Gov. Terry McAuliffe has appointed a Newport News native and longtime chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott as the newest member of the Virginia Parole Board.
Joni L. Ivey, 64, who retired earlier this year, was named to the five-member board that serves at the pleasure of the governor, according to a news release from the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office late Friday.
Ivey worked as a legislative assistant for Scott, D-Newport News, when he was in the Virginia General Assembly and then was his chief of staff for 23 years.
The Virginia Parole Board considers whether to release inmates who were convicted of crimes committed before the abolition of parole in 1995.
The board also considers whether to grant “geriatric release” to inmates convicted after that. Under law, inmates are annually considered for release at age 60 if they’ve served at least 10 years in prison, and at age 65 if they’ve been locked up for five years.
Moreover, the board votes on whether to revoke parole for violations committed by parolees, and advises the governor on executive clemencies.
For more than two decades, Virginia has been accused by inmate advocates of being too tight on granting parole.
But McAuliffe and Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran have made clear that they want to make parole easier for some inmates to attain. They recently have revamped the board with members who appear more open to that goal.
Ivey replaces Algie T. Howell Jr., a former state delegate and Air Force veteran whom McAuliffe appointed to the board in 2014. Howell stepped down from the board last month.
Howell had been the board’s vice chairman since his appointment three years ago. That vice chairmanship will now be filled by Jean W. Cunningham, a retired state lawmaker appointed to the board in January.
Ivey has been active in the community for more than four decades, and was the first woman elected president of the Newport News branch of the NAACP, the news release said. She’s a graduate of George Washington Carver High School and Norfolk State University.
Dujardin can be reached by phone at 757-247-4749 or by email at pdujardin@dailypress.com