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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995                   TAG: 9511290080
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

OFFICIALS DIFFER ON YOUTH PRISON

But officials within the Allen administration, which will likely pitch the proposal to the General Assembly this winter, said the plan ultimately would save the state money by freeing space in the costlier juvenile detention system.

Gov. George Allen's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform is finishing a report that will, among other things, call for a new state prison to house young felons who are convicted as adults. Currently, they are held in juvenile homes with younger and less-violent criminals.

Juvenile delinquents separated from the small percentage of teen-agers who commit violent crimes would have a better chance of rehabilitation, the commission maintains. And a juvenile prison could buffer violent youths from the influences of mature, hardened inmates in regular prisons.

Change in the juvenile justice system is emerging as a top item on the legislative agenda in the upcoming General Assembly session. Two groups - Allen's and a second named by the Democratic legislature - are studying the merits and drawbacks of the state's philosophy of treating under-age criminals as delinquents, not felons.

Barry Green, an analyst for the state Department of Planning and Budget, said housing violent juveniles in a state prison would require about $17 million in renovations to an old adult center. The state could start housing violent juveniles there by early 1997. Another $45 million would be needed to build a new 400-bed prison.

The facilities would require about 25 new employees, an annual increase to the state's prison budget of about $1.5 million, Green said. All the estimated costs are preliminary, and could change depending on where the center would be built and how large it would be.

Mark Christie, Allen's deputy counsel, said the administration has not decided whether to propose borrowing the money or paying cash. But he said the state will benefit if the plan helps steer inmates away from the more costly existing juvenile system.

The Allen administration is expected to propose laws this winter that would increase the number of teen-agers sentenced as adults.

Virginia spends an average of about $18,000 a year on each bed in the state prison system, compared with $40,000 a year for a bed in the juvenile system. The new juvenile center would cost more than an adult prison because of education requirements and other costs, but would not likely approach the cost of a typical juvenile home, Green said.