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

DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994                   TAG: 9406190105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN'S PAROLE PLAN TO DEBUT TUESDAY

Allen and the members of his Commission on Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform will outline their plan - known as Proposal X - during an 8 p.m. television call-in show broadcast live on all the state's public television stations.

The legislature will consider the proposal, which is still being developed, at a special session in September.

"We're going to make the case to a broader audience that we've been making to smaller audiences - violent criminals need to spend more time in prison," said Richard Cullen, a Richmond attorney and a leader of the commission.

The commission's plan calls for eliminating parole, the practice of releasing prisoners after serving only a fraction of their sentences. It would also reduce from 300 to 60 the number of days each year that a prisoner can reduce his or her sentence for good behavior.

But Allen has yet to unveil the price of the venture. If parole is eliminated, the state either will have to invest heavily in new prisons, find less expensive forms of punishment for nonviolent offenders or create some combination of the two.

The commission is working on the latter idea.

"Obviously there will be some capital expense," said Cullen. But "it will be nowhere near" the multibillion-dollar fee that has been suggested by some observers, he said.

The Allen administration plans a major campaign throughout July and August to acquaint Virginians with the plan and to rally support.

Democrats in the legislature say they'll be watching the developments. "We need to go at this with a significantly reasoned, educated mind," said House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.