THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412230530
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Christmas. A time of peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled.
But not if the sinners inhabit the Norfolk City Jail.
For the first time in 24 years, the jail's roughly 1,400 inmates won't get any Christmas presents. Sheriff Robert McCabe has decided they don't deserve any.
McCabe has canceled the one gift the inmates receive every year - a small bag, donated by the Salvation Army, containing a bar of soap, a bottle of shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush and shaving cream.
``There are a lot of people in the community who can't afford housing and food and are not committing crimes,'' McCabe said Thursday.
``These people in here are being taken care of. They've got housing and they've got food. I don't think I'm being a Grinch. I'm running an efficient jail.''
McCabe also expressed concern that giving gifts to inmates might encourage them to get themselves arrested around Christmas time.
``That's kind of a ludicrous statement,'' said Rick Mikles, the Salvation Army's area commander for Tidewater. ``I don't think anyone would do that.
The Christmas bags - worth about $5 - have been donated to inmates of the area's jails for about 24 years, said Mikles.
Until this year, when a Norfolk jail chaplain called the Salvation Army to say the jail didn't want the bags, no local jail or prison had ever rejected them, said volunteer Dorothy Ange.
The jail chaplain ``said the inmates were in jail for doing wrong, and they didn't need any Christmas gifts,'' said Ange.
``It kind of took us by surprise,'' said Mikles. ``Our whole creed is based on Matthew 25: `I was sick and in prison and you visited me.' ''
Because the jail no longer allows inmates to receive gifts or packages in the mail, the Salvation Army bags would have been the only gifts they received.
McCabe said he might not have canceled the gift bags had he known how little they contained.
``It was my understanding that they also contained snacks,'' he said. ``A bag of potato chips. A Snickers bar. That type of thing. And I did not think that they needed to give our inmates those types of things. I wanted to see them give them to those who are less fortunate who are not in jail.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Norfolk Sheriff Robert McCabe
by CNB