Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409230131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Members of three House of Delegates panels - the Committee for Courts of Justice; the Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions; and the Appropriations Committee - have scheduled both hearings for 7 p.m.
The Roanoke hearing will be held in Whitman Auditorium at Virginia Western Community College; the one in Blacksburg will take place at the Donaldson Brown Conference Center at Virginia Tech.
The public hearings are two of 11 that have been scheduled around the state during a weeklong recess called by the General Assembly, which will reconvene Tuesday to take up Gov. George Allen's proposal to end parole.
Under Allen's plan, parole would be abolished for anyone convicted of committing a crime after Jan. 1, 1995. All inmates would serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, and violent and repeat offenders would face from twice to seven times as long behind bars.
Until a conservative Parole Board appointed by Allen took over this year, most inmates served an average of 30 percent of their sentences before being released.
Allen has given legislators a Sept. 30 deadline to pass his plan, which calls for the construction of 27 new prisons across the state at an estimated cost of $1 billion.
But members of the Democrat-controlled legislature balked this week, after hearing estimates that the proposal could cost twice as much, and recessed to hold the public hearings.
Additional hearings have been scheduled for Monday in Alexandria, Charlottesville and Wise County, and for Tuesday in Richmond.
by CNB