Walkinshaw SALT Candidate Survey 2019

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SOCIAL ACTION LINKING TOGETHER (SALT)---2019

Candidate Survey – 2019

THIS QUESTIONAIRE REQUESTS YOUR POSITIONS ON SALT’S TOP LEGISLATIVE ISSUES FOR 2020.  Your responses will be shared with our members and others via mailings and our website (www.salt.org) as a helpful guide in their choice of candidates. Your answers will not be abbreviated or taken out of context.  Please return your answers by May 15th  e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you for your commitment to public service and for your willingness to share your opinions with SALT.

Candidate:   James Walkinshaw

District:        Braddock District -- Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

Social Action Linking Together urges you to support the following:

  1. Solitary confinement goes by a variety of labels, but is commonly understood to mean incarceration of a person in a small cell for more than 20 hours a day.  Human rights and mental health experts recognize prolonged solitary confinement as a form of torture.  Scientific studies show that permanent changes in brain chemistry can occur after as few as 15 consecutive days in solitary confinement.  This limit has been incorporated in international human rights standards.  Prolonged solitary confinement is the antithesis of rehabilitation.  It undermines a person's ability to return to society as a healthy and productive citizen.  What measures would you support to limit the use of prolonged solitary confinement?

While not an issue within the purview of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I oppose the use of solitary confinement and would work with our state lawmakers to limit or end the practice in Virginia facilities.

 

  1. Do you support ending the Federal Life-Time Ban on Food Stamps and TANF for persons with drug felony records? These bans impose a lifetime penalty after prison time is served; It is not part of their sentence!! And, it penalizes the children of persons with drug records. Do you support extending TANF & Food Stamp program eligibility for drug offender persons who return to their families and take responsibility for their families? Please explain.

While not an issue within the purview of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I would support ending the TANF ban for persons with drug felony records.

 

  1. Do you support a Budget Amendment to Consolidate the two existing locality groupings for (TANF) into a single group, using the Group III benefit rates, with the resulting increase being Funded from the Federal TANF Block Grant? This would help to move Virginia from the lowest toward the middle range, nationally. Yes or No?

Yes.

 

  1. SALT supports Governor Northam’s proposal to make the Virginia EITC “Refundable,” in order to help low-income families; because the federal tax changes, mainly, have already helped the high income filers and corporations. Do you support Yes/No.  Please explain.

Yes. I supported a refundable EITC during session this year.

 

  1. Housing Trust Fund:Virginia remains the most expensive state for renters in the southeast and the 10th most expensive state in the nation and is identified as one of the least affordable states in the nation according to the “NLIHC  Out of Reach Report.“  This is based on actual wages and rents in the Commonwealth. Do you support a designated/ongoing source of revenue for the state housing trust fund that would be used to address subsidized housing for the most vulnerable families as well as for workforce housing?

Yes. Access to affordable housing is one of Fairfax County’s most pressing problems and the assistance we receive from the Commonwealth of Virginia is severely limited. Any increase in state revenue and funds dedicated to affordable housing in Northern Virginia would be welcome.

 

  1. We should care about what happens behind prison walls. Prison pay to prisoners for prison mandated jobs vary from “not paid by DOC” and range from .23 cents per hour to $2.00 per day to $6.00 per week in Virginia. The inability to make a real wage harms the chances of success after release. Would you support a prison Minimum Wage bill to recognize the labor, goods and considerable revenues incarcerated people contribute and to respect the dignity of their work?  What hourly wage would you support?

Yes.

 

YOUR ISSUES:  What are some issues you feel strongly about that you would like to share with your SALT constituents?

Please visit https://jameswalkinshaw.org/issues/

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!