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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 10, 1995                   TAG: 9509110064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

INMATES HAD GUN ACCESS

On Aug. 7 at the Cold Springs Correctional Field Unit near Staunton, an employee handed a box of .38-caliber handguns to an inmate, who was told to take them to the camp's armory.

On the same day, inmates from the White Post Correctional Field Unit near Winchester had access to a shotgun when the gun rack on a bus was left unlocked.

``Unfortunately, some employees did not follow proper procedures. But others caught the errors, and they were corrected,'' Public Safety Secretary Jerry Kilgore said Thursday.

Kilgore said, ``These are yet other incidents [that prove] the tightened security measures and other actions of our employees are working.''

At Cold Springs, an unmarked box of pistols arrived in the mail. A secretary in an office outside the compound gave it to an inmate and told him to take it to the armory, said Amy Miller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

The secretary telephoned ahead to an officer, who realized something was wrong. That officer intercepted the inmate and took the unopened box of guns from him.

``I would like to emphasize that the inmate never opened, or intended to open the package, as he was unaware of its contents,'' Miller said. There was no ammunition in the box.

Miller said that ``the inmate was a trusty and the package never entered the inside of the security perimeter of the facility.''

``This incident occurred because security procedures were violated by staff. Appropriate action was taken by the department in response to this incident,'' she said.

No further details such as the number of handguns in the package, the identity of those punished or the severity of the punishment were available.