Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 1, 1993 TAG: 9307300091
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
It can hold too many prisoners.
The advantage is that the county has been able to provide space and get paid by other localities that are too crowded.
The disadvantage is in figuring Pulaski County's share in building a regional jail, because calculations are being based on the number of prisoners each jail now holds.
"We're carrying 96 right now," Sheriff Ralph Dobbins told the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors last week. "We have a great deal of overcrowding."
The board is waiting until next month to decide if it wants to help pay for another study required by the state to qualify a regional jail project for 50 percent state funding.
David Rundgren, New River Valley Planning District Commission executive director, said there is the possibility that state money will not be there if the project is delayed. If the study is not ready by early 1994, the project would be tabled at least until the 1998-2000 biennium.
Radford and Galax and Giles, Floyd, Grayson and Carroll counties have committed their parts of the funding study. Wythe County still is considering it.
But even the shares of this study, and the needs assessment for the project completed earlier, are based on jail populations, which means Pulaski County pays more.
When the jail study committee meets Aug. 31, Pulaski County will ask that shares be based on general population of participating localities rather than on jail population.
It has its own county prisoners, state prisoners and prisoners from Wythe, Floyd and other counties who lack space. If a locality is unable to handle all its prisoners, it still is responsible for finding and paying for jailing elsewhere.
"We are being penalized because we have the space," Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerry White said.
by CNB