
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990                   TAG: 9003152622
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Short

PRISONS TO OPEN LATE

The new 1,700-cell prison in Greensville County will begin receiving inmates in September, more than two months behind schedule, says state corrections director Edward W. Murray.

About 600 inmates will be moved into the maximum security prison near Jarratt with the completion of the first of three phases in the prison's construction, Murray said Wednesday.

Murray would not specify an opening date for the 516-cell Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Buchanan County, which is about a month behind its completion schedule.

Legislators were told earlier this month that the scheduled closing of the old penitentiary in Richmond would be delayed and the state would have to pay the Ethyl Corp. about $36,000 a month to house inmates there beyond July 1.

The penitentiary, which has been on the same site since 1800, was sold for $5 million to Ethyl two years ago. The sale contract allowed the state to continue holding prisoners at the penitentiary, at a cost, if the department could not vacate the site on the July 1 closing date.

by CNB