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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 16, 1994                   TAG: 9408160112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PAROLE PANEL TO CALL FOR MUCH LONGER SENTENCES

RICHMOND - Parole will be ended and prison terms will increase sevenfold for some violent offenders under a plan Gov. George Allen's Commission on Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform will present today.

The program also will establish truth-in-sentencing guidelines and establish up to 10 new work camps for nonviolent offenders, all for less than $1 billion, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported today.

The newspaper quoted two sources familiar with the proposal, however, as saying the plan does not call for reducing prison sentences for nonviolent offenders as other states have done to ease prison crowding.

Virginia's prison system is split evenly between violent and nonviolent criminals. If the General Assembly approves the proposal next month in a special session, violent offenders would become the majority behind bars.

The newspaper's unidentified sources said Monday that the cost will be ``comfortably under'' $1 billion in new prison construction over 10 years. The estimate did not include increased operational costs.

Allen campaigned heavily last fall for ending parole. But abolishing parole would require $3 billion to $4 billion in new prison construction, parole proponents argued.

Richard Cullen, a co-chairman of the Allen commission, declined to comment on the plan Monday. However, he said Allen will decide how to finance the plan, not the commission.

``I think the public will be very pleased with the substantial increases to be recommended for the violent, especially the repeat violent offenders,'' he said.

``Proposal X,'' as the commission plan has been called, calls for criminals to serve at least 85 percent of the sentences imposed by a judge or jury - thereby substantially realizing a truth-in-sentencing system.

The present parole system allows early release for good behavior, allowing a model inmate to serve as little as one-sixth of a sentence.

The proposal first called for imposing mandatory sentencing guidelines. It was later modified to make the guidelines voluntary - as they are now in Virginia - permitting the current minimum and maximum sentences to stay on the books.

A key difference with the new guidelines is that they will be based on the current time actually served by criminals instead of a suggested range that could be shortened substantially by parole and good time.

In developing the recommendations, the Department of Criminal Justice Services has used computer records of convicts' actual time served to project costs.

Memo: above