ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605130128
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
THE PRISONER-SUPPORT SERVICE must compete for state dollars this year, after 10 years of enjoying the luxury of guaranteed funding from the state.
For years, Lin Edlich successfully fought attempts to loosen up designated state funding that kept VA CARES, a Roanoke-based support services program for prisoners, afloat.
The operators of similar state programs argued that VA CARES' decade-long lock on the bulk of state money for statewide pre-release and post-incarceration services was unfair. Of $1.8 million in state funding for such services this fiscal year, $1.3 million went to VA CARES.
This year, Edlich's fight ended in defeat.
The General Assembly included money in the 1996-98 biennium budget for VA CARES - $1.3 million each year, plus an additional $300,000 each year. But Gov. George Allen vetoed it, contending that other organizations should be afforded an opportunity to compete for that funding.
VA CARES' formerly guaranteed funding will be opened up to other agencies this month through a competitive bidding process. VA CARES intends to bid for the funding, but it is less of a sure thing. And without the state funding, the program may have to shut down, said Edlich, executive director.
"Why the governor wants to put it out to bid, I have not yet figured out," she said.
But organizations that operate programs similar to VA CARES have for years wanted a bigger portion of funding that the Department of Criminal Justice Services earmarks for pre-release and post-incarceration services - "PAPIS" money, for short. This year, they again pressed state legislators to open up PAPIS money to more organizations.
VA CARES - an acronym for Virginia Community Re-Entry Systems Inc. - has had a no-bid contract with the state since 1987. The designated funding has been a "source of contention" for other state organizations that wanted a crack at more of the money, said Barbara Slayden, executive director of OAR - Offender Aid and Restoration Services of Richmond Inc.
"All we've ever wanted was to get a shot at the pot, a more equal part of the pot," Slayden said. "It's been frustrating. We're not a typical nonprofit, not a typical rich nonprofit. We've struggled throughout our entire history to get little pots of money here and there.
"There's never been any guarantee year to year."
Edlich said VA CARES has struggled to secure its funding. Established in 1976, VA CARES was funded with federal dollars - up to $2 million - until federal funding was cut in 1981. With the help of Roanoke-area legislators, the program struggled to rebuild its coffers with state money.
State funding through the Department of Criminal Justice Services has since risen from $75,000 to $1.3 million.
Until 1987, state funds were undesignated. Edlich wonders why the other organizations didn't bid for the funding then. And she wonders why other organizations didn't lobby for more money rather than lobby to delve into VA CARES' funding.
Slayden said other programs, including OAR, had tried unsuccessfully in recent years to encourage the General Assembly to deepen the pot of PAPIS money that wasn't designated for VA CARES.
"We have not tried to tap into anybody's money," she said. "We always encouraged that the pot be bigger. If VA CARES was going to remain with dedicated money, then make the rest of the pot bigger."
But if not, she said, "we asked that they take VA CARES out as a line item and open the pot up."
Sandra Brandt, executive director of STEP-UP - a Tidewater-based employment and training organization for prisoners and ex-prisoners - said she talked with legislators during this year's General Assembly session about opening up the PAPIS money. But her focus was more to ensure that the money was available at all - for any program.
Allen had proposed shifting the PAPIS money from the Department of Criminal Justice Services to the Department of Corrections. Under the corrections department, programs that provide pre-release and post-incarcerations services such as VA CARES would be folded in with other community correction endeavors - day reporting centers, electronic monitoring and boot camps.
"We'd heard rumors that money was going to be decreased," she said. "Then we heard there wasn't a whole lot of money available."
PAPIS money will remain under the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Brandt said she is pleased that all organizations that offer pre-release and post-incarceration services will have a shot at all of the PAPIS money this year. STEP-UP - an acronym for Skilled Training Employment Placement Upward Progress - received $48,134 in PAPIS funds this fiscal year. That is its only funding source.
The state is preparing a request for bid proposals. Bill Cimino, communication director for the Department of Public Safety, said it would be released soon.
VA CARES' funding contract expires at the end of June. A contract should be awarded before then, Cimino said.
"We want to ensure that there be no lapse in services," he said.
Brandt said she intends to submit a bid, as does Slayden.
"I'm excited about the possibility of tapping into more of that money," Slayden said. "We just have never had the luxury of having a big pot of money."
Edlich is less thrilled.
VA CARES is examining the constitutionality of Allen's veto. The program's executive committee has authorized Edlich to ask legal counsel to research the question of whether the governor was within his constitutional boundaries when he vetoed the funding.
This week, Edlich said she could not comment on how the research was progressing or what it had produced.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Aid for ex-inmates.by CNB