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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 2, 1993                   TAG: 9306020173
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

WYTHE SHERIFF: AGENCY `OWES US AN APOLOGY'

Wythe County's sheriff says the U.S. Bureau of Prisoners broke its own rules in negotiating a five-year contract to house federal prisoners at a former Grahams Forge motel.

Sheriff Wayne Pike said those rules include discussing such plans with local officials and people living near such a project.

"I think somebody owes us an apology, and I think somebody needs to get this situation out of here," Pike said.

People living in homes around the former Trail Motel in eastern Wythe County have protested the location in a residential area of a halfway house for prisoners about to complete their sentences.

Pike and members of the county Board of Supervisors have said they knew nothing about the halfway house project in advance. Pike says the federal agency signed the contract with Seacor Inc. in November.

Pike said the people who acquired the motel property and planned the halfway house are not from Wythe County. "They're not concerned about those citizens. They're concerned about making money," he said.

He has lodged protests with the offices of U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon. He said both offices are investigating.

Eleanor Brown of the federal Bureau of Prisons has said inmates would stay an average of six months at the halfway house, and a few would stay up to a year.

Those sent to the halfway house are classified as nonviolent offenders, she said. Most would be from Virginia, West Virginia or North Carolina.

by CNB