According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Justice, the prison population in Virginia has declined about 10 percent compared to the national average of 25 percent, reports WVTF. Virginia is well behind states that are leading the trend, like Connecticut, New Jersey, California and New York, where the prison population in those states declined 30 percent or more.
The numbers from the Justice Department cover through 2020, so they do not reflect recent criminal justice reforms Democrats were able to pass when they were in power. Add to that efforts to reduce the prison population during the pandemic, and that could mean an even steeper decline in Virginia’s incarceration rates in the future.