Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407220032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
What former U.S. Attorney Richard Cullen got instead was a tongue-lashing from an influential legislator and a complaint from a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People official that "white fear" is driving an issue that will have enormous costs - particularly for black Virginians.
Even so, as the legislative Commission on Sentence and Parole Reform adjourned, Chairman James Almand, D-Arlington, gave Cullen part of what he wanted: a liaison committee between the two groups.
And various members acknowledged privately that political pressure likely will be strong enough eventually to drive the Democrats to cooperate with the Allen plan.
"Everybody's got to run for re-election next year, and the mood of the public is to be tough on crime," said Sen. Richard Holland, D-Windsor.
Neither King Salim Khalfani, field coordinator for the NAACP, nor Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, was willing to let Cullen off quietly, however.
Khalfani complained that both the governor's commission and the legislative group are "overwhelmingly vanilla when much of the population we're talking about is of African-American descent."
Blacks make up about two-thirds of Virginia's prison population but only about 18 percent of the overall population.
Promising that "we're going to be fighting this thing in September," Khalfani said the "cost is going to be terrible" and that the money would be better spent on education, housing, health care and jobs.
Adding to Khalfani's concern was testimony by a Senate staff analyst that Virginia may need 8,860 additional prison beds by 1999, if the parole grant rate drops to 15 percent as predicted by Allen's new parole chairman. That shortfall equals more than one-third of the beds in the current system.
Cullen said that Proposition X, as the governor's plan has been dubbed, is colorblind, and that "there will be no tax increases included if the governor has anything to say about it."
Administration officials have acknowledged, however, that bonds will have to be issued for prison construction.
The skeleton of the Allen commission plan calls for abolishing parole, increasing the time served by violent offenders and making sure that all prisoners serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
Allen's commission has promised to unveil its proposal by mid-August, leading up to a special legislative session in September.
"It would be a real boost for this commission to back us," said Cullen, extending an overture to the legislative group.
Gartlan countered that Allen could have fostered bipartisanship by latching onto the work of the legislative commission, which has been meeting for a year and a half. Instead, Allen appointed his own group after winning office last November.
"We'd be in a far better position . . . if instead of establishing an independent commission that went off on its own . . . there'd been a cooperative effort last January," Gartlan said.
by CNB