Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
State lawmakers opened an investigation of the Department of Corrections Monday, spending much of their first meeting answering accusations that the probe is a political sham.
The public safety subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee did little more than agree to meet again later. Members laid out a list of topics to explore, including security, personnel policies, prison construction and financing, and the administration of Corrections Director Ron Angelone.
House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, asked the panel this month to look into "all the various allegations'' concerning management of Virginia's prisons.
And on Monday, Republicans called it a witch hunt. Aides scurried around handing out a laundry list of corrections problems under the three past Democratic administrations. Scott Leake, executive director of the Joint Republican Caucus, handed out a flier that called the panel a "sleaze" subcommittee. An aide to Gov. George Allen's political action committee videotaped the proceeding. "He just wanted to make sure everything that was said was recorded - all those pearls of wisdom," said Leake.
Del. Glenn Croshaw, the Virginia Beach Democrat heading the bipartisan panel, called the subcommittee's role one of legitimate legislative oversight. Future hearings - which will be held jointly with a similar Senate committee - will be fair and impartial, he said.
"You have to be judged on what you do, not what is alleged," Croshaw said.
The group will meet again within the next 30 days for a hearing to explore several specific issues suggested by the Appropriations Committee staff. They include:
Security at state prisons, including questions raised by a state police investigation into the discovery of a loaded gun in a death-row inmate's typewriter. The report found that some prison guards slept on the job and falsified paperwork.
Hiring and training of corrections officers, focusing on why 13 Virginia prison guards have been indicted on charges of inmate abuse.
Cost overruns in a bond package for a prison near Big Stone Gap that grew from $58 million to more than $104 million, before being scaled back to $77.5 million.
Oversight of the contract Virginia has with Texas to house as many as 800 prisoners in a privately run prison there, and a look at what Virginia is getting for its money.
Prison hospitals, and complaints from inmates' relatives that conditions are substandard.
Democrats and Republicans alike said the volatile nature of the corrections business makes it one of the state's most complex and difficult undertakings under any watch. Croshaw said his committee is probing the department because of the number of alleged problems reported at once.
But Republicans call it simply election-year politics - a reach by the Democrats for a controversy they can pin on the governor.
Said Allen: "I think it's a political ploy in an election year. I think most people see through it."
Staff writer David M. Poole contributed to this story.
by CNB