Virginia Democrats Weigh Increasing Parole Opportunities to Decrease Rising Prison Medical Costs
•February 17, 2026
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Why It Matters
The measure tackles an unsustainable correctional health‑care budget, potentially reshaping Virginia’s criminal‑justice spending and parole policy. Reducing costly incarcerations could free resources for community services and improve fiscal resilience.
Key Takeaways
- •Parole board expands to minimum ten members by 2028
- •Inmate medical costs exceeded budget by $25M in 2024
- •9% of inmates generate 86% of medical expenses
- •Aging inmate population drives rising healthcare spending
- •Study commissioned to assess broader parole eligibility impacts
Pulse Analysis
Virginia’s correctional system faces a fiscal tipping point as an aging inmate cohort drives medical spending far beyond budgeted levels. The Department of Corrections reported over‑budget health expenditures of $25 million in FY 2024 and $23 million in FY 2025, with a mere 9 percent of prisoners accounting for 86 percent of those costs. Because the Eighth Amendment guarantees prisoners a constitutional right to health care, the state must shoulder these expenses, straining the rainy‑day fund and prompting hiring freezes that jeopardize safety and rehabilitation programs.
In response, the House of Delegates passed HB 318, expanding the parole board from five to at least ten members and requiring appointees with deep experience in law, corrections, reentry, or victim services. The bill also mandates staggered appointments to preserve continuity across gubernatorial terms. Simultaneously, Senator David Marsden’s Senate Joint (SJ) 26 directs a legislative audit of discretionary parole eligibility, signaling a data‑driven shift toward releasing older, low‑risk inmates. By offering meaningful parole pathways, Virginia aims to lower the high‑cost inmate segment while preserving community security.
The broader implications extend beyond budgeting. Other states have leveraged academic medical centers and external nursing‑home placements to cut correctional health costs, models Virginia could emulate. However, political resistance remains, with some Republicans warning that expanded parole could threaten public safety. As the state grapples with a projected 12,000 inmates aging into the highest‑cost brackets, the outcome of this policy experiment will likely influence national debates on correctional reform, fiscal responsibility, and the balance between rehabilitation and security.
Virginia Democrats weigh increasing parole opportunities to decrease rising prison medical costs
RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Virginia Democrats passed a bill Tuesday expanding the state parole board as lawmakers scramble to address the rising medical costs of an aging inmate population.
On a 67-29 vote, the House of Delegates passed a bill from Democratic Delegate Patrick Hope that expands the parole board from five to at least 10 members, with the General Assembly and the governor splitting appointments.
The measure, which won’t take effect until 2028, requires appointees to have extensive professional experience in criminal law, corrections, reentry, community services or victim services. The bill also requires the board to provide meaningful opportunities for the release of juvenile offenders and stagger appointments to avoid a complete overhaul after each new governor takes office.
Democrat David Marsden passed a bill through the state senate directing the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the potential impacts of expanding discretionary parole eligibility.
“We need to start taking a look at a way of dealing with people who are now older and sicker, and we need the resources to do discretionary parole for those who are approaching the time when they can qualify for geriatric parole,” Marsden said at a committee hearing. “The system needs to be looked at. There are a lot of better plans out there.”
A January report from the Department of Corrections showed that inmate medical expenditures exceeded budgeted amounts by over $25 million in the 2024 fiscal year and by over $23 million in the 2025 fiscal year. The prison population is the only group in America that has a constitutional right to health care thanks to the Eighth Amendment.
“This is not sustainable,” Shawn Weneta, legislative liaison for the Humanization Project, said. “We’re going to deplete our rainy day fund, not because of a natural disaster or a recession, but because we’re paying for people who are no longer risks to the community to be treated in a prison.”
The state shifted funding away from facility operations and issued a hiring freeze in 2025 to address excessive medical expenses. Virginia spent an average of $12,645 per inmate for medical care in 2025.
Weneta said that understaffing prisons to pay for medical costs is a dangerous formula for inmates and correctional staff. Virginia experienced its first death of an on-duty correctional officer in 50 years in 2025.
“Programs aren’t being delivered, people aren’t going to classes and are unable to get recreation,” Weneta said. “They’re not able to sort of do the things they need to do to have some sort of outlet for their energy.”
Weneta, who spent 16 years in prison before former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam pardoned him in 2020, said lawmakers need to evolve their views on criminal justice.
“Members of the General Assembly need to be willing to set aside rhetoric and preconceived policy positions and be really willing to come to the table to reconsider their positions on how we handle corrections and rehabilitation and the costs that are associated,” Weneta said. “If we can look at data and what actually works, rather than emotion, I think we can probably come to some really good solutions.”
Weneta said lawmakers are lagging in addressing a funding concern that will only become more expensive as more than 12,000 inmates age into the highest-cost brackets over the next few years. An aging, sicker population has caused Anthem insurance to raise the inmate population’s risk score, which is used to set insurance rates for commercial products. According to the report, 9% of inmates accounted for 86% of the total medical expenses in 2024.
Many factors contribute to the aging population, including an increase in convictions for older white males who commit sexual crimes online. Inmates are entering prison sicker, and Weneta said prison life itself can cause health issues, such as an inmate developing diabetes after receiving subpar nutrition. There are also currently over 1,000 inmates treated for opioid use disorder.
Some measures implemented in other states include allowing academic medical centers to use students and residents to provide on-site care and increasing medical release or external nursing home options for elderly or high-cost claimants.
Republican State Senator Mark Obenshain sounded dismissive of initiatives aimed at reducing prisons’ medical expenses by reducing the inmate population.
“Criminal justice is not cheap, and we’re not going to compromise the safety of our communities across the commonwealth of Virginia, our neighborhoods, our families,” Obenshain said. “‘I’m deeply concerned about moves that are going to make Virginians less safe, and turning violent criminals back out into the community is absolutely going to make Virginia less safe.”
According to the Department of Corrections, the average state inmate population was 22,538 in January. Of those, the department estimates that 36% of the inmate population suffers from mental illnesses.
One factor contributing to the aging population is legislation passed in the mid-1990s under a “truth-in-sentencing” initiative that practically abolished discretionary parole for those who committed offenses after 1994. The legislation came after the federal government offered grant funding to build more state prisons in exchange for states’ abolishing parole. The legislation required inmates to serve at least 85% of their sentences. The state grants parole to certain inmates who are at least 60 years old and have served at least 10 years, or to those over 65 years old who have served at least 5 years.
The report outlined that expenses for facility operations and education opportunities are also underfunded. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has yet to comment on whether she would support expanding the parole board.
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