Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
``We know we need more prisons. That's never been the debate,'' she said. ``The debate is about whether we attempt to strike a balance between the needs of our correctional system and the needs of our schools.''
Terry spoke Tuesday night at the final meeting of the Pulaski County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Task Force at the Comfort Inn. As attorney general, Terry had used the organization as the basis of a statewide anti-drug educational program called the Commonwealth Alliance for Drug Rehabilitation and Education.
The Pulaski County organization formally disbanded Tuesday just two months shy of 11 years since its founding. Now, many of its original tasks are being carried out by other organizations whose members include people from the task force.
For all 11 years, the task force has been headed by Winsdon D. Pound, a former Dublin Elementary School principal who works at St. Albans Psychiatric Hospital in Radford.
Terry said the General Assembly would not have to be facing increasing crime problems ``if we had more Winnie Pounds around the commonwealth.'' She said Virginia needs to get at the roots of crime by having schools that promote the growth and development of law-abiding citizens.
``We need more prisons in the short term. But we need more investment in our public schools for the long term, not just to reduce crime but to spur economic development,'' she said. ``People interested in creating jobs in Virginia don't ask first about the quality of our correctional system. They ask about the quality of our public schools, our colleges and universities and our environment.''
She said Virginia cannot claim to have a first-class educational system statewide because of disparities in funding and opportunity between rich and poor school districts.
``The disparity issue is a tab that's running on our commonwealth that one day someone will have to pick up,'' she said. ``Ultimately, you and I want more than the absence of crime in Virginia. ... What we want beyond that is an enriched quality of life that can only be achieved by putting education first.''
The Pulaski County organization, which formed the basis for Terry's CADRE initiative and later became a member of it, started in November 1983, when a group got together at New River Community College to view the PBS-TV program, ``Chemical People.''
Pound's wife, Madeline, recalled that the program prompted some of its viewers to start an in-school program about the perils of substance abuse in Pulaski County.
``Most people were not aware of it. In fact, they were denying that such a thing could happen in our community,'' she said. ``All we knew at the time was we wanted to help.''
She recalled the visit by then-Attorney General Terry, state Superintendent John Davis and Howard Cullum, director of Mental Health/Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, when Terry was planning her statewide CADRE program and using the local program as its basis.
As they closed the last meeting, members of the Pulaski County Cadre declared victory. They have reached between 150,000 and 170,000 children and adults taking its programs beyond the county, Madeline Pound said.
``I want you to know that we are not giving up on the problem just because we are disbanding our task force,'' she added.
by CNB