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

DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995                   TAG: 9508110051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BEDFORD WON'T GET OUT OF JAIL

But the state Department of Corrections won't break Bedford County's lease.

"As it stands right now, we'll honor the lease with Bedford County," said Mike Howerton, the department's chief of operations. "We have to provide a two-year notice if we want to take it back; and so far, there's been no reason for us to withdraw from the lease."

Last year, Bedford County voted to join Lynchburg and Campbell County in creating the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority. As part of the agreement, the Department of Corrections promised to give Camp 24 to Bedford County - with the provision that the county hand over Camp 24 to the regional jail.

But Bedford County voted in June to quit the regional jail authority. That leaves the regional jail one member short of the number it needs to get state money, and without access to Camp 24.

"I think our preference would be to have [Camp 24] deeded to the regional jail," said Lynchburg City Manager Charles Church. "The objective is [for the regional jail] to have the use and control of [Camp 24]. If Bedford County wanted to have the rest [of the land] for a water treatment plant, I don't think that's been an issue with the authority."

But Bedford County administrator Bill Rolfe said, "The bottom line is we signed an agreement saying we could pull out of the regional jail ... and we pulled out and took Camp 24 with us. That's life, folks."

A week after Bedford dropped out, the lawyer representing the regional jail wrote to the Department of Corrections, asking that Camp 24 be deeded to the regional jail.

And on Tuesday, Church told Lynchburg City Council during a work session he expected that the Department of Corrections would notify Bedford County that it would have to give up its lease on Camp 24 unless it reconsidered joining the regional jail.

But Howerton said Bedford County recently signed a long-term agreement with the state to house state prisoners from other localities at Camp 24.

Lynchburg - which is under a federal court order to reduce overcrowding in its jails - tried last month to get Bedford County to rejoin the regional jail in exchange for an agreement pledging partial immunity from annexation.

Halifax County will probably join the regional jail within the next week, Church said, but Halifax is expecting access to Camp 24.

Bedford County is about two years into its 15-year lease on Camp 24.

The regional jail authority proposes building a $20 million, 456-bed jail in Lynchburg. Unlike other regional jails, it intends to operate local jails to offset the cost of transporting inmates to court.

In the original plans for the regional jail, the 110-bed Camp 24 would have been one of those local jails. Lynchburg now leases 70 of those beds from Bedford County each month.

Bedford and Bedford County have the use of the remaining 40 beds at Camp 24. In addition to the beds at Camp 24, Bedford and Bedford County have 36 beds in a jail in Bedford. They usually house 35 to 40 local prisoners a month in their 76 available beds.