ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
VA CARES, a Roanoke-based statewide program that helps prisoners adjust to life after incarceration, is examining the constitutionality of the gubernatorial veto that eliminated $3.2 million for the program from the 1996-98 biennial budget.
Lin Edlich, VA CARES' executive director, said the program's executive committee on Tuesday authorized her to ask legal counsel to research the question of whether Gov. George Allen was within his constitutional boundaries when he vetoed the funding.
"After that has occurred, we are to reconvene and discuss alternatives," Edlich said. "We're going to move fairly quickly."
Alternatives would include a lawsuit, she said.
Since 1987, VA CARES - an acronym for Virginia Community Re-Entry Systems, Inc. - has had a no-bid contract with the state to provide pre-release and post-incarceration services for prisoners. VA CARES received $1.3 million this fiscal year to provide education, counseling and services in employment, housing, family and community relations and transportation for an estimated 3,000 offenders and ex-offenders in 28 communities.
Two weeks ago, Allen vetoed that guaranteed funding for VA CARES, striking language in the budget that gave VA CARES $3.2 million of the $3.6 million in state money earmarked for pre-release and post-incarceration services over the biennium. Allen argued that other organizations should be given an opportunity to compete for the same pot of money.
At issue, Edlich said, is whether Allen's action was a veto or an amendment to the budget.
"The constitution does not provide for him to amend the budget," she said. "It only gives him line-item veto authority."
Allen's action has put VA CARES in financial limbo. The program will have to bid against other companies and organizations for funding. If VA CARES loses in the bidding process, it would be forced to shut down, Edlich said.
As many as six agencies, companies and organizations other than VA CARES have expressed interest in bidding to provide statewide prerelease and post-incarceration services, said Bill Cimino, communications director for the Virginia Department of Public Safety.
The department is preparing a request for proposals. It is expected to be out by the end of the month, once it is approved by the state Attorney General's office, Cimino said.
Funding will come from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.
"When the governor vetoed the money, the money didn't vanish," Cimino said. "It went into a holding pot. The money is there. We know it's going to be there."
That is little assurance to Edlich. VA CARES will go out of business if it cannot secure funding in the bidding process, she said.
"I don't understand how they can be so cruel and utterly dispassionate about people they represent in this commonwealth," she said. "They don't only represent middle or upper-middle class or white population or Christian population.
"They represent everyone in this commonwealth - from the lowest person who's sitting in prison to the highest person."
Cimino said the department is committed to assuring that there be no lapse in the pre-release and post-incarceration services that VA CARES provides. He said the department would like to have a contract awarded before June 30, when VA CARES' 1995-96 funding contract ends.
If forced to shut down, VA CARES would need funding beyond June 30 to dismantle the program, Edlich said. Dismantling could take two to three months, she said.
"I don't think anybody really understands the nature of private non-profit," she said. " We have our own personnel policies that provide transitioning programs for personnel. We have legal things we have to go through. We have to have an audit. There are a lot of costs that would occur as a result of us dismantling the agency."
Monday, Edlich faced the impact of the program's absence.
A client came in, crying. The woman had been out of prison 10 years. She was working two jobs, trying to raise two children. She lived in subsidized housing. She received no other public assistance - no food stamps or Aid to Families with Dependent Children or Medicaid.
One of her employers had cut her work hours. She'd had to choose between making her car payment or paying rent. She was going to be evicted by week's end.
The woman sobbed in Edlich's arms for five minutes.
"Where would she go if we didn't have VA CARES?" Edlich said. "Nowhere. She'd run from here to there to try to figure out what to do. There is no one who knows her history, who knows her, who would work to make sure she gets back on track.
"That's the thing that really gets to me."
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