Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 20, 1994 TAG: 9404200022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A dramatic drop in the number of prisoners being paroled - from about 40 percent of those up for discretionary parole last year to about 22 percent in the last two months - could leave Virginia short thousands of prison beds by 1999, a legislative analyst warned members of Allen's Commmission on Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform.
Even a 28 percent parole rate `translates into shortfall of 7,089 beds by 1999,` said Richard E. Hickman, deputy staff director of the Senate Finance Committee. Given the lower actual rate, the shortage is likely to be higher, he said.
Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore downplayed the shortfall, which is roughly the equivalent of 10 prisons. `We're confident we can handle it through developing a lot of alternatives,` Kilgore said. `We don't feel alarmed about it.`
But Dr. Rick Kern, Virginia state government's top criminologist, said crowding from stricter parole may begin to hit already-overcrowded local jails by early summer. `It's a big issue of concern,` Kern said. `I wouldn't say the numbers are a crisis yet,` but pressure will mount as fewer people are released, he added.
Former U.S. Atty. Richard Cullen, a co-chairman of the parole reform commission, said the rise in prisoners is `one of several challenges` his group faces as they work toward a special legislative session this September.
Allen made sentence reform and elimination of parole the centerpiece of last fall's gubernatorial election, and analysts expect the issue to be a major test of his administration.
Cullen and co-chairman William Barr, a former U.S. Attorney General, outlined what they said will be the guiding principles of Allen's reform proposal, including creation of mandatory sentencing guidelines that judges will be expected to follow in most instances.
Currently, Virginia judges have wide discretion in setting penalties for specific crimes. Voluntary sentencing guidelines are available to them, but they aren't required to follow the suggestions. Unlike judges in many states, Virginia judges do not even have to explain why when they depart from the guidelines.
Despite the switch to a mandatory sytem, some judicial flexibility will remain, Cullen said. `Judicial discretion will be retained, but limited,` he said.
Under the plan, which Cullen and Barr referred to as `Proposal X,` parole will be abolished. That will be accomplished largely by shortening current sentences to more nearly reflect that time that is actually being served.
In many cases, Virginia criminals serve only a fraction of the time to which they are sentenced. Under the `truth in sentencing` plan, offenders would serve between 75-100 percent of the time given them, they said.
Cullen and Barr's intention is to increase the length of incarceration for violent offenders, career criminals and others who pose a significant risk to public safety, they said.
To accomplish that, they acknowledged, many non-violent offenders will have to be housed in less-secure and less-expensive facilities. Others will be placed in community programs or given other alternative punishments.
About 48 percent of Virginia's roughly 20,000 prisoners were involved in non-violent crimes, Cullen said. About 85 percent of those are serving time for a drug-related offense.
`We are studying a way to incarcerate these people in a cost-effective but secure facility,` Cullen said. `This is where our challenge is going to be.`
In other matters, the commission heard testimony that the federal crime bill currently before Congress could help stem the state's shortfall in bed space by producing an influx of cash. Congress is aiming toward acting on the crime bill by mid-May.
An official with the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council outlined his state's alternate route to crime control: massive prison building.
In what may be the largest prison buildup in the nation's history, Texas expects to more than double its prison bed space by 1996. The number of beds will soar from 55,000 in 1992 to 146,000 in 1996 under a $2 billion construction program approved by voters.
`The case for incarceration will be tested in Texas,` promised Tony Fabelo, executive director of the council. By the year 2000, Fabelo said, one out of every 70 adults in Texas will be incarcerated.
by CNB