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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994                   TAG: 9402080015
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                 LENGTH: Medium

CARROLL, PULASKI GET A LOOK AS JAIL SITE

Tracts in Carroll and Pulaski counties are being evaluated as potential sites for a proposed regional jail serving six localities.

They will be checked out during the next few months for suitability by Thompson and Litton, consultants hired by a regional jail committee with representatives from the city of Radford and counties of Pulaski, Carroll, Grayson, Giles and Floyd.

The committee approved its regional jail plan for submission to the state, in time to qualify for 50 percent state funding on construction. The estimated construction cost is between $20 and $21 million, with participating localities sharing their 50 percent on the basis of population.

Each local governing body must also approve the plan before a jail authority can be appointed. Their attorneys will be getting copies to review in the near future.

Radford City Attorney John Spiers already has reviewed the plan, at the request of the committee. Radford City Council could get a look at it as early as its Feb. 14 meeting.

State funding on regional jail projects is supposed to drop to 25 percent after this funding cycle, which is why the committee has been pushing to get its plan submitted by March.

Bob Cooper, with the Department of Corrections, said localities could take longer to review the plan and make their decisions on participation. The committee hopes to have those decisions by June 30 at the latest.

As now planned, existing local jails serving as short-term lockups would be in video communication with the regional jail. A magistrate could set bonds and a judge could handle arraignments from the regional jail without those charged having to be transported there.

Someone arrested for being drunk, for example, could be eligible for bond in four hours. That would be barely enough time to transport and book someone at the regional jail, before having to transport the person back to the home locality. Handling it by electronic communication would save transportation costs and wouldn't tie up regional jail space.

Such communications also could allow attorneys to confer with clients via video, without having to travel to the regional jail each time. That would save public money where the attorney was a public defender.

"This would indeed be included as part of the total proposal," said New River Planning District Commission Executive Director Dave Rundgren.

by CNB