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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 22, 1995                   TAG: 9503220083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CROZIER                                 LENGTH: Medium

FACILITY'S FUNDING LINKED TO OTHER BILL

Gov. George Allen has come up with a parliamentary trick to try to force legislators to approve a new juvenile detention center that they slashed from his prison-building bond package.

Allen told his Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform on Tuesday that he will offer an amendment restoring $11.3 million for the new facility about 20 miles west of Richmond.

He also will try to amend a bill dealing with nonviolent juvenile offenders to make it effective only if the new facility is approved. Sen. Mark Earley's bill would provide localities grants for juvenile corrections programs.

``Any comprehensive plan must include a secure facility and community-based programs for nondangerous juveniles,'' Allen told the 31-member commission.

The General Assembly will consider Allen's proposals at the veto override session April 5.

Sen. Benjamin Lambert, D-Richmond, a member of the juvenile justice commission, said legislators probably will take Allen's demand in stride. ``We've had governors demand things of us before,'' he said.

Earley, R-Chesapeake, said he supports Allen's proposal.

``It seems to make the whole approach to juvenile crime fit a common-sense approach,'' he said in a telephone interview.

The proposed juvenile detention center was not included in a $97 million prison construction bond package the assembly approved. The amount was only about a fourth of what Allen wanted.

Allen spoke at the commission's first meeting at the Department of Corrections' Academy for Staff Development in Goochland County. He and commission members later toured the Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center, which was designed to hold about 180 offenders but now houses about 350.

``It's clear there is a demonstrated need for more facilities,'' Allen said after the tour.

Statistics presented to the commission indicated the detention centers are likely to get even more crowded. The juvenile arrest rate for murder has risen 242 percent since 1987.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995

by CNB