Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502130015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Long
C.N. Otey sees nothing inconsistent about voting for George Allen for governor and being president of a group that opposes construction of a private 1,500-bed prison two miles east of Wytheville.
Allen carried Wythe County by nearly 70 percent when he ran for governor in 1993 on a platform that included abolishing parole and handing out longer sentences for violent criminals - which logically would mean that more prisons would be needed.
``I'm not against prisons,'' said Otey, who heads Wythe County Citizens Against the Prison. ``Saying that I did vote for Governor Allen doesn't say that I wanted one put in the front door of Wytheville.''
Most state prisoners come from the metropolitan areas of Virginia, Otey said, and it would make more sense to build new prisons in those places.
``I think we're responsible for the prisoners from our county,'' he said. ``But I don't feel like we have a responsibility to take care of 1,500 prisoners that come from the state ... Why aren't they putting them in Richmond, in Arlington, in Charlottesville and all these other places?''
Citizens Against the Prison was hastily formed in the wake of an announcement by Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville, Tenn., that it had secured a $10,000 option on a 533-acre tract north of Interstate 81-77 to build Virginia's first private prison.
CAP will take several buses and vans full of people to Richmond on Wednesday to try to meet with state officials and explain their reasons for opposing the project.
``Yes, we did support George Allen ... We're not against his policies,'' CAP member Danny Shultz said. ``What we're saying is, there are areas that would love to have these prisons.''
Linda Butt agreed. ``There are a lot of counties out there that really are desperate ... There are counties with 23 percent unemployment'' that would welcome the jobs a prison would bring, she said.
``If there are places and they want them so much, why should we have them thrust down our throats?'' she asked. ``I voted for George Allen myself. But ... we need to ease into this, without jumping in with both feet ... Siting of prisons should be very carefully done.''
``I don't agree with prison privatizing," CAP member Gary Lavalle said. ``I think it's an admission that you can't manage ... one of the most basic public services.''
He didn't vote for Allen. But even though ``people who voted for him like the idea of, `Yeah, let's not have prisoners out too soon,''' he does not think those people are being hypocritical by opposing the private prison near Wytheville.
``They're concerned about the ramifications of this and how it's done,'' Lavalle said. ``We are not irresponsible. We are not denying the complexity of this issue ... Their concerns are there is no public planning process.''
Prison opponents were angry when the Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 at a special meeting Feb. 1 to welcome the prison and not to hold an advisory referendum for which CAP had been circulating petitions. The vote was taken before the board allowed residents to speak on the subject.
``They could have brought in an ice cream store and done it this way and made people mad,'' Lavalle said. ``This is not the way to go about it. It's not a matter of the site, `not in my back yard' ... It's a very complex issue, and it's being rushed.''
Butt worries that a prison will hurt Wytheville's tourism potential and its proven attractiveness to retirees, many of whom have joined CAP. She also worries about the possibility that a future governor and legislature might find they cannot handle a prison population swelled by the abolition of parole.
``Say we reinstate parole - what's going to happen to all these private prisons?'' she said. ``You can't use them for anything else ... I think we all need to protect our home as best we can, and I kind of think that's what we're doing. We feel very strongly that we shouldn't be used in this way.''
Wythe County already has state prisons on three sides - Bland Correctional Center to the north, the Pulaski Correctional Unit to the east and Marion Correctional Unit to the west. The state has a prison farther west, in Buchanan County, and is considering one in Wise County.
Another prison company, United States Corrections Corporation of Louisville, Ky., is considering Bland County as the site of a private 500-bed prison. Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville, said Tazewell is another Southwest Virginia county scouted by yet another private prison company.
Butt agrees with Otey that prisons should go where most prisoners come from, such as Richmond, Northern Virginia and the Eastern Seaboard. The prisoners would be happier about getting more family visits, she said, and it would be easier on families, who would not have to travel so far.
``To fill Southwest Virginia with prisons when they may very well reinstate parole in five or six or seven years just scares the dickens out of me,'' Butt said.
Jackson has expressed concern that Southwest Virginia could be a target for private prison companies because many counties in that part of the state have no zoning regulations, allowing a company to build a prison anywhere it could find a willing land seller.
That is exactly what has happened in Wythe County. About nine years ago, the Board of Supervisors looked into the feasibility of zoning. Residents reacted to the possibility of zoning almost as negatively as they have to the possibility of a prison.
In 1993, a private company began converting the former Trail Motel in Graham's Forge into an eight-bed halfway house for nonviolent felons whose release dates were near. The company, Secor, provoked a furor when residents of eastern Wythe County learned the facility might be placed in their midst.
That project ended when the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Secor had failed to meet government requirements of letting the community know its plans and seeking community support. The near miss brought renewed interest in a zoning ordinance and even a visit by local officials to Bedford County for information on Bedford's nontraditional Land Use Guidance System of zoning.
In the end, Wythe County's supervisors voted 4-3 to reject a Planning Commission recommendation to have a proposed zoning ordinance drafted. Zoning was tabled in late 1993 and has been dormant ever since.
by CNB