McDonnell names ex-Sen. Quayle to Va. Parole Board

RICHMOND

It turns out Fred Quayle's- separation from state government service will be short-lived.

Gov. Bob McDonnell has named the former state senator from Suffolk to the Virginia Parole Board, an appointment with a four-year term and a $52,000 annual salary.

Quayle's 20-year career in the Senate ended after he declined to seek re-election last November. He made that decision after he and a fellow Republican senator, Chesapeake's Harry Blevins, were drawn together in Democrats' redistricting plan.

Quayle, 75, is the newest addition to the five-member Parole Board, which can grant, deny or revoke parole and detain parole violators. It also has the power to give early release to geriatric inmates.

Out of the roughly 30,500 Virginia prison inmates, about 4,800 remain eligible for parole because they were incarcerated before the state abolished it in 1995.

Quayle, whose term begins next month, said he he's looking forward to the position after years in the legislature dealing with laws involving parole and punishment.

He sponsored a 2004 law to give financial restitution to people wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for serious crimes and has been an advocate for legislation to relax punishment for technical parole violations.

Last spring, the moderate Quayle lamented what he sees as an increasingly partisan atmosphere in politics as he looked back at his legislative career.

An attorney, Quayle hasn't practiced law in several years. He most recently taught government and political science courses at Old Dominion University, but said he isn't teaching this semester.

Julian Walker, 804-697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com