Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409270031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The only hitch is they may have to go all the way to Michigan.
In order to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a 23-year-old Charlottesville woman who was not allowed to enter the state's boot camp for young offenders, the Department of Corrections plans to ship female offenders to a similar program for women in Michigan.
The plan was approved Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Glen Conrad.
In March, Conrad ruled that Virginia's military-style boot camp is unconstitutional because women are not allowed in. He ordered the state to provide a boot camp for women by October.
Conrad's ruling came after Jennifer Hill West filed suit in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. West said she was treated unfairly by having to serve nearly a year in prison for a first-offense drug charge - for which a young man could have been sent to boot camp.
Although Conrad's ruling comes too late to help West, the lawsuit was certified as a class action suit.
The low number of potential candidates - estimated at fewer than 10 a year - and the cost of building a boot camp for women were enough to prompt the Department of Corrections to seek an alternative.
"One of the main reasons was the cost," said Don Harrison, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office.
Sending a female inmate to boot camp in Michigan will cost about $10,000, more than the $8,950 spent to put one male through Virginia's 90-day camp in Southampton County.
The cost of building and operating a separate boot camp for women in Virginia could have been as high as $1 million, Harrison said.
The men's boot camp, created by state legislation in 1990, usually has about 25 students in each class. The program is limited to nonviolent offenders 25 or younger with no prior history of incarceration.
by CNB