Let’s Take A Look At The Second Look!

Let’s Take A Look At The Second Look

As February 2024 comes to an end and the Virginia General Assembly passes its halfway point, I eagerly await the disposition of SB 427. This bill is also known as the Second Look Act.If this bill were to be signed into law it would be the first real opportunity for me to ask the courts to review my sentence after having spent decades in prison. Far from being a “get out of jail free card” for me or anyone else, it would provide a mechanism for those who have earned the privilege of having their sentences modified. As I begin my 26th year in prison, I am extremely excited about the possibility of what this could mean for me.I am so grateful to the many individuals as well as the organizations that have fought and advocated for “the least of these” and the often forgotten 25,000 citizens who make up the Virginia prison population. A prison population that is held and managed by a Department called Corrections. However, since Virginia abolished parole in 1995 and began to require that inmates serve 85% of their sentences rehabilitation, reform and “corrections” has taken a back seat to what often looks and feels like retribution and vengeance.Unfortunately, the laws and the policies that shape our society are often driven by attitudes that swing from one extreme to the other like an ideological pendulum.

Parole was abolished 30 years ago in response to a corrections system that was experiencing unacceptably high rates of recidivism. The “baby” of rehabilitation and reform was thrown out with the “bathwater” of a system that was not working as it should have been. Recidivism doesn’t just fail society, it also fails those who return to prison time and again because they lack the tools to become productive members of society.In the wake of parole being abolished, judges and juries were often handing down sentences that didn’t always consider offenders would be serving 85% of their sentences.As a result, over the last 30 years, many have been serving disproportionately long sentences with no mechanism in place for review or reconsideration.The United States prides itself in the integrity of a justice system that would rather see one guilty person go free than have one innocent person convicted and sentenced for a crime they didn’t commit. And yet in Virginia when it comes to the length of a prison sentence and or the fairness of that sentence there currently isn’t any means or method to review a sentence. Even after a person has been incarcerated for decades, has become old and is no longer a threat to reoffend.

If the Second Look Act were to become a law it would give some who meet the criteria the opportunity to petition the sentencingcourt for a second look.As I understand the bill that has been proposed, inmates must have served at least 20 years and in some cases 25 years before they can petition the court for a sentence modification. A sentence “modification” could be a partially suspended sentence, concurrent sentencing, time served or something else.

Try to imagine for a moment what 20-25 years or longer in prison looks like. But more than that, try to imagine the potential for change a person has in any 20-25 year period of life.Its been said, “the same sun that melts wax hardens clay” and this is true of the prison experience. Many come to prison and are hardened by the experience. Others are softened and reformed through this experience.Today’s “corrections” begin and end with an individual’s personal desire to be a better person. Considering a person serving time can only earn 4 days of good time a month for good behavior, there is currently little to no reward for rehabilitation outside one’s own motives to be a better person.Of course, reform and rehabilitation begins with accountability, remorse and repentance that leads to a change of thought, behavior and character. In the same way you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink, placing a person in prison doesn’t guarantee there will be reform and rehabilitation. There is currently little incentive for Virginian inmates serving a lengthy prison to dedicate themselves to reform and rehabilitation. However, this Second Look Act would change that.

I came to prison 25 years ago as a 30 year old man. I was sentenced to 26 years for “conspiring” to rob a bank. Something I have always vehemently denied I was guilty of. The circumstances of my arrest, conviction and sentence made me angry. It was an anger that was driven by the FEAR I would spend the next two and a half decades in prison for a crime I didn’t believe I had committed. This anger became bitterness after my post convictions were lost to me due to attorney error and a system’s unwillingness to correct itself. The first few years of my incarnation were plagued with depression and many other mental/emotional issues that I failed to recognize and cope with in a healthy and productive manner. I felt as if I had no hope.As a result, I tragically made a self destructive and impulsive decision to flee custody while I was on medical transportation outside the prison. I have candidly talked about this cry for help throughout this website.Since that day, I have fought through the consequences of my behavior to become a better person. I gave my life to Christ in April of 2006 and dedicated myself to serving my Lord and Savior. By the grace of God, I survived 5 years of disciplinary segregation. I have invested the last 2 decades into theological studies with an emphasis on apologetics and Christian philosophy.As I have worked to improve myself, I have also worked to improve the prison community in which I live. I have served in the church, led Bible studies, worked as a teacher/tutor helping students to improve literacy and get their GEDs. I have worked as an inmate advisor. Also as peer support where I am responsible for the care of another inmate with a disability.

In addition to these and other jobs over the years, I have taken and completed vocational training in custodial maintenance and computers. I have earned certification in numerous programs including, Thinking For a Change, Breaking Barriers, Anger Management and PREPS. I am currently on the waiting list for others.

I have been blessed with tremendous family love and support. Family that hasn’t given up on me over the years. I have real support and an opportunity to succeed in the real world despite the fact I turn 56 next month and I’ve spent almost half my life in prison. I have even been blessed to have met a woman, fallen in love and gotten married.

Unfortunately, none of us are getting any younger, myself included. While I don’t feel old, there is an accumulative physiological effect to spending decades in prison that is having a toll on my body. I have had 5 surgeries over the years and require at least 2 more surgeries and one medical procedure at this time.

If the Second Look were to become law, I would ask the court that sentenced me to consider running some of my time concurrently. I am serving time for 14 individual sentences ranging from 6 months to 10 years. However, because these sentences are consecutive sentences I have a total of 84.5 years to serve.

Second Look would give me the opportunity to ask the court to consider modifying my sentences. Without this legislation nothing exists within the law to even allow for a reconsideration of my sentences and I could spend the rest of my life in prison.

I believe the 25 years I’ve served in prison as well as the efforts I’ve made to rehabilitate myself have earned me the privilege of a second look.

Many years ago I read a famous theologian who was quoted saying something close to this:

“I am not the man I should be or the man with God’s grace I will one day be but I thank God I am no longer the man I used to be.”

I believe I can humbly say at this point in my life this quote applies to me.

I will be anxiously following the Second Look bill as it continues through the legislative process. I pray that Governor Youngkin will find the grace and the mercy in his heart to sign this bill into law. I ask all of you who have read this blog to please support me as I hope to get this second look and a second chance at life beyond prison.

Thank you.

Jeffrey Shortal