Democrats have ‘a lot of work to do’
11/22/2019, 6 a.m.
We, Democrats, now have control of the GeneralAssembly and the Governor’s Office. We have a lot to repair.
At the top of my list would be early voting. Virginians need to be able to vote at least a month before the election and on the weekends. Any laws or policies that have a chilling effect on voting should be eliminated.
Second on my list is criminal justice reform. The system needs to be reviewed from top to bottom.
For many offenses, particularly nonviolent offenses, citizens should not be penalized their entire life after they have served their time and/or paid their fine.
For example, at the very least, the first misdemeanor should be expunged from a person’s record after they have satisfied whatever penalty is given.
And I mean not just dismissed, but expunged — cleaned from the record. Our expungement laws are out of the 1800s. It hurts individuals so much when seeking employment when a state has non-progressive expungement laws.
Remember, in Virginia, people at one time promoted for-profit prisons. How insane is that?
Yes, we have control, but we have a lot of work to do. A good start would be with voting and criminal justice reform.
TONNIE VILLINES
Henrico County
