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

DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990                   TAG: 9006040082
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: POUND                                LENGTH: Medium

OFFICIALS PUSH FOR PRISON

As many as 400 jobs and about $11 million in payroll hang in the balance, said Delegate Bud Phillips. Phillips, D-St. Paul, has spent about four months setting the tour.

Phillips points to the soon-to-open state prison in Buchanan County, the Keen Mountain Correctional Facility, where unemployment levels have been slashed in recent months.

"It could have the same impact for us," he said. "I don't know of any other industry that could come to southwest Virginia and give us 400 jobs immediately."

The fate of a state prison, however, lies mostly in the hands of today's visiting entourage.

"It is a very impressive cast. It is a `Who's Who' of Virginia government in financing state prisons," Phillips said. But "we think we can convince them that the location of a prison site here will be good for the state and good for southwest Virginia.

"The thrust of our presentation will be to show the chief planners for the state's capital outlay projects that we have a very viable site on the Dickenson-Wise County line for a prison," Phillips said.

"Secondly, that there is a commitment by local governmental leaders, lay leaders and business leaders to assist in any way they can in diversifying Southwest Virginia's economy."

One tool Phillips hopes will convince the entourage is a recently-completed impact study by Virginia Tech. The study, just 12 days old, outlines the fiscal and social impact of locating a prison at the Red Onion site.

The study says very few families would move into the area to be close to inmate relatives. It also showed no negative impact on the region's school systems.

The study may also help alleviate resident's fears of inmate escapes. According to the information from the Department of Corrections, the number of escapees from Virginia's prisons fell from 87 per 1,000 inmates in 1974 to just 1.3 per 1,000 inmates in 1989.

"Most of those 1.3 escapees came from field units like Camp 18 and minimum-security" prisons, Phillips said.

And as for local support, Phillips points to people like Delegate Jack Kennedy, D-Norton, Sen. John Buchanan, D-Wise, and former Delegate Jim Robinson as backing the prison proposal. He said the entire Dickenson County Board of Supervisors favors a state prison at the Red Onion site.