Virginia is unlikely to reinstate parole this year after a Senate committee sent a proposal to a commission for further study.

The measure, patroned by Democratic state Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) and Sen. John Edwards (D-Roanoke), would have reversed a 1995 policy that eliminated parole and only allowed for docking 15% of a sentence based on good behavior.

Lawmakers in the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee voted unanimously to refer the bill to the Virginia State Crime Commission.

In a hearing Friday, violent crime victims spoke about their fears of their assailants getting released.

Leslie Cole Swanson said that she and her brother were children in 1996 when their father murdered their mother in front of them.

“Thankfully we had this notion of him being in prison forever and we built our lives around that certainty,” she said. The parole bill “takes that certainty away from us.”

Bryan Haskins, the top prosecutor in Pittsylvania County, also spoke against the bill on behalf of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys. He said judges in Virginia have issued shorter prison terms to account for a lack of parole.

“Studies have concluded time and again that nonviolent offenders on average are not spending more time in prison as a result of no parole,” he said.

Advocates for the bill said parole decreased mass incarceration and the cost of maintaining prisons, while giving people a second chance.

“My loved one has been serving 23 years for a crime, first offender, at 18 years old that he committed,” said Juanita Belton. “There’s no more time for him to serve. He is ready to get out, he has rehabilitated, he has done the work and it is now time for him to become a productive citizen.”

Virginia is among 16 states that ended discretionary parole for most or all new offenses, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit based in Western Massachusetts.

Tracey Lenox, who heads the Prince William County public defender’s office, told DCist/WAMU she would “probably” support reinstating parole, although she said she recognized the need to further study the issue. She said that although judges may issue what they believe are shorter sentences, Virginia has mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that at times are excessive.

“There are a lot of ways in which the sentencing structure in Virginia has gotten more and more draconian in recent years,” she said. “Getting rid of minimums….it’s low hanging fruit.”

Reinstating parole is among many criminal justice reforms that Democrats have raised this year. A bill to abolish the death penalty is working through the state Senate with the backing of Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat. Northam is also supporting an effort to legalize marijuana. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus says it hopes to pass those measures among a broad list of changes to criminal justice, including ending qualified immunity legal protection for police and ending the practice of solitary confinement.

Friday’s hearing underscored the momentum behind the movement for changing Virginia’s criminal justice system. Following the vote on parole, the same Senate committee moved to advance a bill that would restrict the use of solitary confinement in state correctional facilities for adults and juveniles.