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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990                   TAG: 9004060826
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LORTON                                LENGTH: Medium

VA. WANTS LORTON PRISON NOW THAT IT REALLY COUNTS

Virginia and Washington officials have long feuded over the Lorton Reformatory, which houses thousands of District of Columbia prisoners but sits in Fairfax County.

Now the two jurisdictions are arguing over who gets to claim the 6,821 inmates on the 1990 Census.

Virginia lawmakers have never kept secret their desire to get the prison complex out of their state. But since it's there, they'd like to see the inmates counted as Virginians, which is how the U.S. Census Bureau has always counted them.

But this census year, district officials are mounting a campaign on Capitol Hill to have the inmates tabulated as residents of the city that most of the inmates called home before they became prisoners. After all, they say, Washington watches over them and pays for them at Lorton.

The 3,000 acres of Lorton, argues the district government, aren't Virginia acres. They're federal acres awarded exclusively to the District for its prison.

"It's a federal enclave, just like the District of Columbia," said Luis Burguillo, the district's associate director for federal and congressional affairs.

But Virginia Rep. Stan Parris sees things differently.

"We're not particularly enthusiastic about their residency there, but as long as they're there, we might as well count them in Virginia," he said.

The funds for many federal programs are allocated to cities and states on the basis of population. Washington officials say the city could be losing as much as $5.5 million annually in federal grants because its convicts are considered part of Virginia.

Lorton is the only prison in the country that sits inside someone else's state.

by CNB