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

DATE: SATURDAY, December 10, 1994                   TAG: 9412120032
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE'S PAROLE RATE NOW LOWEST IN U.S.

The state granted parole to 38.6 percent of eligible prisoners in fiscal year 1993. In fiscal 1994, the rate dropped to 25 percent. The 16.9 percent rate since January is the lowest in the United States, according to the National Institute of Corrections.

The reduction has caused a backlog of state prisoners in local jails, an increase in the double-celling of inmates in the state's prisons and the need to construct seven additional work camps next to existing prisons.

According to a report presented to the Senate Finance Committee last week, the reduction has cost $30 million to pay for double bunking in the state's already-crowded prisons, $23 million for the work camps, $18.4 million to maintain the backlog of state prisoners in local jails and $6 million for the extra jail staff needed to guard them.

The state is required to pay $14 a day for each state inmate housed in Virginia's local jails. It pays $8 per day for each local inmate and $22 for each jail farm inmate.

Also, the state must provide money to pay an additional deputy for every five inmates over the capacity of any local jail.

Once inmates get to prison, the cost of incarceration goes up. The state pays $19,000 a year for each maximum-security prisoner and $13,000 for each of those in work camps. There are more than 20,000 inmates in Virginia's prisons.

In light of these costs, some Democratic legislators have charged that the Parole Board's actions are fiscally irresponsible. But Parole Board Chairman John B. Metzger says it's not his job to worry about prison overcrowding or money.

Cost is ``something that must be addressed, but it shouldn't be a criterion for parole,'' he said.