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

DATE: MONDAY, September 26, 1994                   TAG: 9409260062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

GROUP'S RECOMMENDATIONS

The group, representing a mixture of geographic, racial and social backgrounds, agreed on both plans' broad outlines of reform parole and added these recommendations:

Incarceration:

Make punishment swifter

Distinguish between violent and nonviolent criminals in both treatment and housing

Lock away the most violent without parole

Establish a race-blind approach to sentencing and parole decisions

Make any action on parole a first step toward a much larger overhaul of the criminal justice system and social underpinnings of crime

Rehabilitation:

Provide meaningful educational opportunities in prison

Monitor educational services for juvenile offenders in state facilities

Keep inmates busy with quality work programs

Give businesses tax or other incentives to hire ex-convicts

Explore televised or other interactive learning between prisons and community colleges

Make it easier for relatives or others outside prison to provide educational materials to inmates

Encourage greater community involvement in prisons

Prevention:

Focus government and community resources on children, including providing ample recreation and education opportunities after school; removing abused children from bad home situations; using volunteers to teach self-reliance, decision-making and other skills; having high community expectations of children

Improve coordination of the services already available to at-risk children and adults

Develop individual community action plans controlled locally and tied to state funding