Yeah, the Parole Board Scandal Really Is a Scandal

Written for Bacon’s Rebellion by James A. Bacon

The good guy: Virginia Inspector General Michael C. Westfall

Bacon’s Rebellion has not given the biggest scandal of the Northam administration (since Blackface) the attention it deserves. In fact, we have given the matter little attention at all. Sorry, folks, we don’t have the resources to do it all. And there’s no need when the mainstream media is doing a perfectly good job. But at some point, we have to acknowledge that the scandal is ongoing.

I’m talking about the parole board scandal, in which Adrianne Bennett, chairwoman of the Virginia Parole Board, allegedly violated state law and the board’s own victim-notification procedures for releasing murderers from prison. After receiving complaints on the state’s waste-fraud-and-abuse hotline, the State Inspector General conducted an investigation and documented the allegations. Senior members of the Northam administration got wind of the report and heavily redacted it for release to the public. Republicans got wind and raised a stink. Team Northam berated IG Michael Westfall and his staff, one of the staff resigned in protest, and Governor Ralph Northam called for an investigation of the investigators.

The heavy: Northam Chief of Staff Clark Mercer

For once, the mainstream media has been doing its job and covering the scandal, which shows how the Northam administration does business. (If you think this is the only time Team Northam has thrown its weight around, you’re deluding yourself.)

One outlet I give credit to is the Virginia Mercury. I have taken the independent online publication to task for some of its environmental and social-justice reporting, but it has been in the forefront of covering the parole-board scandal. 

Naturally, Democrats have rallied around the Governor. Del. Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, accused Republicans of dusting off “the old racist Willie Horton playbook” and responding with “the politics of vengeance.” Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, called Republicans’ push for mandatory minimum sentencing the GOP’s “Alamo against criminal justice reform.”

While Mercury Editor Robert Zullo acknowledges Republican’s political motives, he writes “that doesn’t mean there isn’t a whole lot of there there, especially for people concerned about governmental transparency, the ability of watchdog agencies to do their job, and whistleblower protections, all things Democrats recently professed to care about very much about, at least when it came to Donald Trump’s White House.”

Regardless of what you think about parole and who should get it, maybe even more troubling than what’s leaked out about the workings of the Parole Board is what the scandal has revealed about the Office of the State Inspector General, created in 2011 by the General Assembly and housed under the umbrella of the governor’s office.

The inspector general, whose role is to “maximize the public’s confidence and trust in state government,” is appointed by the governor, approved by the General Assembly and reports to the governor’s chief of staff. And, as the recording makes clear, that structure can make for some uncomfortable grilling by people with the power to fire the watchdog when his office delivers a report the administration really doesn’t like.

“This is the type of stuff that leads to me getting a new job. Against my will,” Westfall said in the audio recording after leaving the meeting with Mercer and Moran. “And I’m fine with that. I knew that when I took the job.”

If you haven’t been following the scandal closely, the Zullo piece I linked to provides an excellent summary of key developments.