Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190146
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM MASON THE RICHMOND NEWS LEADER
DATELINE: JARRATT(AP) LENGTH: Long
"Here, we've got indoor heating, too," quipped Vanderstuyf, a Greensville Correctional Center inmate who formerly served time in the State Penitentiary in Richmond.
Vanderstuyf, a 39-year-old convict from Virginia Beach, is one of 256 former Penitentiary inmates now at Greensville, Virginia's new, $106 million, maximum-security prison.
The Greensville prison is the state's first multiple-facility prison complex. It includes three 516-cell prisons, each of which will operate independently; a 192-cell segregation unit for unruly inmates; a new death chamber for the state's electric chair; and a 40-bed hospital, surrounded by two 12-foot-high, razor-wire perimeter fences.
At the Penitentiary in Richmond, Vanderstuyf said, his cellblock's roof leaked and birds used to fly in through broken window panes. "It was like living outside," he said. "Living conditions here are a lot better."
Warden Eugene M. Grizzard is equally upbeat about Greensville's programs for inmates. "Our educational and other programs are designed to enhance their lives and prevent them from coming back," he said.
Grizzard shares with Jarratt Mayor James Kimberlin the view that the so-called "superprison" will boost the area's economy.
"We've been fortunate enough to hire most of our people locally," Grizzard said, and they will spend their money for food, clothing, housing and other necessities.
"Eventually you are going to be seeing people buying homes" closer to their jobs at the complex, he predicted.
The prison has 570 employees - 114 of whom transferred from the Penitentiary - and it could employ nearly 1,000 eventually.
"Over the long haul, I see a steady growth in housing and in all the other areas of our economy," Kimberlin said.
Vanderstuyf and two other former Penitentiary inmates said they feel safer at Greensville because of its modern design.
He also said he is looking forward to the educational, religious, treatment and job-training programs that soon will be available at Greensville. Such programs ceased for inmates during the final months of the Penitentiary's operation.
Vanderstuyf said he has volunteered to be a reading tutor at the prison. He also has signed up for barber school and a course in appliance repair.
"As long as they have something to learn, I'm going to learn," said Vanderstuyf, an 18-year Navy veteran who is serving 10 years for aggravated sexual battery.
Inmate Dean Ratliff, 27, of Hopewell, said he also wants to learn a job skill - furniture upholstery.
"After they get everything going, it'll be a lot better" than the Penitentiary, said Ratliff, who is serving a 35-year sentence for burglary and grand larceny.
"This prison is so much cleaner," added Bobbie Rogers, 38, of Alexandria, another former Penitentiary inmate who is serving a 14-year sentence for robbery.
Rogers said he wants to finish earning his high school equivalency diploma through the General Educational Development program and join Vanderstuyf in barber school.
All three inmates said the food has been better and more varied at Greensville than it was at the Penitentiary.
Because of a lockdown, inmates at the Penitentiary received their meals in their cells. At Greensville, inmates go through a cafeteria line and eat in dining halls.
Instead of having to stay in their cells, as was the case during the Penitentiary lockdown, inmates at Greensville have more freedom inside their prison.
"I do the same thing every afternoon after lunch here," Rogers said. "I take a nap, then look at my soap operas on TV, and read the newspapers."
Once he gets involved in his GED classes and barber school, however, he won't have as much leisure time, prison officials said.
The prison unit in which the three inmates live opened Oct. 30, and programs in the unit will begin in early April, said Jean Clarke, Greensville's operations officer.
The first prison is virtually filled, and more inmates are arriving to be housed in the second, she said.
"With 755 inmates, the prison is already bigger than the town of Jarratt," said Grizzard.
His deputy warden in charge of the second-phase prison is Patricia A. Terrangi, a former assistant warden at the Penitentiary.
"In terms of being a correctional manager, I think this is one of the best places to be" in Virginia's prison system, said Terrangi.
Because of its modern design and built-in security features, the new prison is "much safer and more secure" than the Penitentiary's hodgepodge of cellblocks and other buildings, Terrangi said.
Each of Greensville's prisons consists of three four-story housing units, with the cells grouped in triangular "pods" on each level. An officer in one control center watches inmates in two pods.
"Surveillance and control are much better here," said Terrangi.
Greensville's third 516-cell prison is scheduled for completion by the end of this month. Like the other two, it consists of three four-story housing units, a support building containing classrooms, shops, a gymnasium, and dining halls.
Corrections officials recently increased the number of inmates who will share cells in the complex. With the "double-celling," Greensville eventually will house 2,359 inmates.
"We've had some problems, but no more than you'd expect with new construction," Grizzard said.
In one case he cited, a contractor's workers had to return and install new screws to secure the electric motors of the cell doors in all the housing units.
"But I'm pleased with the way things are now," the warden added. "I think we're in good shape."
by CNB