THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140495
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR AND TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
The state is set to contract with a private company to build and operate a minimum-security facility here for more than 300 prisoners who are two to six months away from parole.
The pre-release facility would be the state's only center to also house parolees who appear to be at risk for a return trip to prison, said Michael Leininger, a legislative liaison for the state Department of Corrections, which is in charge of the project.
It would be the largest center of its kind, and the only to house both male and female inmates.
The goal, according to state corrections officials, is to get jobs for inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes and to integrate them in the community before release from prison. Inmates will receive counseling and lessons in job and interviewing skills, and training for general equivalency diplomas. Some would be allowed to work at jobs away from the site.
Many residents and city officials like the center's goal of helping inmates make the transition from felon to productive citizen. But they don't want the state testing new ideas, especially those that involve drug dealers and other felons, in their back yards.
The prospect has caused an uproar in Bowers Hill, where one private company has submitted plans for construction of a 396-bed facility. The Planning Commission will meet today to consider whether to recommend permitting the facility. The City Council will have the final decision.
It's not the only company, or only potential site: a Virginia Beach firm has also submitted a plan with the state, although it has declined to say publicly where in Chesapeake the facility would be placed if it won the contract with the state.
According to plans submitted to the Planning Commission, Armada Hoffler Hampton II Associates would sell the site to Dominion Leasing Inc., an Edmond, Okla., company that would build the facility. Together with Corrections Partners Inc., Dominion would staff and operate the facility in the 4800 block of W. Military Highway.
Armada Hoffler and Dominion Leasing officials met this week with several Chesapeake civic leagues to explain the new prison concept.
``You can't have this on a site where there's five widows living on the road adjoining the facility,'' said Bruce McDaniel, a member of the Sunray Farmers Association.
``These people do not want to have to be concerned with every stranger walking on the road and thinking, `Did they just come from that facility?' ''
Knowing the state will weed out violent criminals was no comfort to McDaniel or others in the community. The state, they say, can't be trusted.
Bowers Hill is not the only site proposed for the prison. Twin Star, a company in Virginia Beach, also proposed building and operating a pre-release facility in Chesapeake. Twin Star owner George Hale said he has submitted proposals for several sites in the state but won't discuss his plans until the state gives him a contract.
Leininger said the state is likely to approve one of the Chesapeake sites within a month and could even approve both proposed facilities.
Because the center proposed for Bowers Hill requires a use permit, the Planning Commission and the council will have the power to place restrictions on the operations.
``I think the localities will restrict these things through zoning powers,'' Leininger said. But, he added, the restrictions can't be too stringent: ``If you get the price too high we're not going to buy.''
Community correctional housing builds on an existing concept of halfway houses for prisoners close to being paroled. There are 13 facilities across the state including ones in Norfolk and Newport News.
Generally those facilities are small, said Gene Johnson, director of Community Corrections. The largest facilities have 50 to 100 beds. Typically the homes have 20 to 30 beds.
The inmates in the minimum security facility are low-risk, nonviolent offenders, Johnson said.
``The notion that you want them coming out of this door rather than directly from the prison is a sound one,'' Leininger said. ``Every motivation for an offender is to do well. In pre-release you know screwing up is going to send you back.''
Leininger said because the state wants to keep the program it is motivated to ``do it right and to maintain public safety.''
``If something happens the pressure will come to us to close the program,'' Leininger said. ``The worst thing from our perspective is a guy who gets out on mandatory parole. There's nothing we can do, those guys don't get a whole lot of attention.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map
KEN WRIGHT/Staff
by CNB