Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408170089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
The unexpectedly low cost - estimated at $250 million for new prisons over 10 years, plus up to $54 million in added annual operating costs - stunned critics. Some had predicted a price tag as high as $3 billion when Gov. George Allen advocated eliminating parole and overhauling sentencing during his campaign last fall.
The recommendations, contained in a subcommittee report to Allen's parole commission, include eliminating parole by Jan. 1 and requiring future prisoners to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences.
The report offers the clearest glimpse to date of a parole reform plan that is to be released in full next week and will be considered at a special legislative session in mid-September.
Allen has not yet said how he will fund the proposed changes, which come on the heels of substantial prison building in the 1990s. Even without the Allen plan, known as Proposal X, annual prison operating costs are projected to grow by $370 million and prison construction costs by at least $620 million over the next decade.
"Once these recommendations are enacted into law ... Virginia's citizens will finally have a criminal justice system they can trust," said Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, who headed the parole commission subcommittee that drafted the sentencing recommendations.
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and former federal prosecutor Richard Cullen, chairmen of the parole commission, predicted that Virginians will be much safer if the proposed changes are approved because a core group of violent criminals will be removed from society.
But some others were more cautious. "We're getting ready to promise something to the people of Virginia, and I hope to God that we deliver," countered Arlington Sen. Edward Holland, who represents the legislature's Democratic majority on the subcommittee.
Observers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Democratic side of the legislature questioned whether Allen's plan can be accomplished at so relatively low a cost.
"It sounds awfully low to me. ... I'm amazed. I'm very skeptical," said House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk.
"I'm shocked they can do it for that amount of money," added Julie McConnell, associate director of the ACLU.
But members of the parole commission and their administrative staff said a sophisticated computer analysis has allowed them to project that Proposal X will add 3,000 inmates to the state system over the next decade.
Larger growth would come in the second decade. State officials said attempting to project the higher costs for the second decade would be a meaningless exercise. Demographic trends could change significantly, for instance, or crime might be reduced because of Proposal X and other developments, they said.
At the heart of the Allen plan is a revision of the voluntary guidelines used by judges in sentencing criminals. Current guidelines are based on the sentences historically given in Virginia. Under the change, the sentences would reflect the amount of time criminals are actually spending in prison - a much lower figure.
The result is that while some sentences may appear to decrease under the new guidelines, the lack of parole will mean that prisoners end up spending more time behind bars.
Judges still could depart from those guidelines, but they would have to explain why in writing. Juries, which impose about 6 percent of the sentences in criminal cases, would be affected only indirectly by the changes.
The plan, which would apply only to those criminals entering the system after Jan. 1, recommends that no penalty be less than the time currently served for a specific crime. But individuals convicted of violent crimes, or who have a violent crime in their history, would serve significantly longer sentences.
For instance, the average length of sentence for a Virginian convicted of first-degree murder from 1988 to 1992 was 40 years and five months. But the average time served was 12.4 years. Under Proposal X, the time served would double to 24.8 years, if the inmate had no prior record or other aggravating circumstance.
However, if the inmate had been convicted previously of a violent crime with a maximum penalty of less than 40 years, the time served would jump to 49.6 years. Currently, inmates in that category are serving an average of 14.1 years.
If the previous violent crime has a maximum penalty of more than 40 years, a murderer would be sentenced to life in prison under Proposal X. Inmates in that category now serve an average of 14.7 years.
The plan also calls for creating a new system of geriatric release and gubernatorial clemency, because a larger number of prisoners would be spending most of their lives in prison.
Cullen said he cannot promise the plan would reduce Virginia's crime rate, largely because the number of people 16 to 24 years old - a crime-prone population group - is due to begin growing next year.
But the crime rate will not increase as quickly as it would without Proposal X, Cullen said.
Critics lamented that the administration is not focusing more effort on crime prevention techniques.
"If you're just going to throw money at the back end, it's not going to solve the problem," said McConnell.
"Without prevention, it's just an endless cycle."
by CNB