Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501090040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
That is the new state plan for five Western Virginia counties and the city of Radford, regional jail board members learned Friday.
An earlier plan called for the six localities to keep their local jails as 12-hour lockups once the regional jail was built. Now, those jails would be renovated or built new to hold local prisoners until sentencing, after which they would go to the regional jail.
The satellite jails would be owned by or leased to the authority, which would operate and maintain them. The authority could delegate local sheriffs to operate the jails or use its own personnel.
The new plan should not be more expensive, said Radford Assistant City Manager Bob Lloyd, chairman of the regional jail board.
``Basically, we're only talking about holding that person for a few days, as opposed to holding him for up to two years or so'' as local jails do now, he said.
Tony Casale, with the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, recommended the changes after reviewing the first plan, under which localities would have been stuck with funding the lockups.
Under the revised plan, local jails will be folded into the regional jail program, and some would qualify for 50 percent state funding for upgrading or rebuilding.
If a locality built a new jail now, Casale said, the state would fund 25 percent of the cost, and perhaps not even that.
He said the state may stop all funding for jails with 30 or fewer beds by the late 1990s, because such small operations are not cost-effective.
Floyd and Grayson counties are rated for 10 beds each, Radford for 11 and Giles County for 14, although all of them often handle many more prisoners. Pulaski County, with 47 beds, and Tazewell County, with 43, still could qualify for state funding. But Casale said he thought the regional jail would be much less expensive for them in the long run.
All those jails date to the 1950s. A facilities plan must be drawn up to show whether they can be upgraded or new ones would be needed. The plan would include a cost analysis of the entire regional jail operation, including construction or renovation of satellite facilities.
Lloyd said the facilities plan could probably be completed in five to six months.
The new regional jail program also will require localities to resubmit a community-based correction plan to the state next month, covering all aspects of the regional jail and the satellites. It must be sent to the Department of Corrections along with an agreement by the localities to participate in a jail authority.
The agreement allows localities to back out of the agreement if funding changes occur.
The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors delayed its decision last month on whether to sign the authority agreement. The regional jail is planned for a site in Pulaski County.
by CNB