Making Up for Lost 'Street Time'

In 2006, 54 percent of revocations were for "technical violations" -- failed drug tests, missed appointments or failure to maintain a permanent residence. In Virginia, however, technical violations accounted for 40 percent of the 578 parole violators in 2006.

In practice, a single infraction rarely triggers a parole revocation; usually, it is because of a series or a combination of infractions.

At a hearing Thursday, dozens of men and women testified that they had been sent back to prison, picking up their sentence where it left off, when they could not overcome their addictions to alcohol or drugs, or when they were acquitted of new crimes.

A broad range of politicians and criminal justice officials say change is needed.

"A way to reduce crime is to make it easier for ex-offenders to reenter society as constructive members," said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the public safety committee and one of seven council members who co-sponsored the bill. "When we stick them on a never-ending treadmill, you can expect a high rate of recidivism."

"People are doing life on the installment plan," said Phil Fornaci, director of the D.C. Prisoners' Project, which is leading the effort to change the law.

Several court decisions have upheld a 1932 law passed by Congress that denies District felons credit for time on the street when parole is revoked. It is as if the clock on their sentence stopped ticking when they left prison on parole, resuming again on their return.

The proposed bill also would allow parolees who exhibit good behavior to further shorten their time under supervision, a provision only a handful of states have.

Patricia A. Riley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney general's office, which must approve changes in parole law, said the department supports street time credit, but parolees who commit new crimes should lose it.

"D.C. parolees should not be treated more harshly than federal parolees, but we do not agree that they should be treated more leniently," she said.

Isaac Fulwood Jr., a member of the U.S. Parole Commission, also wants parolees given credit for street crime unless they commit new crimes, and he routinely deals with the consequences.

At hearings he holds every week, he tells offenders on the cusp of being sent back prison that they must change their behavior.

This week, for example, Fulwood listened as a 48-year-old woman, on parole for murder, begged to not be sent back to jail. She worried that no one would take care of her 10-year-old daughter. But she admitted that she was still using cocaine.

"You're putting us in a position where we may have to send you back," Fulwood told her, as she sobbed before him. He ordered her back to drug treatment. "The way to defeat drugs is to make better choices."

Another advocate for a change in the law is Al-Malik Farrakhan, founder of Cease Fire . . . Don't Smoke the Brothers and Sisters. His organization regularly helps people after their release from prison.

One man, he recalled, had been a model parolee for nine years, working six days a week and coaching basketball. He was arrested again in 2003 and acquitted of drug charges. The parole board sent him to prison.

Farrakhan said the loss of credit for street time amounts to double jeopardy.

"I have been advocating to get rid of this law for 10 years," he said. "It's a shame that more people go back to jail for technical violations than for getting new charges."