Northup and Peterson all agreed that HB 2103 is a small but important step toward fixing the parole problems. However, Muse said he does not think the bill will have any effect.

“Letting prisoners know the reasons for their denial has been part of our policy for years. Some might argue the reasons aren’t specific enough, but our board has been pretty good about giving multiple reasons and a better feel for what our thinking is,” Muse said.

Sickles’ bill will take effect July 1. The wife of the 73-year-old inmate said she is hopeful that the bill will enable her husband to figure out exactly what he needs to do to come home.

“I applaud Gov. McDonnell for all he has done for felons. He has done a lot for re-entry, but mostly for ‘new law’ inmates. I recently came across the commonwealth’s attorney who prosecuted my husband, and he was astonished when I told him he was still in jail,” she said.

On the Web

The website for the Virginia Parole Board is www.vadoc.state.va.us/vpb/. At the bottom of the page is a link to the board’s monthly decisions.

The website for Virginia CURE is http://vacure.org/

Data and a chart about the Parole Board’s decisions are at http://tinyurl.com/va-parole-decisions

Michael Maupin, whose voting rights were restored by Gov. Bob McDonnell.

By Steffanie Atkins
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – It was nearly 12 years ago that Michael Maupin lost his voting privileges and other rights in Virginia because of a felony drug conviction. But Maupin has hope for the future because he just received a letter from Gov. Bob McDonnell restoring his civil rights.

In 2001, Maupin was arrested and convicted of an attempt to violate the Drug Control Act. He tried to buy what he thought was acid – the hallucinogenic drug LSD – from an undercover federal officer. Maupin was sentenced to eight years in prison and 14 on probation. He ended up serving only six months in jail. But as a felon, he lost his right to vote.

A decade later, Maupin applied to the commonwealth to have his civil rights restored. He said his main priority was to be able to vote again.

“My one vote maybe doesn’t make a difference, but it does make a difference to me. It would have been nice to have voted for Obama and be a part of a big moment in history,” Maupin said.

In 2010, McDonnell changed the previous policy for restoring the rights of felons who’ve served their time: He reduced the three-year waiting period to two years and shortened the time for processing restoration paperwork.

“We have now established the fastest and fairest restoration of rights process in modern Virginia history. I believe that when we restore offenders as full participants in our society, it helps them become more productive citizens, and it helps make our commonwealth a safer and better place,” McDonnell said in a press release shortly after he took office.

Maupin applied to have his rights restored last fall and received confirmation about a month ago that he had been approved.

“The governor sent me a letter stating he was giving me my rights back. Basically, he thinks after everything that had happened, I would still be a good asset to the community if I had my rights back,” Maupin said.

Maupin, a Richmond native, said that since he was released from jail, he has done everything he could to make a better life for himself, his wife and his stepson. He has been employed with Batteries Plus for two years. Maupin said it was difficult in the beginning trying to obtain employment because of his felony conviction.

“Companies won’t give you the time of day because they know you have a felony,” Maupin said. But he persisted until he was given an opportunity to prove himself to his employers. Maupin believes it was this persistence that helped him reach his goal of restoring his civil rights.

McDonnell and some state legislators would like to make it even easier for nonviolent felons to get their rights back after they have completed their sentence. During the General Assembly’s 2013 session, more than a dozen proposals were filed regarding the issue. But they all died in committees.

For example, Delegate Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, introduced a constitutional amendment to automatically restore the civil rights of felons after they have completed their sentence, including parole and probation, and paid all fines. It died in the House Privileges and Elections Committee.

Similar constitutional amendments were proposed by Democratic Sens. Donald McEachin of Richmond, Chap Petersen of Fairfax and Louise Lucas of Portsmouth. Those amendments were combined and passed the Senate, but the measure later died in the House Privileges and Elections Committee as well.

Most states make it easier for felons to get their rights back than Virginia does.

Maine and Vermont allow convicted felons to vote from prison by absentee ballot. Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., allow restoration of voting privileges after felons complete their prison sentence. Twenty-three states restore felons’ rights after they have served parole and/or probation.

Virginia is among the dozen states with the harshest laws regarding the restoration of felons’ rights. About 450,000 Virginians – 7 percent of the state’s voting-age population – can’t vote because they have a felony record, according to The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform group.

Maupin hopes legislation to restore the civil rights of nonviolent offenders in Virginia will pass in the future. He said getting his rights back helps him become a productive member of society.

“My individual vote may not make a big difference, but my vote may also be the one vote that makes the difference,” Maupin said. “Regardless of what happened in my past, my future is undecided.”

On the Web

ProCon.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, has posted a “State by State Chart of Felon Voting Laws”:

http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=286

By Steffanie Atkins
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – When Victoria Ficco transferred from Christopher Newport University to Virginia Commonwealth University as a sophomore, she wanted to be prepared before the first day of classes. So Ficco, a mass communications major, logged onto the website of VCU’s bookstore to order textbooks.

She ordered all the books that Barnes & Noble @ VCU said were required for her courses. But on the first day of her economics class, she was surprised to find that the economics text she had purchased was not required.

“I don’t understand why it said required and the teacher goes, ‘Oh, you don’t need it,’” Ficco said.

The textbook had cost Ficco $300, and the bookstore would not accept a return; she couldn’t sell the book back until the end of that fall’s semester. “I was stuck with it. What am I supposed to do with an economics book for this semester?” Ficco said. “So it was a table weight until I could sell it back.”

When she finally did sell the book, she recovered only about $100. “I was really lucky that my dad gave me some money to hold me over,” said Ficco, who graduated in May with a degree in broadcast journalism.

Her experience is disturbingly common: Students at VCU and other institutions of higher education in Virginia often end up buying textbooks they never use, according to a survey by Virginia21, an advocacy group for college students and other young adults.

Last fall, Virginia 21 surveyed over 8,000 college students across Virginia, including more than 300 VCU students. The results:

• About 59 percent of students at VCU said they had purchased textbooks that were unnecessary for their classes.

• More than 90 percent of VCU students said they spent at least $200 on textbooks each semester. Three percent of students reported their textbooks totaled over $700.

Tom Kramer, executive director of Virginia21, blames bookstores and publishers for the rising cost of books.

“It’s unacceptable the rate at how much textbooks have increased in price. It’s unacceptable the practices that go into just issuing new editions every four days,” Kramer said.

He also said poor marketing to students could also be to blame. Each semester, Barnes and Noble @ VCU arranges books on its shelves according to particular classes and section numbers. Under each heading are required books and recommended books.

Kramer said that bookstores might not be clearly distinguishing what’s required from what’s merely recommended – and that could be confusing for some students.

In recent years, Virginia21 has played an important role in trying to reduce textbook expenses. In 2005, the organization persuaded the state General Assembly to pass the Textbook Market Fairness Act.

“A component of that act was to ask professors to make their book list available before class so students had an opportunity to shop around,” Kramer said.

According to the survey, about 60 percent of students statewide stated there was non-compliance with the Textbook Fairness Act; however, the results do not indicate whether students felt the bookstores were not advertising properly or the faculty was not providing the proper information to the bookstore.

VCU emails requests to all instructors, urging them to submit their request for textbooks to Barnes & Noble @ VCU in a timely fashion. For the fall 2013 semester, textbook requests were due on April 5. (Capital News Service asked VCU for a list of professors who had missed the deadline; VCU officials said they had no records containing that information.)

Also as part of its textbook policy, VCU asks professors to use free materials whenever they are available and pertinent to the course: “For their courses, faculty are encouraged to utilize the VCU Libraries’ collection and electronic books, journals, image databases, audio and video materials, and other materials provided through the web by the VCU Libraries for supplemental and core reading in support of classroom work.”

Kramer believes all colleges and universities should move toward providing free books or e-books. “Technology has already answered the question of how can we deliver textbooks more efficiently to students. The industry itself just hasn’t embraced it,” Kramer said.

He said the technology exists, but the problem is agreeing on an e-book format that will work for textbook publishers, colleges and students. With technology changing, Kramer worries that a platform implemented now may be obsolete in only a few years.

“The iPad uses the ePub; the Kindle uses its own [e-reader]. They all use something different,” Kramer said.

Virginia State University in Petersburg has implemented select e-books effective in 2010 in its business school. The open source program was initially implemented for nine classes and by this fall, all class textbooks should be available in digital formats.

The materials at Virginia State are relatively inexpensive at $25 per student per course. According to the school’s website, the first year this program was implemented, students saved more than $200,000.

Ficco agrees that renting or using e-books is the ideal solution to textbook cost issues.

“It saves you so much money. I can’t see a solid reason why you should buy your textbooks anymore,” she said.

Virginia21 and its chapters at colleges around the state plan to investigate the textbook issue in greater detail at the beginning of the fall semester. Kramer said that when students return to school, each chapter will collect data to determine why so many students end up purchasing books that are not required.

The organization will take action if it finds that the problem is in how required and recommended books are displayed in campus bookstores.

“We will have our chapters work on getting pictorial evidence on what’s happening here, and we’ll take it to the bookstore first. But then we’re going to seek legislative changes if the bookstores don’t respond favorably,” Kramer said.

Kramer said the issue is not uncommon among campuses across the state. “But some schools have reported not having this problem at all, and some schools report that indeed they have this problem. I know some schools like George Mason have the problem,” he said.

In the meantime, he said students should do research and find textbooks online for free or in an e-book format to save them money.

“Until a governor or lawmakers decide something like that in a definitive fashion, I think it’s going to be really hard to push the prices down [in the bookstores],” Kramer said.

Related Story

Students Worry about College Loan Debts

RICHMOND – Nearly 75 percent of Virginia Commonwealth University students are unsure of their student loan debt payments upon graduation, according to a survey by Virginia21, an advocacy group for college students.

Considering that on average, students borrow $18,000 a year to attend a four-year university, the monthly payments could be staggering.

Tom Kramer, executive director of Virginia21, said he fears students won’t be ready to handle these debts.

“It’s really hard for young people to make good decisions about their education program and their future career tract if they don’t know what their financial expectations are going to be when they graduate,” Kramer said.

The survey found that more than 85 percent of students at VCU will have some sort of student debt upon completion of their degree program. More than 10 percent said they will owe at least $50,000. Statewide, the survey showed that 59 percent of college students in public universities will go into debt to go to school.

“College debt is not a problem. College debt does let people go to college that otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” Kramer said. “But it’s only a smart decision if you can pay for it.”

Kramer said 60 percent of students statewide do not know what their loan payments will be after they graduate.

To pay off their college loans, students need good jobs after graduation – and that’s another concern for Virginia21.

According to the survey, 40 percent of students statewide are not clear about what services are offered by their colleges’ career centers. Almost half of VCU students are unsure of what the VCU Career Center has to offer them.

According to the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Virginia’s unemployment rate is about 5 percent – but it’s higher for young adults.

“Young people are unemployed and underemployed double the rate of the normal population that’s come before them,” Kramer said.

Kramer said college career centers must address such issues. The best centers offer a range of services, from critiquing students’ resumes and job-interviewing skills to holding career fairs and maintaining a database of internship and job opportunities.

The centers must do a better job of publicizing what they provide, Kramer said.

“Career centers are excellent resources for students, but if 40 percent don’t even know the resource is offered, how can they even go use them?” he said.

Other Findings from Virginia21’s Survey

• About 8,000 college students statewide, including 333 students at Virginia Commonwealth University, took the survey. Among the findings:

• 43 percent of students who were aware of the VCU Career Center have utilized the programs available.

• 65 percent of VCU students receive financial help from family members.

• 70 percent of students expect to graduate in four years.

• The No. 1 reason for not graduating in four years is that students cannot get into required classes. Another big reason is that students work and don’t have time to take a full course load.

• 63 percent of students have received need-based financial aid grants from the government or the college.

On the Web

The website for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Career Center is www.students.vcu.edu/careers/

By Amber Galaviz
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – You may have your own definition of what constitutes a dangerous dog. But Virginia law lays out a clear legal definition of what a dangerous dog is, and there are four in Richmond.

“ ‘Dangerous dog’ means a canine or canine crossbreed that has bitten, attacked, or inflicted injury on a person or companion animal that is a dog or cat, or killed a companion animal that is a dog or cat,” the law states.

In 2006, the General Assembly passed legislation requiring all dogs deemed dangerous by local animal control authorities to be entered into an online database. Local officials must provide various information about each pet, including its name and the owner’s name and address.

Anyone can look up the information on the website of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. There are more than 400 dogs in the database, from Snickers in Virginia Beach and Blondie in Richmond to Wolf in Powhatan and several named Bear.

The database lists each dog’s breed (primary and secondary) and its color and markings. It also contains information from the court trial that caused the dog to be declared dangerous, such as: “ ‘Bear’ attacked ‘Roco’ while both were on leash, causing serious injury (broke right rear leg) which required surgery.”

Elaine Lidholm, a spokeswoman for the department, says there is still controversy over the registry.

“About half of the people are saying this doesn’t go far enough. The other half is saying the state has overstepped its bounds,” Lidholm said. “The opinions are divided, and they’re diametrically opposed.”

More than 4.7 million people in the United States are bitten by dogs each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly 800,000 bites require medical attention; half of them result in a trip to the emergency room. About 12 Americans die each year due to dog attacks.

Some states have dealt with the problem by banning specific breeds of dogs, such as pit bulls. Virginia took a different approach – focusing on the dog’s behavior, not its breed.

Virginia’s law explicitly states, “No canine or canine crossbreed shall be found to be a dangerous dog or vicious dog solely because it is a particular breed, nor is the ownership of a particular breed of canine or canine crossbreed prohibited.”

The American Kennel Club, the American Humane Society and other pet-friendly organizations support that position.

Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the American Humane Society, said his organization likes the way the Virginia Dangerous Dogs Registry is set up.

“The dogs aren’t on here randomly or because of their breed,” Goldfarb said. “They’re on here because they either attacked someone or the owner showed themselves to be irresponsible. It’s fair to inform community residents where the dangerous dogs are.”

The American Kennel Club also supports the Virginia law because it offers a dog a “fair process” before deciding whether to add the animal to the registry.

Lisa Peterson, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, said more than 100 localities across the country have banned certain breeds, most commonly pit bulls.

While three of the four “dangerous dogs” in Richmond are pit bulls (the other is a lab), it would be unfair to condemn an entire breed, according to Ring Dog Rescue, a Henrico County-based dedicated to adopting out “bully” breeds.

“The problem is people listen to the media and don’t educate themselves,” said Tonya Murray, the director and co-founder of Ring Dog Rescue. “Breeds are not bad; individuals are, just like any other animal. Let’s punish the deed, not the breed.”

In Virginia, after a dog has been registered as dangerous, its owners must take steps to protect neighbors from possible attacks. The requirements include posting signs, confining the animal in a proper enclosure and outfitting the pet with a special tag. (The tag and registration process cost $150 the first year and $85 for an annual renewal.)

Owners of dogs deemed dangerous must maintain a minimum of $100,000 in liability insurance for the animals and must provide proof every year that the policy has been renewed. The animal must wear a muzzle if not on the owner’s property.

For dogs that end up on the Dangerous Dogs Registry, it can sometimes seem unfair.

Jennifer Daly of Newport News had to register her dog, Ginger, after a scuffle with another dog.

“Another little dog was walking in front of the house at the time, and Ginger took off after her like a squirrel,” Daly said.

Ginger is a female Australian cattle dog mix. It now has a record of being dangerous.

“Being a fairly young dog, with her having that label now, we can’t take her to school and we can’t take her anywhere to get trained,” Daly said. “Now, she’s just sort of a labeled dog. There’s no chance of parole. Life is a long sentence.”

On the Web

You can search the Virginia Dangerous Dogs Registry at http://www.vi.virginia.gov/vdacs_dd/public/cgi-bin/public.cgi

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has posted an explanation about the registry at http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/animals/dogs.shtml

An interactive map showing the number of “dangerous dogs” in each county and city is at http://tinyurl.com/dangerous-dogs-by-va-county

A list showing number of dangerous dogs in each locality is at http://tinyurl.com/dangerous-dogs-list

Samantha Morgan and Amber Galaviz
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – Virginia already has a registry for “dangerous dogs” – animals that have attacked other pets or people. So how about having a registry for people who abuse animals?

That’s what some animal welfare advocates would like. During this year’s legislative session, they supported a bill to create a public registry of people convicted of felony animal abuse in Virginia.

Under House Bill 2242, anyone 18 or older who has been convicted of a felony violation of an animal cruelty law would have to register with their local police department or sheriff’s office annually for 15 years. The authorities then would notify all homes, schools, animal shelters and businesses within a half-mile of the abuser’s location. Moreover, the state attorney general would keep a publicly accessible registry of all registered abusers.

However, the bill, sponsored by Delegate Lacey Putney of Bedford, was killed early in the session by a subcommittee of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee.

The proposal’s defeat disappointed groups like the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria. Many experts believe that animal abusers are a threat not only to animals but also to people.

“While there is a registry for animals, it seems odd that there is not a registry for humans. In many cases, an animal acting in a violent or aggressive manner is a result of the way it is treated by its owner or other human companions,” said Patrick Cole, the league’s director of communications and outreach.

“More often than not, animal abuse is the first indicator of future violent actions. We need animal abuse to be taken seriously, and a registry would help accomplish that.”

A research group called the National Link Coalition also has found a significant correlation among animal abuse, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, elder abuse and other forms of violence.

“We believe that human and animal well-being are inextricably intertwined and that the prevention of family and community violence can best be achieved through partnerships representing multi-species perspectives,” said Randall Lockward, a leader in the coalition and a senior vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Last year in Virginia, there were 14 recorded cases of animal abuse, according to Pet-Abuse.com, an online database of such incidents. In 2011, there were 42 cases of animal abuse in Virginia.

“We support the Dangerous Dog Registry for tracking animals that may pose a threat to their communities, and we wholeheartedly support a registry for humans that pose a threat to the animals in their communities,” Cole said.

Cole believes one reason HB 2242 failed is because officials feared it would increase the workload on law enforcement officials and animal control officers.

“Most animal control departments are already underfunded, understaffed and struggle for tools, materials and training they need to perform their jobs at the highest level,” Cole said.

The Virginia State Police estimated that it would cost nearly $1 million to design and develop a new registry and website for animal abusers and more than $126,000 a year to maintain it. The agency said it didn’t know how much it would cost local law enforcement agencies to implement the animal abuser registry system.

But some citizens say it’s worth the cost.

“I think the registry would be a great idea. I just don’t understand why there isn’t one already. It doesn’t make any sense not to,” said Chesterfield resident Krystal Hambright, who recently became the owner of a German shepherd puppy.

“Maybe if there was an animal abuser registry, people would take animal abuse more seriously. I think that is very important.”

Sarah Burns of Chesterfield County also strongly supports legislation that would hold animal abusers under greater responsibility for their actions since one of her pit bulls, Joss, was a victim as a puppy.

“She had been shot at a month old during a domestic dispute,” Burns said about the puppy her boyfriend adopted. Joss still has the scars of the shot that was a through and through on her shoulders.

“As much as I try to expose her to people, men, other dogs, her first reaction is always fear – she doesn’t trust people easily, and I honestly don’t blame her,” Burns said. “The shooting was ruled an accident, and so I’m not sure if the previous owner served any time for it. I do know it took a good two or three months before Matt was able to adopt her, and she spent that time in the Chesterfield pound.”

Burns says it’s upsetting that the incident has had such a traumatic impact on her dog and she can’t even know whether the shooter was charged with a crime. She supports an animal abuser registry.

“Joss is a super needy dog – very anxious, feels the need to be very protective. And I think this has everything to do with her first three months of life,” Burns said. “It’d be nice to be able to know that people like that are being followed up on and communities can be warned.”

Advocates of an animal abuser registry haven’t given up. Cole and his organization are optimistic that the General Assembly will pass a bill similar to HB 2242 in 2014.

On the Web

The website of the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria is http://alexandriaanimals.org

The website of the National Link Coalition is http://nationallinkcoalition.org/

To read or comment on House Bill 2242, visit the Richmond Sunlight website: www.richmondsunlight.com/bill/2013/hb2242/

The map is based on this data:

Amy Wilson, left, and Parrish Mort of VaHomeschoolers

By Allison Landry and Amber Shiflett
Capital News Service

RICHMOND – Amy Wilson says she didn’t choose home schooling; her son did.

“My son chose home schooling when he was about 3. I didn’t realize that’s what was happening at the time. We tried having him go to preschool, and it was not a good fit for him,” said Wilson, the government affairs director for the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers.

“Once I started questioning preschool, I suddenly found myself in this land of home-schoolers.”

Across the United States, a growing number of parents like Wilson have chosen home schooling as an alternative to public schools. In Virginia, the number of home-schoolers has increased by more than 50 percent over the past decade, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

There are now more than 32,000 home-schoolers in Virginia. If they were a school district, it would be the ninth-largest in the state – with almost as many students as the Norfolk Public Schools.

Why Families Choose Home Schooling

A variety of factors push parents to try home schooling. They include flexibility, concerns about the quality of public schools and the freedom to teach without boundaries.

Ann Zeise is a home-schooling expert and owner of A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschooling, a popular website that provides resources and guidance on the subject. Zeise said many factors influence the growth of home schooling, such as:

¶ The perception of whether the public schools in a state are good or bad

¶ The ease of complying with the state’s home-schooling laws

¶ The availability of a support network for home-schooling parents and students

Home schooling gives parents the opportunity to choose the schedule, curriculum and teaching style that best suits the needs of the child and the family, according to Parrish Mort, president of the Organization for Virginia Homeschoolers (usually called VaHomeschoolers).

“It’s a great gift to really be able to fine-tune your child’s education to their learning styles,” Mort said. “What home schooling gives you is the freedom that you just don’t have as much of when you choose school.”

Moreover, home schooling allowed Mort to accommodate her son’s specialized learning needs. “It became a lifestyle for us, and we loved it,” Mort said.

Susannah Foster, a home educator for 10 years in Fairfax County, says her three children – ages 5, 11 and 15 – have all benefited from home schooling.

“We’ve been able to move at each child’s individual pace, choose a curriculum best-suited to their individual learning styles and needs, and pursue their interests in a way that, I hope, allows them to enjoy education rather than dread it,” Foster said.

Christina Caffi is a former home educator in Fairfax County and office manager for a holistic family practice. She said home schooling helped bring her family together.

“We were able to enjoy more time with our child, getting to know her and to tailor her education to her needs and interests,” Caffi said. “We were able to avoid the stress of the public school schedule and take advantage of the freedom of our schedule.”

Caffi said she began considering home schooling after observing the conditions at her daughter’s high school.

“When our first child entered high school, we were dismayed at the lack of discipline in her public high school,” Caffi said. “Remembering our own experiences in high school just 20 years before, we had concerns for the negative peer pressure she was facing and for the erosion of the moral values that we had tried to instill in her.”

Home Schooling: Doing the Math

Nationwide, there are more than 2 million home-schoolers, according to the National Home Education Research Institute.

During the 1994-95 school year, Virginia had 9,623 home-schoolers (including children kept out of public schools for religious reasons). By 2001-02, the number hit 21,121; and by 2011-12, the most recent year available, it climbed to 32,064. They represent 2.5 percent of all school-age children in Virginia.

The school divisions with the most home-schoolers are Fairfax County (2,929), Loudoun County (2,119), Chesterfield County (1,954), Prince William County (1,345) and Virginia Beach (982). That’s not surprising, because those are highly populated areas, and the home-schoolers there represent a tiny fraction of the school-age population.

But in Floyd County, in Southwest Virginia, the 269 home-schoolers represent nearly 12 percent of all school-age children, according to data analysis by Capital News Service. In Surry County, in the Hampton Roads area, home-schoolers represent 11 percent of all school-age children.

In 25 school divisions in Virginia, more than 5 percent of all school-age children are home-schooled. They range from Fauquier County and the city of Staunton to Powhatan and Warren counties. [Here is the data used in this report – statistics on home-schoolers statewide and in each school division of Virginia.]

Virginia’s Home-School Rules

Virginia makes it easy to home-school. Parents don’t need a college degree or any special academic qualifications. All they must do is:

¶ Notify the local district of their intent to home-school

¶ Provide a general curriculum, which can be a correspondence course or distance learning program

¶ Provide evidence of progress of the child’s academic progress each year

During the VaHomeschoolers Conference and Resource Fair in March in Glen Allen, Stephanie Elms, a member of the organization’s board, held an introductory session on the paperwork and legalities behind home schooling. Elms explained the different options under state law for evaluating a child’s progress.

“Home-schooled children,” she said, “do not need to follow the Standards of Learning” – Virginia’s standardized testing program that critics say is too rigid.

Instead, she said, home-schoolers could take an alternative standardized test, such as the California Achievement Test, the Iowa Test or the Stanford Achievement Test.

“For those kids where standardized testing is not a good reflection of their abilities, there is an option two,” Elms said. “Under this option there are alternative methods for evaluation.” They include written documentation showing evidence of progress, a portfolio of student work, report cards or transcripts.

What about Socialization?

Foster said home schooling is not the best option for every parent, but she believes it is the best option for preserving her individual family values.

“Great teachers are a blessing, but even the greatest teacher can’t possibly care for the development of a child as much as a parent does,” Foster said. “This is not a lifestyle that is appropriate for every family.”

One concern about home schooling is that children might not learn social skills from associating and working with students in a traditional school setting.

Missy Edwards, the former vice president of the Parent Teacher Association at Lanier Middle School in Fairfax, expressed that concern. She has three children, who have all attended public schools. Edwards said she has been actively involved in her children’s academic paths throughout high school.

Like many public school parents, Edwards believes home schooling cannot provide the type of benefits that public schools do.

“I don’t believe that home-schoolers can benefit from the social and academic capabilities of dealing with real-world issues,” Edwards said. She said public school “has provided my kids with socialization skills that I wouldn’t be able to give them if I had them at home with me every day.”

While Edwards said that she could never be a home-school parent, VaHomeschoolers leaders Amy Wilson of Prince William County and Parrish Mort of Cumberland County said public schools have always been an option for their children.

“If they told me they wanted to go to public school, I would let them give it a try. So far, they both prefer home schooling,” Wilson said.

Mort agreed: “Every year, we’d re-evaluate. It’s one child, one year at a time. If they chose to make a different choice, it was fine.”

As the number of home-schoolers has grown, so have the opportunities for home-schoolers to socialize with each other.

“With so many people home-schooling, it isn’t difficult to find a group of like-minded families with which to socialize,” Caffi said. “There are many opportunities for fun or learning experiences with groups and service opportunities abound.”

Caffi pointed out another advantage of home schooling: Parents know whom their child is socializing with. “That is a responsibility that is difficult to maintain in the away-from-home school setting.”

On the Web

The website of the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers is http://vahomeschoolers.org/

A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschooling is at http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/

The Virginia Department of Education has posted a booklet titled “Guidelines for Home Instruction in Virginia” at http://tinyurl.com/vdoe-home-schooling

Data showing the number of home-schoolers statewide and in every school division of Virginia is at http://tinyurl.com/va-home-school-data

Related Story

VaHomeschoolers Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Things are looking up for Sherry Sanderson; the 40-year-old mother of three is a year sober after enrolling in Rubicon Inc.’s Women and Children’s Treatment Center. Photo by Mark Robinson.

Mark Robinson
Capital News Service

A bronze medallion bearing the letters “NA” – for Narcotics Anonymous – hangs from Sherry Sanderson’s neck. She tears up as she looks down and reads the message engraved on it.

“That no addict seeking recovery need ever die,” she says.

The 40-year-old mother of three smiles. One year sober. She’s the first to say her recovery is only beginning, but now the clinic she credits for helping her turn her life around is in the midst of a recovery of its own.

Rubicon Inc., a substance abuse and mental health treatment center that has served the Richmond community for more than 40 years, is trying to regain its financial footing after nearly having to close its doors last fall. The Virginia Department of Taxation froze the nonprofit’s bank accounts last fall because the organization owed nearly $150,000 in payroll withholding taxes.

In addition, Rubicon owed $1.7 million in back taxes to the IRS, according to executive director Lawrence Everette. The organization asked the city for emergency funds to stave off a shutdown. Six months later, Everette is cautiously optimistic about the future.

“Things have improved. They’re not totally resolved, but they’re definitely improved,” Everette said. Since he took over Rubicon as executive director in August, he says the organization has been up to date with its payments to the federal and state tax agencies.

“It’s slim to none that we would close,” he said.

The nonprofit struck a deal with the IRS to pay the $1.7 million it owes, Everette said. Rubicon had to cut positions from its payroll to make ends meet. The decision to do so was made, Everette said, because of fewer people using the organization’s services.

Offering Hope Throughout Richmond

At its Highland Park facility, Rubicon operates a treatment center that can house nearly 100 men. It has a women’s program that can treat up to 40 women, a separate women and children’s treatment program with 14 beds and a 20-bed detoxification facility. Additionally, the organization has a satellite program called the Holistic Opportunity for Promise and Empowerment – known appropriately as HOPE – in Petersburg.

The Richmond City Jail, the Virginia Department of Corrections, Richmond Adult Drug Treatment Court, the VCU Health System, the Daily Planet homeless shelter and others refer patients to Rubicon for treatment. The nonprofit also partners with the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, the city’s organization that handles substance abuse, mental health and developmental disabilities.

“There are a fair number of babies who are born that are drug exposed, and it all adds up to a number of pregnant women in town who are addicted to drugs,” said James May, director of planning and development and substance abuse services for the RBHA. “When it comes to the attention of other service providers, they refer them to us.”

And the RBHA refers them to Rubicon, the only facility in central Virginia that allows mothers to live with their children while they detox and begin the long process of recovery.

Sherry Sanderson was one of those women.

‘I Wasn’t Worth Anything’

Sanderson started drinking at a young age and using cocaine in her teens. It wasn’t long before the New Jersey native was kicked out of high school and got pregnant with her first child. In the early ’90s, she moved to Richmond, where she began using crack cocaine.

Her addiction worsened following a series of personal tragedies. Her fiancé died, and Social Services took her daughter. Depressed and addicted with no family support, she turned to the streets.

Sanderson prostituted herself on Jefferson Davis Highway to pay for the drugs fueling her habit. In doing so, she developed a new one: shooting heroin.

“I thought I was a dirty no good whore, and I thought all the things that happened were because I wasn’t worth anything,” she said.

In 10 years on the streets, she was beaten, shot at, raped and left for dead. In the early 2000s, Sanderson went in and out of jail and did two stints in prison for a litany of drug-related charges, grand larceny and forgery. The time behind bars did little to curb her addiction.

Even the birth of her son, Malachi, couldn’t convince her to kick the habit permanently. She remembers times when she was too dope sick to get out of bed and cook the child breakfast. By the time she was referred to Rubicon Women’s and Children’s Treatment Community by RBHA in 2011, she says she had lost 20 years of her life to drugs.

‘That Was a Wake-Up Call’

She and Malachi, then 8 years old, moved in to the treatment center together, guaranteeing their family wouldn’t be separated by Sanderson’s treatment. The pair moved in to a second-floor room in the Women’s Treatment Center and shared bunk beds.

At Rubicon, mothers can live with up to three children in the treatment center. There are day care services, family counseling services and a playground. All of the school-aged children attend Richmond City Public Schools. Parents are able to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and earn their GEDs.

With the help of Rubicon’s staff, Sanderson was able to work toward maintaining her sobriety, but Malachi wasn’t happy.

“It was the first week and he said, ‘Why am I being punished? You were the one who was doing the drugs, not me,’ ” she recalls him saying, her voice trembling. “That was a wake-up call.”

Sanderson says she felt guilty, but her only other option was to surrender Malachi to Child Protective Services. She’d already lost two children to the system and wasn’t willing to give up her third.

It’s estimated that up to two thirds of families in the child welfare system are affected by parental substance abuse, according to the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare.

“It’s an extremely positive thing for the child to be able to not be separated from the mother when she’s in treatment,” said Everette, who has worked with Rubicon for the past 39 years. “I can’t imagine how anyone can think it’s anything but.”

Sanderson credits Rubicon for teaching her how to raise her son.

“Rubicon taught me how to live … how to be a Mom,” she said. “I had no idea that three meals a day at a square table meant something.”

About Rubicon

Founded in 1970, Rubicon Inc. is Virginia’s oldest and most comprehensive chemical dependency treatment program. It offers a full range of services, from detoxification to after care, for people with substance abuse problems.

The website for the nonprofit organization is www.rubiconrehab.org