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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 27, 1994                   TAG: 9404270107
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3 VIRGINIA   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Staff report
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STATE MUST SET UP WOMEN'S BOOT CAMP WITHIN 6 MONTHS

U.S. Magistrate Glen Conrad has given the state six months to create a prison boot camp program for young women who are first-time felony offenders.

Conrad, who last month declared the Department of Corrections' male-only facility unconstitutional, filed the order Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

The mandate for a women's boot camp stems from a 1992 lawsuit filed by a Charlottesville waitress who served nearly a year in prison on cocaine charges. Jennifer West said she was unfairly denied the right to serve her sentence in the boot camp, simply because she is a woman.

At a hearing Monday, Edward Morris, the state's deputy director of corrections, said preparation for a women's boot camp near the men's camp in South Hampton has already began.

Morris said it may take nine months before a staff can be assembled and the camp ready to accept women, so Conrad said in his order that the state may apply for an extension if more than six months is needed.

Conrad also said that the state should provide proper notice to all Virginia Circuit Court judges that the boot camp will soon be available.

The men's boot camp program, created by state legislation in 1990, usually has 55 to 60 students, but Morris said he expects the demand at the women's camp to be much less.

Conrad's decision won't benefit West, who was paroled last summer, but his order certified her case as a class action suit so that all women first-time offenders under the age of 24 are eligible.

by CNB