Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 5, 1990 TAG: 9007050109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BYRD LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Wilder has agreed to new guidelines that could put up to 150 convicts into civilian jobs by the end of the summer, the officials said this week.
Plans call for the inmates to hold jobs while housed at special facilities in Chesterfield and Goochland counties, said Theophlise Twitty, the state's deputy secretary of public safety.
Only prisoners who have never been convicted of such violent offenses as murder or sexual assault will be eligible, Twitty said. Most of the participants will be drawn from minimum security field units, and the transfer will free space for state inmates now jammed into local jails.
Twitty also said the state will greatly expand the number of prisoners allowed to work in road gangs. The Corrections Department plans to have 1,000 inmates working on the gangs by September. Between 600 and 700 prisoners are now assigned to road work.
Both the work release and road gang programs were sharply curtailed in October 1988, as Republicans hammered Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis over problems with a furlough program in his home state of Massachusetts.
The Virginia cutbacks also followed a series of violent incidents involving prisoners. In the summer of 1988, an inmate walked away from a road gang in Prince William County and murdered a woman. And Richmond's "Southside Strangler," who raped and killed several local women in 1987, turned out to be Timothy Spencer, an inmate in a Richmond halfway house who committed the killings while living in the facility.
With the state facing a prison population explosion, however, a growing number of officials recently have called for renewed emphasis on programs designed to alleviate overcrowding. Wilder spokeswoman Laura Dillard this week said this week the governor views work release as one such program.
The work program had been "pretty well full" before it was curtailed in 1988, Dillard said. Restarting it would free space in correctional facilities and relieve some pressure on local jails, where thousands of convicts are housed, she said.
"Obviously we're concerned about the potential" for inmates committing crimes while working outside prisons, Dillard added. But she said Wilder is confident the program can be administered safely and that it will benefit some prisoners.
Twitty said new guidelines approved by Wilder prohibit persons convicted of murder, sexual or aggravated assault, or abduction from the work release project. Before 1988, it was possible for such inmates to participate in the program, providing their prison behavior had been good.
Only minimum-security prisoners will be eligible for work release under the guidelines endorsed by the governor. Most are held in barracks-like field units, such as the Tidewater Correctional Unit in Chesapeake.
Plans call for about 100 men to be enrolled in the work release program by September. They will be housed at the Chesterfield Work Release Unit south of Richmond. The facility now houses fewer than 15 inmates. They were judged to be no threat to public security and allowed to continue working after the program was curtailed in 1988.
About 50 women will be enrolled in a work release program at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women in Goochland County. The department has had no trouble lining up jobs for the inmates, Twitty said. Most of the jobs will help prisoners develop skills they can use after release.
by CNB