Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993 TAG: 9306120168
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Last week, Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt unveiled a $5.7 million plan to make room for what he described as a rising tide of convicted felons who should be serving time in state penitentiaries.
Holt's plan, however, comes at a time when the state Department of Corrections has embarked on a prison construction spree that - if projections hold - is expected to ease overcrowding at local jails by 1996.
Seven new prisons with some 5,000 new beds are scheduled to open in the next three years. The new space is expected to absorb some of the 3,900 convicted felons now being held at local jails around Virginia.
Holt has little faith that the new state prisons will ease conditions at the 105-bed Roanoke County-Salem Jail, which last week held 151 prisoners.
"I don't think they're going to make it," he said.
The Roanoke County-Salem Jail would have empty beds today if the state removed all convicted felons sentenced to more than two years in prison. These prisoners - who technically are the state's responsibility - accounted for 72 of the 151 prisoners on last week's jail roster.
Holt said he doesn't expect the state to accept more than a handful of these prisoners when the new prisons come on line in 1996.
As a result, Holt recommends moving ahead with the first two phases of a three-part plan. He wants to double-bunk the jail's 104 cells and turn a rooftop recreation area into a low-security dormitory for jail trusties.
Those measures - at a cost of $1.2 million - would more than double the number of permanent beds from 104 to 245 and carry the jail through the year 2007.
Holt called for immediate action to avoid the kind of crisis situation that exists at the Roanoke City Jail, which handles about 480 inmates in a facility with an operating capacity of 238.
In a work session last week, Holt also presented the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors a third phase - a $4.4 million jail expansion - which would add another 140 beds.
One advantage, he said, would be that the county could use excess capacity to house 30 federal inmates and generate more than $400,000 a year.
Later in the week, Holt recommended moving ahead with the first two phases of the jail expansion but waiting two or three years before making a decision on the final phase.
The delay would give the county time to find out if the state Department of Corrections will make good on its promise to remove all convicted felons sentenced to two years or more from local jails by 1996.
by CNB