This article originally appeared here, at wjla.com

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Although Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has celebrated that Virginia has, overall, the lowest recidivism rate in the country at 17.6 percent over the past three years, Virginia’s Attorney General argued a specific early release program needs to be fixed by state lawmakers.

This week, Attorney General Jason Miyares presented new data from the state about an early release program that he said is releasing serious, violent, repeat offenders and is making Virginia less safe.

“This is an unfair and cruel policy that is failing Virginians,” said Miyares.

Miyares took aim at the program the Democratic-controlled Virginia General Assembly passed in 2020 that allows inmates to be released early if they meet certain criteria. It’s called the Enhanced Earned Sentence Credits Law, which Miyares says allows inmates to cut up to one-third of their sentence.

At a press conference this week, Miyares hosted victims and their families who shared their stories.

“The earned credit sentencing law that was changed in 2020 along with the policy changes the Department of Corrections made to probation supervision directly led to the death of my precious daughter,” one woman said during the press conference.”

She said her daughter was a newlywed.

“She did not deserve this,” she added. “Our family did not deserve this.”

Miyares said in the first full year the program was enacted in 2023, more than 9,600 inmates were released early, and just over 49 percent were rearrested, and he says, so far, 36 percent of those have been convicted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s nearly 5,000 people rearrested for crimes that should have never happened because they were back on the street instead of behind bars,” said Miyares.

In six months of fiscal year 2024, the state’s data shows more than 7,100 inmates have been let out early.

“In just six months, in just six months, more than 2,500 of these early released have already been rearrested. That is stunning,” said Miyares.

Miyares said the General Assembly failed to include safeguards to protect Virginians or reduce recidivism.

“It’s time for the General Assembly and the politicians that [imposed] this policy on Virginians to admit their mistake,” said Miyares. “It’s time for them to fix what they broke.”

Democratic State Senator Scott Surovell hit back.

“Earned Sentence Credits were successfully pioneered in Texas and the Youngkin Administration was responsible for implementing them here in Virginia including prisoner re-entry and monitoring of released inmates over the last 4 years,” Surovell told 7News. “Perhaps we need to evaluate the Youngkin Administration’s practices.”

A Governor Glenn Youngkin spokesperson responded with the following statement:

“Senator Surovell has made his lack of sympathy for the families of the victims of these unnecessary crimes very clear, but he doesn’t get to live in a fact-free zone. Enhanced Earned Sentence Credits were hastily drafted and jammed through the General Assembly in 2021 over objections that releasing violent offenders before they have completed their full sentence and rehabilitative treatment would have disastrous results. The law allows murderers and rapists to earn credits for the lesser crimes they were convicted of, even though they should not be earning credits at all. Governor Youngkin fixed this in his first budget with House Republican leadership and a few courageous Senate Democrats. Under Senator Surovell’s leadership, however, Senate and House Democrats reversed this fix and opened the floodgates for murderers and rapists to be released early.”