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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 5, 1993                   TAG: 9305050085
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Short

FUNDS CONTINUED FOR FEMALE GUARDS AT PULASKI JAIL

The State Compensation Board has approved continued funding for five female guards at the Pulaski County jail, allowing the jail to continue keeping female prisoners for Pulaski and five other counties that pay to house their female prisoners here.

County Administrator Joseph Morgan reported the approval to the Board of Supervisors at a meeting Monday night.

Last month, Sheriff Ralph Dobbins had asked the board if there was any chance that it would pay for the positions if the state did not. The state had committed itself at that time to funding the positions only for their first year.

Now the financially constrained supervisors are relieved from having to make that decision.

The jail was renovated a year ago and the new guards were added for female prisoners. It has space for up to 20 females. But, because it usually has more prisoners than space, jail officials have found themselves having to use some of that space for the large number of male prisoners.

Part of that problem is because of the state, which keeps many state prisoners in local jails until it can find space for them at overcrowded Virginia corrections facilities. Dobbins said he has been limited to keeping only 12 female prisoners at a time because of this.

That is a money loser for Pulaski County. The state pays $8 a day for the county to take its prisoners. The county could get $28 a day for each female prisoner from other localities it houses.

Before it added the capacity for women prisoners, the county had to transport them to a jail in Bristol and pay for their incarceration.

by CNB