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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307160279
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GILMORE WANTS MORE PRISONS BUILT IN VA.

Gilmore said the state can build more prisons without increasing taxes if it shifts spending priorities.

Jail overcrowding is part of a prison system logjam, he said, because many state inmates are being held in jails.

Gilmore, commonwealth's attorney in Henrico County, said he's familiar with overcrowded jails such as Roanoke's, where 500 inmates are held in a building designed for 216.

He suggested that the state's priorities are wrong when it spends $18 million on new offices for the lottery, but doesn't have enough prison cells.

The state's top priorities should be public safety, law enforcement and schools, he said.

At a news conference to outline his proposals for combating crime, Gilmore called for reform of the state's current parole system and revamping the juvenile justice system to better deal with violent youth.

He also supports tougher sentencing for repeat offenders and a law that would allow juries to know if the person they have found guilty has committed other felonies in the past.

Pointing to his six years as a prosecutor, Gilmore said he has the background and experience to be attorney general.

He characterized his opponent, Democrat Bill Dolan, as lacking the experience needed in the attorney general's office.

Dolan, an Arlington lawyer, was a special prosecutor in a case in Norfolk involving a judge charged with forgery that Gilmore has made an issue in the campaign.

"For his time, [Dolan] billed taxpayers $313,000. Then, to add insult to injury, the simple forgery he got was reversed on appeal," Gilmore said.

Dolan has defended the sum, saying the case required hundreds of hours of legal research.

Gilmore also charged that Dolan won the endorsement of the state AFL-CIO recently by becoming the first attorney general candidate in Virginia to support automatic deduction of union dues from government employees' paychecks.

Gilmore said he refused to endorse the union dues checkoff.

The AFL-CIO endorsed Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, a Democrat seeking a new term, and Dolan.

But it refused to endorse Mary Sue Terry, the Democratic candidate for governor.

Terry opposes dues checkoffs.

Keywords:
POLITICS