Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409230130
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
``Three-quarters of the money has to be spent anyway, if we do nothing,'' Kilgore said. ``They're saying we have to spend $1 billion. Agreed. But $762 million has to be spent now.''
Virginia already faces problems of jail and prison overcrowding and will have to pay for more prisoner housing even if no parole and sentencing reform is carried out, he said.
Kilgore made his comments to a reporter Wednesday night in Wytheville during a three-hour public hearing on Allen's proposal.
The hearing started with Ron Jordan, a House Appropriations Committee staff member, outlining cost estimates of $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion to build 27 prisons over the next 20 years. Jordan said that does not include $109 million for juvenile facilities, and other costs.
Mark C. Christie, deputy counselor to the governor, said those estimates are misleading.
``Eighty-six percent of the beds have to be built because of population factors,'' Christie said. ``He didn't tell the people that.''
He said opponents of the sentencing reform program are inflating costs ``so they can scare people like local governments into thinking that's going to be an added burden on them.''
Local government officials already are afraid of that, judging by those who addressed the legislators at the Wytheville hearing. None of them expressed opposition to Allen's programs, but all of them cautioned that localities could not afford to have any part of the prison costs imposed on them.
One part of the prison plan calls for double-bunking prisoners to save space. Assistant Montgomery County Administrator Jeff Lunsford said the jail in his county has been doing that for years because of its crowded conditions. Carroll County Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Goad asked the legislators to approve truth in sentencing to keep the killers he has convicted in prison.
``I need help to restore respect in our judicial system,'' he said. ``I've sat in court and seen defendants laugh at sentences because they know how little time they're really going to have to serve.''
Suggestions to pay for more prisons ranged from revenue from riverboat gambling to a tax on violent movies shown in theaters or broadcast on television.
Abingdon lawyer Strother Smith said that if taxing cigarettes can be considered to help fund health care, violent movies should do their part for handling crimes they help cause. Among clients he has defended, Smith said, ``I've had three who got off tell me they did it and they were copying something they saw on television.''
Assistant Radford City Manager Bob Lloyd said 64 percent of Virginia's jails are overcrowded. Six Southwest Virginia localities hope to replace their outmoded jails with a regional facility, on which more than $150,000 already has been spent in developing data and plans.
Lloyd said the localities could not afford to even consider the project without the 50 percent state funding on regional jails, and asked the legislators not to pull those funds for state prisons. ``Without the state of Virginia as a partner, we cannot afford it and we will not build it,'' he said.
by CNB